Sarah Ebner: Comment, Opinion, Musing

How teaching went back to cool...

2010-09-19T10:52:00.001-07:00

Hello. On Friday I had a piece in the Times about a remarkable woman called Kate Campion-Smith. She is a "Teach First" teacher (she came to the profession via the charity Teach First) so I also looked at that organisation.
You can see the piece (with a nice pic of Kate) on the Times website (subscription required).

Here is my original piece, which is a little longer.

By Sarah Ebner

Despite her modesty, charm and friendly manner, Kate Campion-Smith is clearly a winner. The 25-year-old science graduate, recently named best new teacher in London and the South East at the Teaching Awards, is now favourite to win the nationwide prize at the end of October. But she’s not just a poster girl for good teaching – Campion-Smith represents something new in the education world.
What’s particularly special about Campion-Smith is that she came to the profession via the education charity, Teach First. And she epitomises the organisation’s vision.
“I never intended to teach,” she says, “but I was looking for something I agreed with. The principles behind Teach First are fantastic. I wanted to be useful.”
Teach First was set up in 2002 by Brett Wigdortz, an American working in London for management consultant McKinsey’s. While looking at how business could help education, Wigdortz was struck by the idea that disadvantaged children might benefit by placing top graduates into their schools. He was told by that his plan would never work, but has proved the doubters wrong. Teach First had 5,000 applications for 560 positions this year and is now the biggest recruiter of Oxbridge graduates – around eight percent of final year students.
“I always thought it would be as successful as it is,” says Wigdortz nonchalantly. “People want to make an impact with their lives and we have a mission – to eradicate educational disadvantage.”
Campion-Smith is a typical recruit (although she balks a bit when it comes to talking about the very-American sounding “mission”). Unsure of what to do after university (a first in Natural Sciences from Cambridge), she was attracted by the charity’s uncompromising belief that graduates want to “make a difference.”
It’s not surprising that Campion-Smith was attracted by the idea of helping others. It may sound a little clichéd, but she comes across as a “good person. She is a regular Church-goer and even runs her own charity, Esuubi, which she set up after travelling to Uganda in her gap year. In fact, Campion-Smith even talks of emigrating to Uganda in the future.
“The girls I teach here aren’t starving” she says succinctly.
Campion-Smith grew up in Eastbourne and attended a local comprehensive where she was a star pupil. The school didn’t have a sixth form, so she joined the private Eastbourne College for her A levels. But her time at the college didn’t change her view that private education was “unfair”. Now Campion-Smith is determined that all children should have the same opportunities, and that educational achievements shouldn’t be dependent on parental income.
She joined Cator Park School in Bromley, Kent, three years ago. Meryl Davies, the head teacher of the 1200 strong comprehensive (all girls except for a mixed sixth form) is a big Teach First fan, but Campion-Smith made a particularly strong impression.
“Kate’s been outstanding since her first lesson,” says Davies enthusiastically. “Not all Teach First graduate have perfect classroom management skills when they arrive; that comes with experience. But Kate had it straight away. She’s gives the girls real self-belief.”
Campion-Smith would probably be embarrassed to hear her head teacher’s effusive endorsement, but seems to deserve it. She not only teaches science at the school (a petition was circulated by one GCSE group demanding that she should teach them), but runs the Gifted and Talented programme, Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, debating club as well as mentoring those looking to go to university.
“Kate’s enthusiasm led to the school’s largest ever uptake for triple science,” says Davies. “She even organised master-classes, involving exploding jelly babies, rocket launching and dissecting mice.”
But Campion-Smith arrived, as all Teach First graduates do, with little classroom experience. She had taken part in the organisation’s intensive six week summer scheme and was launched into the classroom soon afterwards.
“It was a baptism of fire,” she says with a smile. “A lot of people underestimate how hard teaching is, but you learn quickly and I was very fortunate in terms of the support I had.”
All Teach First graduates have mentors, both in school and outside, but it’s still a challenge.
“I knew I would have to find a way to teach the girls who don’t want to learn,” she says. “So I just thought about how I would want to be engaged. I tried to relate things to everyday life – to things they were interested in, such as make-up or fashion.”
Campion-Smith is the first Teach First “alumnus” to win a Teaching Award, but the organisation is hoping she’ll be the first of many. From just two staff in 2002, Brett Wigdortz’s organisation has grown to 140, and also become the darling of the Conservative party.
Michael Gove is a vocal supporter, and although there have been education cuts elsewhere, he recently announced a £4 million grant to expand Teach First recruitment to over 1,000 teachers across England.
It’s an interesting decision because it appears to show the government means business when it talks of addressing educational disadvantage and social mobility.
Wigdortz himself says that he wants to produce the “next generation of head teachers and leaders.”
But Teach First is not without its detractors, particularly from those who point out that academic excellence (around a quarter of this year’s intake graduated with firsts) doesn’t always result in outstanding teaching. Its training is also expensive, while many are unhappy that so many teachers leave after the initial two year programme finishes.
Anastasia de Waal, Head of Education at the think tank Civitas, is one sceptic.
“The very clear message is “teach first before getting a proper job’” she says. “It also assumes that any old graduate with a fairly good degree can teach and as importantly, no teaching practice or interaction with pupils is required before going into the classroom – never mind any pedagogical background. All of these things are terrible for the status of teaching as a profession, but even more importantly, misunderstand what makes a good teacher.”
Such concerns have long been heard across the Atlantic, where Teach For America is also a huge recruiter of top graduates. Teaching unions in the States are often less than complimentary about this scheme, while research seems to show that Teach for America teachers don’t achieve more impressive results than those trained conventionally.
However, Brett Wigdortz has heard these arguments before and is unimpressed. He’s keen to emphasise that Teach First isn’t connected with Teach for America, and convinced that his programme works – and works well.
He’s also not concerned that so many Teach First teachers – around 50 percent - leave the profession after two years.
“I never want anyone to leave our mission,” he says. “They are in education for the long-term, although they may not stay teachers. Our alumni may become businessmen, politicians or civil servants – that’s the way to create systemic change.”
However, Teach First’s biggest effect may not be in its graduates, but in altering the reputation of the profession. Might the charity be responsible for making the public think that teaching is a “good thing”?
“They’ve definitely made it a more glamorous option than it would have been otherwise,” says Campion-Smith, while Lily Eastwood, another Teach First teacher adds that it “does seem to have some kudos now.”
“I can’t think of a more exciting job to do,” adds Eastwood, “but it does make me a bit uncomfortable when people talk to me like I’m a saint.”
Eastwood also mentions the hit American television series, The Wire, which recently introduced a storyline involving an inner city teacher.
“I don’t think any teacher can watch that and not feel the pain,” she says with a laugh. “Maybe teaching is cool now, until you actually try it.”
Brett Wigdortz is not quite as sure about the “cool” tag.
“If people think teaching children from poorer backgrounds is cool – that’s not a bad thing,” he says after some thought. “But my long-term goal isn’t about that at all. What I want is for there to be no correlation between parental income and educational achievement. I’d like to see schools full of teachers with the Teach First ethos.”
Ends

