Jeni Barnett

Dennis The Menace is sitting behind me cushioned in the armchair. He squirks and purrs, lets himself be held for the length of a song, and has started exploring upstairs. I boiled some chicken thighs for three minutes and he wolfed it down, we tried giving it to him raw but Dennis played with the … Read more

Ta da today I bring you EUDAEMONIA. Yup I hadn’t heard of it either. Eudaemonia is a Greek word. It translates as happiness or welfare; or human flourishing, or prosperity and even blessedness. So why do I bring you Eudaemonia at 3.18 a.m. on a windy night – well I bring you a bit of … Read more

Whitney wore ’em, Ms Garland wore ’em, even Sir Elton of the John wore ’em, and me well I not only wore em’ I helped name a theatre group after them. It all began back in 16something or other when a ‘cheap coarse, thick, cotton cloth – often coloured blue’ – was created in Dongri, … Read more

Seventy eight days ago I was celebrating my birthday on the first day of lock down. I – with the help of the old git who hobbled around calling the shots and hammering – furnished the new shed, I also reorganised my kitchen cupboards, weeded the Stromboli roses, seeded the potatoes, bought a box of … Read more

1976 was the hottest summer on record. 35 degrees and counting. I was working at the Leeds Playhouse rehearsing ‘England Expects’ a show that ‘Belt and Braces’, our theatre group, was relaunching. Six years earlier I was at a Children’s Theatre Festival in Harrogate. My first job, enthusiastic, eager and single. I saw an actor … Read more

On May 9th Marie Bernadette Maher would have been 72. We met in Hampstead in 1969. She from the Wirral me from London. We went to the Wimpy Bar in Golders Green and talked through the night. She puffing on a small cheroot and me mesmerised by her sophistication. She was a strawberry/reddish blonde, drove … Read more

‘A fire on them.’ ‘I wouldn’t give him the snot out of my nose.’ Two choice phrases from my well educated mother. She got a scholarship to Raines’ girls school in the East End of London. I still have her gym slip and cloth badge. She was well clever my muvver, but like a lot … Read more

Every body has an opinion. Everybody knows someone who has it. Everybody is doing what they can in their own way. Everybody is living their best Sunday. Unless you’re not. Unless you haven’t got food, or neighbours, or the wherewithal, or the imagination, or the support, or family or friends or youth or the internet … Read more