The ballad of Frank and Hazel

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The fire this time

MemoirTHE BUSHFIRE DEBRIS descends from the night sky with a strangely graceful motion, as if swimming. Leaves and twigs settle softly on the grass,...

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Distance between worlds

MemoirA COUPLE OF years before her death, I took my great-grandmother, Gabi, to St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne. She'd developed cataracts on both eyes...

MemoirI started going to yoga classes in the hope that the physical preparation would make the birth a little easier. I spent a lot of time watching the other women, the new arrivals who barely showed any signs of pregnancy, lying next to the old hands who only had a matter of days to go. We were like lemmings walking towards the edge of the cliff. I was somewhere in the middle and that was where I wanted to stay, but there was no way of halting this horrible progression towards being the most pregnant one, the one who didn't turn up next week, the one who just disappeared.

The ugly cousin’s visit

MemoirWAS THIS WHEN it began? I was talking to my father on the phone. I was in Australia and he was in England. I...