The Teaching Awards national ceremony takes place on October 31st (http://www.teachingawards.com/)

For more on Teach First, http://www.teachfirst.org.uk/

For more information about Esuubi, visit http://www.esuubi.org.uk/ or contact Esuubi, 8 Overbrae, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1SX

Is the summer bad for your child's brain?

2010-08-20T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hello

I had this article published in the Times earlier this week - it's about the so-called "summer slide" and what you can do about it.
You can see it on the Times site:

However, the article was cut somewhat, so I thought I'd put it on here in all its glory! I really think this is an interesting topic, that there's a danger some parents might try to stuff their children full of lessons all summer, while others (whose children really need to keep up with their reading, for example) do nothing.

Here you are:

By Sarah Ebner

School’s out. The holidays stretch before us and more learning is unlikely to be near the top of your children’s summer to-do list. Well, perhaps it’s time for them –and us - to think again. Don’t you know that the summer can damage your child’s brain?
I write the Times education blog, School Gate, and in the last few weeks I’ve been inundated with suggestions for ways to stop your child falling behind over the summer break. Carol Vorderman has launched her own online maths summer schools, recommending that children (aged five and over) “forge ahead with 15 minutes of fun practice a day”. She’s joined by Maths-Whizz, which offers a similar way to “beat summer learning loss” and education site MyChild, which has its own summer camp. It’s “packed with fun learning activities for each week of the summer holidays” as well as worksheets. It’s enough to make a parent paranoid.
“If you’re not being stimulated, you’re going to forget things,” says Amy Schofield, editor of MyChild. “You need to keep the brain active.”
Summer learning loss is something of a new phenomenon. It hit the headlines last year when Johns Hopkins University in America published research suggesting that schoolchildren lost an average of two months learning over the summer holidays. This was if parents failed to keep them “mentally active.”
Of course the issue does make some sense. If we adults didn’t work for six weeks, we would also probably fall behind. But we are talking about children here. Don’t they need some time off?
“My feeling is that kids do need occupying, but not like this,” says Annie Ashworth, co-author of the Madness of Modern Families. “They have a lot of intensive work throughout the year and I know that mine, for example, are exhausted by the time the summer comes. Perhaps they should read occasionally so they don’t forget how to do it. But I don’t think advanced maths is the way forward.”
Of course it was all very different in our day. Six weeks might have been filled with a short holiday, perhaps a summer camp, and lots of trips to the park and seeing friends. Now parents are being told sternly that this isn’t enough and that we’re failing our kids if we don’t keep the learning going. So should we worry? Annie Ashworth isn’t convinced.
“These stories of summer learning loss just add to parental guilt,” she says.
And even though she’s keen to promote her e-learning summer camp, Amy Schofield admits that the brain drain is new to her.
“We didn’t hear anything about it when we were kids”, she admits. “Now we’re all really child-centred and neurotic. There’s an emphasis on learning, learning, learning all the time.”
Dylan Wiliam [NB: correct spelling of Wiliam] is professor of educational assessment at the Institute of Education. He says that summer learning loss does exist, but that we need to keep it in perspective.
“There is no doubt that children learn stuff in school and forget it when they’re not in school,” he says. “There is a dip. But when it comes to seeing how serious that is and how quickly a child can make it up, then that’s a very difficult question to answer.”
Professor Wiliam also points out that most of the research on this issue is from the United States, where they have much longer summer holidays. “That definitely makes a difference,” he says.
The issue of “summer learning loss” began gathering momentum in 1992 when a group of students at Johns Hopkins tutored pupils from Baltimore public schools during the summer. The project was a great success and boosted the students’ reading scores.
At the same time, numerous academics were writing about the “summer slide” whereby academic skills dropped over the summer months. They discovered that this appeared to affect low-income students disproportionately, so widening the gap between richer and poorer.
“There are some people who allege that almost the entire difference between the performance of disadvantaged and advantaged children aged 18 is down to summer learning loss,” says Professor Wiliam. “But it also depends on the kind of curriculum you follow. If you’re talking about shallow learning, remembering facts and dates, then a child probably will forget those over a long break.”
However, what’s particularly interesting about the research is that reading aptitude seems to drop the most. This is, of course, something which parents could easily address themselves simply by encouraging their children to read over the summer or taking them to the library. It’s not really rocket science….
Tim Gill, author of No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk Averse Society, agrees. He’s horrified by the idea of summer learning and also unhappy because he feels that the issue is tied up with merchandising (Carol Vorderman’s Summer School package, for example costs a minimum of £12,99).
“No one makes money if more kids go to the park and play with other kids,” says Gill. “Children need time for themselves over the summer and especially out of doors. This is just market opportunities – latching onto anxieties and amplifying them.
“I don’t want to tell other parents how to do their job,” adds Gill, “but I just wonder who’s fuelling this. Who is looking at our kids and saying ‘wow they need more worksheets?
“It’s unquestionable that some children need more support for the basics. But the irony is that these online summer schools or worksheets are going to be done by the sharp elbowed middle classes.”
In Newhaven on the South Coast, Christine Terrey [NB: correct spelling of Terrey] runs Grays Nursery and Infant School. It’s a school which has many pupils eligible for free school meals and a high number with special needs. There aren’t many sharp elbowed middle classes to be found here. And yet the school’s learning programme has been a big success.
“I think that most schools are aware that over the summer break, children slip back in their learning,” says Terrey, who’s been headteacher at Grays for the last five years. “We’d just never investigated how much.”
Two years ago, Terrey decided to look into the matter and assessed the children before the school broke up in July and again on their return in September. She was shocked by her findings - twenty two children had a summer learning loss in reading, sixteen in writing and twelve in maths.
Terrey and her staff realised that some children weren’t looking at a book for the entire summer. “We decided we weren’t giving parents enough guidance,” she says. “Things had to change.”
The first innovation was lending school library books over the holidays. The second was to set up the Summer Fun Learning Challenge. This involved putting special pages on the school’s internet learning platform, adding links to other useful sites and recommending that children make their own scrapbooks of what they’d got up to over the break.
“Every child who made a scrapbook got a certificate, as did everyone who logged on,” says Terrey. “I saw a lot of movement on the site in August, which was great. We had no sanctions for those who didn’t get involved, only rewards and praise for those who did.”
The results were impressive. Last September, only seven children had a summer learning loss in reading, eight in writing and five in maths. Terrey is hoping for even better results this year.
“There’s always been an issue with summer learning loss,” she says firmly. “Children fall behind when they’re not doing anything. The problem is that schools didn’t know how to measure it and haven’t always planned good ways of dealing with it.”
So parents, try to make sure your children pick up a book this summer or do something else to stimulate their brains. But don’t worry too much. They’re unlikely to fall disastrously behind if times tables aren’t practised daily.
“I’m very resistant to this idea that, as parents, our job is to expend every last sinew of sweat in getting that extra grade,” says Tim Gill. “Children need time and space on their own. That’s how they are given the chance to become real people.”

