Jeni Barnett

I’ve known Lyn since I was fourteen when she sported a PVC Mac. She went to art school and looked like Twiggy, I have her lithographs on my wall and drawings in the bathroom. She is dead clever, makes exemplary spinach flans with spinach from her garden and could have gone to Cambridge but decided … Read more

Eridge Village Hall has wooden floors and is surrounded by fields. The dawter went to nursery School there thirty five years ago – ‘Little Acorns’- On Thursday 4th July it was the polling station for the 2024 election. I looked up how to tactically vote. Over the years I have always voted Green as the … Read more

My mother will be turning in her grave. One roll for Shitnak, one roll for Farrago and a double axel for Stoma – the derisable name given to Keir by my friend who is about to vote Reform. I told her not to vote for the far right, thus splitting the Tory vote but, to … Read more

It’s June 11th and I’m in a swamp of electoral bilge. Watching the politicians blaming each other for the shit we’re bobbing about in. The language of electioneering that gives me heartburn. The emptiness of their promises, the Tory back slapping, the lies, the ridiculous claims, the endless clichés. Grappling with untruths. Trying to read … Read more

It’s a dirty word, Socialism is, it’s been discredited by men who are only interested in grabbing land, holding power and screwing their people. Socialism is a ‘political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.’ … Read more

Standing on Aldgate East tube station the ‘Start Rite’ advert stared back at me. I’d only been around for about three years and the image terrified me. The children, hand in hand, walking into their future, ‘places to go’, the perspective unsettled me. It led to nowhere. The children, on their own, walking alone into … Read more

Am I the only person in the world that doesn’t like ‘THE PIANO.’ The premise of the programme is great, wandering minstrels sit down at a piano in a train station, they are spied upon by Lang Lang and Mica, they are talked about and then they are chosen to play in a concert. The … Read more

We see you I cant sleep, so I’ve had a mug of pea soup, finished up watching ‘Argylle’ and read the headlines. Am I going mad or is Netanyahu unhinged? He has fired something or other onto somewhere or other in Iran. he said he wouldn’t He lied. Has he ignited yet another blue touch … Read more

According to North Korea Alan Titchmarsh wears decadent trousers – denim jeans – At the age of 74 the horticultural hunk is deemed subversive by Kim Jong Un. My choice of wardrobe, over the years, has caused a huge amount of bother for several men in suits. It used to bother me but not now. … Read more

My garden is waterlogged. Instead of being able to tiptoe through the tulips I have to slip and slide my way round the Hellebores. Clumps of daffodils push their way through tangled ferns and purple crocuses under the Magnolia. I tried to meditate in the very bright sun clutching two hot water bottles and sitting … Read more