Jeni Barnett

I was born in Mile End hospital, in the East End of London. My brother, mother and father and me lived in one room. It was a slum with mice and rats and damp peeling wallpaper. I grew up in a slum opposite a synagogue. We were part of the Jewish community. When I got … Read more

The surgeon broke down on the television news as he told the story of leaving Gaza because he had nothing left to give. No drugs. No hospital. No hope. He told the story of a little boy who had lost every member of his family, as well as his arm and his leg that the … Read more

1.42a.m. I’m at the kitchen table. Two bananas have gone brown, the grapes are shrivelling and the apples have wrinkles. The old git is asleep upstairs and Rudi and Philly have stopped scrapping and have settled on and under the kitchen chair. The stove is still alight and outside is dead quiet. The fridge needs … Read more

Dennis the cat got run over. The dawter identified him by opening the black plastic sack he’d been put into by the neighbour, she held her hands aloft like an orthopaedic surgeon aftershe’d been through the bloody remains. She’d remember the markings just in case she had to identify him. Four little markings that revealed … Read more

I’ve just read the name on my new bottle of herbal tincture. JEAN BARLETT Whoever Jean is I wish her well! Hopefully the herbs will work for me too. In 1972 I got a great review in The South London Press as ‘Jerry Barrett’, and if I have had a quid for the number of … Read more

Pundits punt and thinkers think. But they’re having a hard time aren’t they?  There’s a hidden agenda in todays world and I dont know what it is. Conspiracy theorists theorise and speculators speculate whilst wordsmiths are having difficulties finding the words for the chaos that is enveloping us. Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom … Read more

In 1949 I was born into the slums of the East End of London. I was surrounded by Jews, and more Jews. We ate hot bagels from Petticoat Lane. We ate at Blooms’ Kosher restaurant and were allowed to skip school assemblies because we weren’t Church of England. I felt different. We were rehoused in … Read more

There’s a stillness in the air. The rain has stopped, the Michaelmas Daisies are dead.  The tomatoes, spinach and runner beans are gone and a lone marigold is drooping her head by the pots of peonies. There’s a quietude; we’re waiting for something to happen. I keep getting emails and messages asking me what I … Read more

All of a sudden I was working. From out of the blue I had to do a self tape. A self tape is me sitting in front of a screen, Jim’s phone on a tripod, and me identifying myself as an ageing actress with an ageing profile and wrinkled hands. Jim joined me on the … Read more

Every human being has a right of reply. Every human being should be able to speak their truth and be listened to. Every human being should be given the basics of life; food, air, water and companionable relationships. Every human being that is except for Suella Braverman. I have read up on her. And by … Read more