When should children learn to read?

2010-06-16T06:43:00.001-07:00

This is a very controversial question - and there is so much to say about it!

I recently wrote about it for Times 2 and you can see that here, or the slightly longer version, below....
The one in the Times, also included two opinion pieces, one in favour of early reading and one against.

By Sarah Ebner

Over the border in Wales, young children are experiencing a different kind of education. Whilst experts here laud Scandinavia for their educational expertise, how many English parents know that in Wales, they are already following a play-based curriculum up until the age of seven? And there haven’t been any riots, yet.
“At the beginning there was a bit of distrust from the parents,” says Sarah Owen, a mother of three (and former teacher) from Welshpool. “We all knew that play was important, but I know that a lot of us were wondering how our children would learn to read if they were playing all the time. After all, it’s drilled into us that the sooner you learn to read, the better.”
Sarah has two children, Meg, 10 and Tom, 8, who are too old to have experienced the new Foundation Phase in Wales. Five-year-old Carys, however, is taking full advantage.
“I think it’s the right way to go,” says Sarah. “She is definitely stimulated, but also seems to have this more joyous feeling about school. They do a lot of outdoor play, but she is reading too – they introduce this at the child’s own level. As long as a child has access to books and enjoys them, reading will come naturally.”
Sarah’s views are relevant as they come in the middle of a heated debate about the value of early schooling and particularly when children should be taught to read. New research published this week was interpreted in two startlingly different ways. Some claimed it showed early teaching had no impact on children at the age of five; others said quite the opposite.
However, David Richardson, co-author of the new study, says it does show that children who attend pre-school before the age of three do better – both educationally and socially -at age five.
“Our evidence suggests that early years do have an impact,” he said.
So when should children learn to read? Can they be damaged (or put off reading) by starting too early or fall behind if they start too late? The problem is that there’s no definitive answer – even though educationalists have very strong opinions.
“Up to the age of six or seven, the true foundations of literacy are caught, not taught. We have to invest in training practitioners in how to help children catch them,” says Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood.
Palmer thinks there’s “no rush” to teach children to read, and is particularly unhappy about the targets set in the English early years curriculum. She points to Finland, with its very high literacy rates. Children there don’t start formal reading until they’re seven.
Palmer also emphasises new research by Sebastian Suggate (NB: see his opinion piece attached) which suggests that there’s no advantage at all in learning to read early.
However, although Palmer seems to be firmly on one side of the argument, much of what she says will ring true with those who support earlier education.
“I think there’s a set of bunker positions put into this,” says John Bangs, head of education for the National Union of Teachers. “It’s really an unfair polarity.
“No one is going to recommend forcing phonics on kids at a very early age, but having fun with words and phonics is exactly right. Picking up reading skills is part of child development, but the key is for the children to have fun.”
However, Bangs also adds:
“There’s this idea that kids are going to be polluted by teaching before a certain age. I don’t believe that. I don’t have a problem with age barriers.”
Those who argue that reading should be taught as early as possible often point to disadvantaged children to make their case. There is an increasing body of research which suggests that children with educated parents have an advantage. However, others can be helped by good pre-school care.
This is shown in particular by the landmark research being carried out by the EPPE (Effective Provision of Pre-school Education) project. It concludes that pre-school does have an impact - as long as it’s of good quality.
“Yes, it benefits children,” says Professor Pamela Sammons, from the Department of Education at Oxford University. “It provides them with a better start to school, with the biggest boost to language development at age five.”
And when it comes to reading, Professor Sammons says you simply need a light touch.
“There’s lot of evidence that if you don’t learn to read, you become demotivated later on,” she says. “But it doesn’t have to be at the expense of having fun. You can play with letter sounds, sing songs and nursery rhymes, at home and at pre-school. We’re not talking about formal teaching behind desks.”
Perhaps this point should be emphasised for those people without young children. The way schools teach their youngest pupils has changed in recent years, with much more of a stress on play. Widespread use of phonics has also made a real difference, and despite the sense of gloom and doom around literacy, England still performs well in international studies.
So there’s no quick answer to when a child should learn to read, except that there is no hard or fast rule! The quality of the teacher is vital as is the recognition that all children are different. Phonics appears to help, and over-prescription doesn’t. And above all, play is vital.

