It has been trending on Twitter and featured on Facebook. Discussed both online and off. In newspapers, in books and in magazines. On television – the tales told both factual and fictional. That autism is in the spotlight like never before is beyond any doubt. Yet understanding – proper understanding – remains elusive. This is...Read More

Responsible for the school run? Two questions: How do you get there and back? What do you do while waiting for the children to go in and come out again? There’s a reasonable chance that the respective answers to these questions are ‘in the car’ and ‘I look at something or other on a smartphone’....Read More

It sounds rather clichéd. Like something from a movie or a hackneyed novel. That just before death, life flashes before one’s eyes. The thing is, it might just be true. That conclusion is one that has been reached following research in Jerusalem that suggests that, as our functions start to fail, the parts of the...Read More

Mental Health – and all its associated issues – has been in the news a great deal in recent days. From funding to training and taking greater precedence amongst Government priorities, there is cause for optimism and reason to believe that the steps being taken are ones that, at long last, head in the right...Read More

Christmas is almost upon us and, to quote a lyric from the ubiquitous Slade song, ‘everybody’s having fun’. This might, at first glance, appear to be the case . . . But scratch the surface and look a little deeper – beyond the slick television commercials that are, let’s not forget, designed to persuade us...Read More

There’s a girl. She’s always checking her appearance. Her hair is long, blonde and wavy, her eyes big and blue. There can be little question that the girl is beautiful. That she seems to have it all . . . Yet the girl thinks she is ugly. The girl in question is all too real....Read More

He might not be to everyone’s tastes musically, but it can’t be denied that Phil Collins has an honest streak that is admirable. Speaking in recent days about his mid-life struggle against alcoholism, the sober-again singer has pulled no punches and spared no details. Having resorted to booze for breakfast, he ended up in intensive...Read More

So Brangelina is no more. The revelation that a Hollywood power couple are to split has made for front page news the Earth over, fuelling fervent speculation, gossip and rumour on television and radio shows, websites and, perhaps most rampantly, across social media in all its myriad forms. The response from some quarters has been,...Read More

So it’s almost here and upon us. The long-awaited (and – for some, at least – dreaded) exam results day . . . The limbo that has coloured the summer so far is all but over. The final reckoning, the moment of truth, the time for finding out has arrived. This is a difficult time...Read More

It’s the hinterland. Limbo. No man’s land. That uncertain and uncomfortable period between the final exam and the subsequent results. It can be difficult and distressing. Unsettling and hard to adapt. The hard work is over, but resolution must wait. The here and the now, at the summer’s beginning, ranks amongst the most testing times...Read More