Looking at my website I feel desperately guilty. Why haven’t I been updating and blogging?

Well, in 2020 something more pressing cropped up, as it did for all of us. Covid meant that I suspended my novel writing for some considerable time, and had to pause progress on the Someone Like Me series. Like many of you, our family was thrown into home schooling, and for my son this was Year 10, his GCSE’s to be sat. I wrote an article about home schooling for Your Autism magazine, because it really was a roller coaster of  a time, both deeply rewarding, and hugely frustrating in parts.
Because I taught my son English I was thrown into conflict poetry and The Merchant of Venice. It was an amazing opportunity to learn and grow alongside my son. My favourite poem was My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, which Maggie O’Farrell has just used as the background for her novel The Marriage Portrait. It’s an intriguing story.
So for a time my writing was limited to producing teaching materials, adapted to my son’s learning needs. This made me feel passionate about the need for greater understanding of SEN in schools, and realistic accomodations and adaptations so that all children can fulfil their potential and express themselves completely.