The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education (EPPE) project is the largest European study of the impact of early years education and care on children’s developmental outcomes. Early Childhood Matters, edited by Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Pam Sammons, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda Taggart has just been published by Routledge.

Horrible historians and writing the books - Terry Deary interview

2010-06-16T06:41:00.001-07:00

I also did a lengthy Terry Deary interview - which you can read here or below....

Of horrid historians and terrible teachers

Terry Deary wishes he wasn't best known for writing the Horrible Histories series Sarah Ebner

Terry Deary hates publishing and historians — an interesting combination given that he owes his fame and fortune to both. But Deary, a self-described anarchist, is a rather unusual man.

He is best known as the author of the Horrible Histories series of books, which are much loved by children around the world. Yet the 64-year-old says that he wants to turn his back on writing for children, is hugely critical of publishing (calling it “the seediest profession I’ve worked in”) and reserves his bile for historians, whom he calls “seedy and devious”.

“They pick on a particular angle and they select their facts to prove their case and make a name for themselves,” he says angrily. “They don’t write straight history. They don’t write objective history. Obnoxious people such as Niall Ferguson write a book to prove that the British Empire was a good thing. They use history to make a political point.”

Deary’s grey hair and soft Sunderland accent give the impression that he’s mild-mannered. It’s deceptive. In reality, although he’s friendly and open, he has a huge number of bugbears, including politicians and fellow children’s authors.

But chief among these are historians. Deary says that they’re what stop him loving history and denies, indignantly, that his books are history books at all.“I write about people,” he says firmly. “And that’s the most fascinating subject in the world.”

However, Deary’s success is partly due to the historians he despises. The Horrible Histories, after all, retell historical facts collated from other books, rather than original sources. Deary doesn’t actually do any of the research himself — something I found a little disappointing. Instead, a team of researchers find the quirky facts, all those ancient swear words and toilet practices among them.

“My skill is retelling,” explains Deary, unapologetically. “I’m a writer, not a historian. My job is to re-present what the researchers find and make that information accessible to young readers.”

The books are incredibly popular, appealing to boys and girls, the holy grail of children’s publishing. They have been turned into stage plays, museum exhibitions (one of these, Terrible Trenches, is currently showing at the Imperial War Museum) and a very successful television series, which starts again today.

They are known for history with all the horrible bits left in — the gruesome and disgusting, including snot, bile and blood, wrapped up with cartoon-like illustrations and accurate historical information. Deary writes an introduction to each book, explaining that it will be “full of the sort of facts that teachers never bother to tell you”.

The books are not always objective — which is the exact criticism levelled by Deary against historians. The one on the British Empire, for example, is extremely biased against imperialism. But Deary says that this is deliberate. “I’m putting the weight on the other side of the balance, to counteract the lies teachers tell you when you’re at school,” he says gleefully. “Yes, I do write polemics. I write antiestablishment rants. I make no claim at all to be writing objective history. Why I object to history books for adults is that they do claim to be objective.

“Horrible Histories are, from start to finish, a rant against the privileged,” he continues, warming to his theme. “All the posh people, the lords and the nobles, and their lackies, the police, the army and the teachers who purvey what the lords want — they are the enemy. And what makes me especially angry, because I’m not a historian, is when I start to study history and I find out the way in which common people have been manipulated, beaten, bullied and abused down the ages. Someone needs to stand up for them.”

Despite the platform that Horrible Histories has given him, Deary is more than a little grumpy about his strong association with the books. Why? Because the books are more famous than he is. “Horrible Histories is of very little interest to me because I don’t own the brand,” he says, adding that while people have heard of the books, they often haven’t heard of him. “The brand is stronger than me.”

The series began back in the early 1990s when Deary, an actor who had moved into writing children’s books, was commissioned to write a Father Christmas joke book. It sold well, so the publisher (Scholastic) asked him to write a history joke book.

Scholastic then asked Deary to add some interesting facts to the jokes. “When I started to look at the facts, I realised that they were more interesting than the jokes. So instead of a joke book with facts, you had a fact book with jokes. Horrible Histories was born.”

The first two books, Terrible Tudors and Awesome Egyptians, were written to tie in with the National Curriculum (ironic, as Deary hates conventional education). They were moderately successful and more books were commissioned. But it wasn’t until 1995 that they really took off, with Blitzed Brits promoted to tie in with the anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

More than 20 million copies of the books have now been sold worldwide, and children (including my own) can’t get enough of them. Deary has become one of the most popular living authors in the UK and Scholastic is even planning a Horrible Histories virtual online world for next year.

But Deary seems quite under-whelmed by his achievements. “Children’s authors are held in such low esteem, it drags me down,” he says. “You meet strangers and they ask, ‘What do you do?’ You say ‘I’m a writer’ and they reply, ‘Oh, that’s interesting’. Then you tell them you’re a children’s writer — that’s way down the list. And you say ‘my best-known books are non-fiction’. Then you’re somewhere off the bottom of the scale!”

