On the death of a remarkable woman – in memory of Marie Buckley

22/12/2023

Scarcely anyone reading this will have heard of Marie Buckley who has died aged 86. Yet she was, by any measure, a remarkable woman. And although I had not seen her for many years, she was also one of the most significant people in my life. Marie was my late partner, Lawrence’s mum. If you […]
A journey through grief

10/07/2024

In 1937, even though banned by the Nazis from producing her work, the artist Käthe Kollwitz secretly made one of her last major pieces. Just 40cm high, it is a sculpture of the draped figure of a mother, sharing a silhouette while cradling her grown son. Twenty-three years after her son Peter’s death, at the […]
A letter to my sister, Rachael, at 60

27/10/2024

On human forms, your presence, first and always open smile; I cannot reach the memory or ease the space, of in between the cliffs and sky: the silence. From Untitled by David Annwn* It has taken me 16 years to write this letter. But you would have been 60 today and I could not let the moment […]
How I became an assisted dying advocate — and why Westminster Parliamentarians must stand up for choice at the end of life

29/11/2024

On balance the choice of an assisted death is probably not one I would make for myself. That may sound like a curious way for an advocate of assisted dying to start an article at such a moment. Contradictory even. But at its heart this is a debate about choice. And whatever choice I might […]
Every picture tells a story – a postcard from the past

10/07/2025

Lawrence Buckley 24th August 1957 - 10th July 1995 “I came across a cache of old photos… …cause we were never being boring We had too much time to find for ourselves… And we were never holding back or worried that Time would come to an end” Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys I came across […]
  • 1
  • 2