There’s more to Deary than Horrible Histories — which helps to explain the apparent chip on his shoulder. He clearly loved his acting career and has written more than 150 other books — their relatively low profile is an obvious irritation.

He’s also still angry about his education (he says that he hated school and “school hated me”) and resents that his talent as a writer wasn’t nurtured or encouraged. He didn’t go to university (one of the first things he says to me is that he doesn’t have a degree), instead spending a year working for the Electricity Board and then attending drama college. He still loves acting, but admits with a sigh: “I’m not as good an actor as I am a writer.”

Deary’s wife used to be a teacher, and before his writing career took off, he taught drama and English. So it may come as a surprise to find just how much he fumes at the thought that his books might now be recommended by educators. “If my books appear in schools, I get tainted,” he says passionately. “I don’t want to be tarred by schools. I want to be outside the system. I went to school. I was beaten, bullied and abused, by the teachers, not the pupils. I learnt nothing worth learning.”

He thinks that education should change radically, and schools should be closed down. “You give me the £50 billion that we put into the so-called education system and I will come up with an alternative.”

Deary now has a new agent and is keen to turn his back on Horrible Histories and other children’s books. He has already written a few more Horrible Histories (which are yet to be published), but has no plans for any more. His aim is to “diversify” and write adult fiction instead.

“I’m 64 years old. I don’t want to be 74 and still churning out the same thing. It’s time for a new career direction,” he says. “I never wanted to write any in the first place.”

Horrible histories and horrible historians!

2010-06-16T06:37:00.001-07:00

I have been a bit lax about posting my articles on here - partly because I post so often on School Gate

But I have had a few pieces of interest in the paper recently....

Firstly, I had a news piece and interview with Terry Deary (author of Horrible Histories) which was great fun. I also did a live chat with him on the blog, which I really enjoyed, partly because so many children came along. You can read it again on the link I've just popped in.

Here's the news story - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7140660.ece

Or you can read it below....

Historians are seedy and horrible, says Terry Deary, children’s author

Sarah Ebner
He owes his success to history, but the author Terry Deary has described historians as “seedy and devious”.

The bestselling writer of the Horrible Histories series added that all historians were out to “make a name for themselves”, denied that his books were history books at all and even started a spat with Niall Ferguson, one of Britain’s best-known historians.

“Historians are nearly as seedy and devious as politicians,” Deary, 64, said. “They pick on a particular angle and select the facts to prove their case and make a name for themselves ... They don’t write objective history.”

Deary — whose books have sold more than 20 million copies — does not like any historians. “Eventually you can see through them all,” he said. “They all come with a twist.” However, he reserved his greatest ire for Ferguson, the former Oxford historian who now lectures at Harvard University.

“Obnoxious people like Niall Ferguson write a book to prove that the British Empire was a good thing,” Deary said. “He’s a deeply offensive right-wing man who uses history to get across a political point.”

In response, Ferguson admitted to surprise that Deary was commenting on his work. “It’s a little like asking Rory Bremner for his opinion on George Osborne’s spending cuts or Sacha Baron Cohen to review Simon Schama’s forthcoming history of the Jews,” he said. “I have read some of the Horrible Histories to my children, along with Harry Potter, The Hobbit and many other children’s books. They’re quite funny. And so is this.”

“You say that Terry Deary thinks my book Empire had ‘a political point’. I am not sure what that means. The book argued that there were benefits as well as costs to the British Empire, which is not a political point but a historical judgment. Terry Deary says that he ‘wants to be anti-Establishment’. That sounds more like someone who is trying to get across a political point.”

The Horrible Histories series relates historical events in a way that attracts children — with blood and gore. However, Deary (who got a D in his history A level) said he did not write “history books”, but “about people”. He added that his aim was to “counteract the lies” told by teachers.

“For example, when I went to school, I was told Henry VIII was a bit cruel but that he was a good king because he was strong. That’s what I believed but it’s utter, utter evil to promote that idea. He was a psychopath who should never have been able to rule the country. And that is what the system allows.”

Historians cannot decide whether to be grateful that Deary has attracted more children to the study of history, or angry at his attitude towards them.

“Does this man go to the archive, or is he just a parasite on historians?” asked David Starkey, an expert on Henry VIII. “He does make a real point about a certain type of history, which is designed to put forward a case, but what on earth does ‘objective’ mean? In the reign of Henry VIII, for example, the main archive alone is 244 volumes of about 800 closely written pages each. That’s three million facts, and the historian has to select from them.”

Paula Kitching, of the Historical Association, said: “We don’t want to throw insults backwards and forwards. But I’m surprised that he wants to attack history. There are many different kinds of historians out there and, whether he likes it or not, he’s falling into that category himself now.”

Meanwhile, Catharine Edwards, Professor of Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London, said that children “absolutely loved” the books. “If it takes toilets to get them interested in history, that’s fine. It’s the most gruesome side of things which attracts the young.”

Deary admitted that he was disappointed to be so closely linked to the Horrible Histories series, because he does not own the brand. He is also keen to turn his back on children’s books and move on to adult fiction. “It’s time for a new career direction,” he said.

Terry Deary will be taking part in a live chat on the Times education blog, School Gate, on Tuesday June 1 at noon.

Horrible histories tour

· During Roman feasts, guests could eat so much that they had to be sick, and a special room was set aside for them called a vomitorium. They would then go back into the dining room to continue eating

· Cures for the plague included shaving a chicken’s bottom and strapping it to the plague sore

· Elizabeth I did not want to have her rotten teeth removed. To show her how easy and painless it was, the Bishop of London had one of his own teeth taken out while she watched

· James I picked his nose and never washed his hands

· Queen Victoria’s son-in-law would have his collection of glass eyes delivered to him at dinner parties

· In the First World War soldiers were told to urinate on a handkerchief and tie it round their face to protect them from a gas attack

Starting school - advice for all..

2009-09-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

In my guise as editor of School Gate, I wrote a piece for the Times Body and Soul section on starting school

You can read it by clicking on this link or by reading on.....(the one below has a little bit more detail)

What you need to know before starting Reception
By Sarah Ebner.

Julia Stokes has spent much of the summer preparing her son, Oliver, for school. He doesn’t know his letters, nor is he already taking lessons in Kumon maths. Instead, Oliver Stokes has been practising putting on and taking off his plimsolls and learning to wipe his own bottom.

“Because I’m a teacher I know about the practicalities of school,” says Julia, 39. “He’ll soon learn his letters, I’m not bothered about that. I’m worried that he’ll get stuck getting changed for PE or that going to the toilet will be an awful experience for him because he’s so used to me helping him out.”

Over the next few weeks, tens of thousands of four (and a few five) year olds will start school for the first time. It’s a nerve-racking time for them – research from the Economic and Social Research Council suggests that children show signs of stress for three to six months before they actually start Reception - and also for their parents. Many a mother or father has needed a tissue after dropping their child off for the first time.

But is there anything parents can do to best prepare their children – and themselves – for school? The answer, fortunately is yes. And these tips can range from buying shoes with easy fastening (your child will need to get them on and off himself) to preparing yourself for no news (young children are absolutely brilliant at not giving information. “I don’t know” appears to be the stock answer to the question “What did you do today?”).

Anju Chauhan has been the Reception teacher at Dane Royd school in Wakefield, Yorkshire, for 13 years. She thinks that parents have a practical, as well as emotional role to play, and agrees with Julia Stokes that helping a child develop some independence can definitely help.

“Try to work on things like helping your child get dressed on their own, put their coat on and learn to use a zip,” she says. “It’s also helpful if they have learnt to tidy up games and toys at home and if they can write their name. That gives the child ownership.”

Anju’s also convinced that getting children involved – in shopping trips for uniform and bags – helps build up their excitement and motivation. “You must talk to them about it,” she adds, apparently stating the obvious, until she explains that some parents don’t do this. Their offspring can be somewhat shellshocked on the first day!

Catherine Hanley, editor of Raising Kids.co.uk, agrees that preparation is important. And like Julia Stokes, she flags up toilets as a key issue.

“Children don’t necessarily verbalise it, but they really worry about this,” says Catherine. “Find out where the toilets are, and if there is a class policy on when to go. You don’t want them coming home cross-legged.”

“Kids are very anxious to fit in,” adds Catherine. “So you can also help them by finding out about school policies, such as what is and isn’t allowed in lunchboxes. If you give children something particularly unusual, they won’t eat it.”

Mother of three Paula Collar will soon be settling her middle son, Thomas, into Primary One (the Scottish equivalent of Reception) in Stewart Melville school in Edinburgh. However, she feels better prepared this time - having gone through the experience once before with Jonathan, now six and a half.

“Parents worry about how their children will manage,” she says. “But I would flag up one thing in particular – how absolutely exhausted the kids will be at the end of the school day.

“Don’t bother planning loads of after-school activities,” adds Paula, 37. “It’ll be too much for them – and you. So hold off on those Mandarin classes or face their wrath!”

Dealing with very tired children is just one consequence of their starting school. Another is competition with other parents and children, whether intended or not. You’ll soon spot this type of parent, as they’re the ones who ask you lots of questions, such as what level of reading book your child is on. But you need to remain stoic in the face of pressure. Reception class is not a race.

“All children are different,” agrees Paula Collar. “So don’t worry if yours is not immediately holding a pen properly, or if their cutting out takes a while longer than the other kids. They are still growing and developing at a phenomenal rate; you’ll be amazed by what they can do at the end of the year.”

In other words, everything is transitory. Your child may not be able to read in September, but hopefully by July, he will (if not, then perhaps you should flag this up). She or he may cry when you drop him off in the mornings or find it difficult to make friends, but all these are stages. Starting school is a big change and your child may well need support and comfort. But the stress and the tears will (or at least should) pass.

However, school is still a complicated place. It’s somewhere children go to learn, but also to socialise, to develop and make friends. With up to 30 children in a class, you need to warn yours that he or she will have to wait for a teacher to answer a query.

When they start school, children also enter a different world of play dates, which you, as their parent have to negotiate. Remember, you can’t choose your child’s friends. If they make friends with someone who you don’t warm to, then you’ll just have to make more of an effort!

In other words, starting school can be hard for parents too. Not only do we lose a lot of control over our child’s life, but we too have to make new friends - or at least acquaintances – amongst the parents. This can be hard if you’re shy and is harder if you work and aren’t at school drop off or pick up. Try, if possible, to be there sometimes. It will probably make life much easier and help you and your child.

Probably the most important thing to remember is that Reception or Primary One lasts a year, not a day or week. So focus on settling in your own child, and don’t worry about how everyone else is doing. And keep those tissues handy.

Five practical tips for settling in:

1) Label everything
- your child is sure to lose almost every part of his uniform. If it is labelled, you at least have a chance of getting it back. Include shoes!
2) Make sure bedtime is not too late on school nights
- otherwise your child will be even more exhausted and ratty, so finding it hard to make friends and enjoy their new school.
3) If the school has a uniform warn your child
- lots of parents forget to do this, and find that their daughters won’t wear trousers or their sons won’t wear a particular colour.
4) Don’t buy all your uniform in one go
- Children grow. If you buy a summer dress now, the chances are that it won’t fit your daughter next May.
5) Check your child’s book bag for any school correspondence
- letters are often popped in here, but children usually forget to tell you

Sarah Ebner edits School Gate, the Times education blog. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/schoolgate

Does the princess stereotype harm our daughters?

2009-08-12T10:33:00.001-07:00

I wrote this piece for The Times last week, and it's worth taking a peek at the original for the gorgeous picture of little Lizzie Gorham. This is a great topic, on which people have very divergent opinions! I initially wrote it to tie in with the news that a new princess, Tiana, is soon to hit out cinema screens.

Is the Princess stereotype harming our daughters?

Being on an exam paper

2009-08-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello

Delayed reaction on this one. A while ago I found out that an old comment piece I had written for the Guardian had surfaced on an A level exam paper. I began to get emails asking me for my motivation and decided to put pen to paper and write a piece about the experience for The Times.

You can read my article here or you can just read it below:

Now I'm an A-level question. But do I have to help with the answers?
Sarah Ebner

I’ve finally made it. I should be flattered to be included among the greats — John Milton, David Hare and, er, Gary Rhodes — and I am. But I’m also a little surprised to find out that I’m on an A-level examination paper with these luminaries, especially as the exam isn’t until next week.

Yes, you read that right. An article I wrote three years ago (ahem, for The Guardian) has been resurrected. It’s part of AQA’s English language and literature exam, which takes place on Wednesday. And I know about it because the exam board has already printed “Pre-release material” for the 6,600 students taking the paper. Oh yes, and because students have contacted me to ask questions about it.

“I wondered if you could help me by letting me know things such as why you wrote the article, who it was aimed at and what was going on in your life when you wrote it,” asked one e-mail, trying to cover all bases.

A 12-page booklet, issued to candidates last Wednesday, suggests that students should “use the time between receiving the material and the examination to familiarise yourself with its contents”. Brief annotations (the word “brief” is in bold) are allowed, as are highlighting and underlining, but annotations beyond this are not. I guess the examiners don’t want too much feedback from the authors.

The theme of the exam is clearly food and none of the extracts is very long. In the exam, the pre-release examples will be compared with two “unseen” pieces of text. I’m intrigued to know what they are — will Willy Wonka or Gordon Ramsay make a surprise entry?

The booklet says clearly that teachers are “not permitted” to discuss material before the examination. Well, teachers may not be allowed to discuss it, but students can do so with each other — and with the authors if they want to. The democratic nature of the internet does not seem to have been taken into account here, as a quick online trawl shows. A busy discussion on this very subject is taking place at the moment on the Student Room website (www.studentroom.co.uk). And of course, I’m receiving e-mails.

If I’m honest, I’m surprised that there haven’t been more students with the nous to contact me directly and ask questions. Perhaps they’ve been thrown by the old Guardian e-mail address at the end of the piece and not popped my name into Google to find that I now work at The Times. I wonder: should the initiative of some be rewarded with an A* grade?

“Students are encouraged to research them [the pre-release materials] independently,” says Catherine McCabe from AQA, who admits that contacting the author is not something she has ever heard of before.

I was amused by the e-mails, even though I balk at doing someone’s work for them. However, I don’t have enough time to reply separately, so will tell my new friends — and you — why I wrote the piece.

The article was entitled “Why real food isn’t real life” and was about children being given healthy, home-cooked meals. I particularly remember it because of the vitriolic comments the piece received. People seemed desperate to criticise me because I pointed out that cooking takes time, and that it’s difficult to fit everything in when you’re a mother and trying to work.

I wrote the piece when my children were then aged 4 and 16 months, and I was trying to balance being the best mother I could be with trying to get work. As I had a toddler, cooking for a long time in the kitchen was not practical. The difficulties of that balancing act was what was on my mind, and the people commenting just didn’t get it. So much criticism was a real shock; how ironic that this article should end up being picked up at such a different time of my life. Students, does that help?

But back to the exam. Ms McCabe says that pre-release materials are “by no means new” and that those who set the papers look for “good examples of use of language” (more flattery).

Students are allowed to contact authors of the articles. “This does not, however, mean that you are obliged to answer them and you would not be putting them at any disadvantage if you didn’t wish to respond,” says Ms McCabe, putting my (admittedly not overly concerned) mind at rest.

“If, however, you are happy to respond, then rest assured that neither you nor the students are breaking any rules.”

Sarah Ebner is editor of School Gate — the Times Online blog guiding you through the maze of education.

timesonline.co.uk/schoolgate

The whole experience was a strange one as I received many abusive emails from A level candidates claiming that I was arguing that their exam was easy. I never wrote that. I also got abuse from people who argued that my piece was pure comment, with few facts to back my statements up. That infuriated me too - it was a comment piece! I always pride myself on writing with facts and backing things up, but this piece was not a feature or news article.

I wrote a tie-in post on School Gate, entitled: Being on an exam paper, the texts included and how it makes me feel.... Please do take a look at it, as I couldn't fit in everything I wanted to say in the piece!

The trouble with Boys

2009-03-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I recently read a fascinating book by Peg Tyre called The Trouble with Boys. It's all about boys and education, how boys are different from girls and having real problems with education because of the way it's set up.

I wrote about this for The Times, and you can see the piece here or below.

I also wrote a blog post on this topic for School Gate. It's called Do Boys need Boys' Schools?

All work and no play is bad for boys
Boys are falling behind at school, and many believe that the teaching methods used favour girls. What can be done?

Elaine McDowall is worried about her six-year-old son, Harry. “He's always getting told off at school,” she says. “But I know he's not naughty. He's just being a boy. He's loud and boisterous, but loud doesn't always equal bad. His teacher just wants him to be quiet, to sit and concentrate for long periods of time. I think teachers want boys to be like girls, and it's turning my son off school.”

Boys are having a hard time, whether they are 6 or 16. And the situation appears to be getting worse. Within the past few weeks it has been reported that 53 per cent of girls receive five A* to C grade GCSEs including English and Maths, compared with 44 per cent of male pupils. Fourteen girls' schools are in the top 20 listed on the basis of A-level results, while more girls take A levels than boys. Other research suggests that girls are more likely to go to university (the most recent statistics reveal a 7 per cent gap, which is expected to widen), and that 79 per cent of the children excluded from school are boys.

What has caused this downward spiral of underachievement for boys from nursery to university? The blame, says Peg Tyre, the American author of a new book, The Trouble With Boys, and the former education reporter for Newsweek, lies squarely with the school system.

An “unashamed feminist”, Tyre was brought up to worry about the achievement of girls. She was astonished to discover that it is now boys who are falling behind. “Evidence of this trend is everywhere,” she says. “People think there's something wrong with boys, but I'd say that's not necessarily true: it's what we expect of them instead.

“When you talk to boys about school, they say it's girly, that it's lots of ladies talking,” says Tyre. She argues that boys are badly served from pre-school onwards. They are not allowed to run around and not taught by enough male teachers. There has also been an educational shift away from play towards learning and targets at an earlier age.

She is convinced that reading and writing skills are the key to life and educational achievements, but says that boys are falling way behind in these skills. This is partly because they start to read later than girls, and never recover from that earlier deficit. But it is also, Tyre argues, because boys are given the wrong books to read.

“If you don't read well, you don't succeed in school,” she says. “Teachers need to be aware of the different kinds of books there are out there, and not assume that boys and girls want the same things.”

This argument has been well rehearsed in the UK. Recent research revealed that almost 50 per cent of nine-year-old boys read only “if they had to”. “Boys need to be given a reason to read,” says Sophie Quarterman of Oxford University Press, which has just brought out a “reading tree” (a scheme to help teach children to read) aimed specially at boys. “They need to feel that they will get something out of it,” she says.

Jonny Zucker, the author of the Max Flash series, which boasts a 90 per cent male readership, agrees. “Girls have a massive number of tried and tested writers,” he says. “There are not enough of these for boys.”

But like Tyre, Zucker, a father of three young sons and a former primary school teacher, says that the problem is not just with reading. It is with schools. “Up to a certain age, school is completely wrong for boys,” he says. “Because of the demands of the national curriculum, far too long is spent sitting down, whereas boys need to move around - something that isn't physically possible in classrooms.

“It's also important to get on the boys' level. If you haven't got sons or don't know boys very well, boys can be an irritant in the classroom. They make poo jokes; they try to make their friends laugh; they get more tired and are more difficult to teach. You need to allow them to let off steam.”

As Tyre says, not catering to boys' needs could have huge ramifications: “In some ways it's nice to see women on top. But we have to ask who is going to bring up the children and who are these educated women going to marry? In America there are 2.5 million more girls than boys in college, and women tend to marry men of the same level of educational attainment.” Experts appear united that something needs to be done, but recent changes have not helped boys. Children are now taught “to the test” to keep up with the national curriculum. This often means less time for PE or creative subjects, as well as cuts in playtime. More coursework instead of multiple-choice questions has also affected boys.

And despite a push to attract more men to the profession, figures from the Training and Development Agency for Schools found that half of all children between 5 and 11 have no contact with male teachers - a problem in inner cities where single-parent families are more common.

Dr Tony Sewell is chief executive of the London-based charity Generating Genius, and is trying to re-engage boys with learning. The charity was set up to help boys from underprivileged backgrounds to learn about science, and Sewell feels that it is desperately needed.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, people in education wanted to help girls to change, to get rid of the overt sexism around. That has paid off, and girls feel that the world is their oyster,” he says.

“But we've seen a parallel downturn with boys. The curriculum doesn't really meet their needs. If we look at science, it's now being taught in such a theoretical way that boys are being turned off. They need it to be much more practical, more hands-on.”

“Girls are more focused,” says Zaibien Hunter, 15, who has attended summer schools at Generating Genius. “But boys are catching up at our school because there are more male teachers and role models to encourage them.

“I know that people have a stereotype about people like me,” he adds. “They expect me to be disruptive and not to pay attention. They're shocked that I am a young black boy who is intelligent and can achieve.”

For Angela Phillips, who created a storm with her 1993 book The Trouble With Boys: A Wise and Sympathetic Guide to the Risky Business of Raising Sons, this is nothing new. But she's glad that educators and parents are finally starting to notice, and says that one solution would be for children to start school at the age of 5 or 6 as they do in other countries. “Boys mature later than girls,” she says. “Girls will shoot ahead if children start at 4. If boys fall behind at a young age, it will be very difficult for them to catch up.” Others believe that the answer lies in single-sex education, despite the so-called “social disadvantages”.

For Elaine McDowall and her son, the answer is simple. “People need to change their expectations of boys,” she says. “They need to stop assuming that boys will produce beautiful pieces of work or be interested in the same things as girls. All children have got abilities. Why should boys lose out?”

What is the perfect age gap between children?

2009-01-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

Hello

I have a piece in the Times, Body and Soul section, on that thorny topic, age-gaps. You can read it here.

For some reason, the piece online, unlike the published newspaper piece, doesn't include the case study.

Here is my original:

By Sarah Ebner

What is the optimum age gap between children? Will a short gap incite furious sibling rivalry, or a long gap risk your children never becoming friends? It’s one of the more frustrating parental conundrums – and one where people are apparently happy to offer opinions, but not absolutes.
“We know the general effect of age gaps, but family dynamics change, so there are no guarantees,” says Dr Richard Woolfson, child psychologist and author of Understanding Children. “However, sibling rivalry tends to be at its strongest when the age gap is around two years. It’s less intense at 18 months or younger because they don’t have a fully developed sense of identity, while after three years, it’s also lessened because the older child will have more of a sense of independence, and feel more secure in their own life.”
Sibling rivalry is certainly one of the first things parents consider when they’re deciding whether to have a second or third baby. But there are also many other issues. Careers, finances and even accommodation all have their parts to play, and so, of course, does simple biology. Many women may hope for a particular age gap between their children, but find that they can’t make that happen. Others become pregnant more easily than they expected.
“I thought it would be nice to have the children growing up together, but never thought I would get pregnant so quickly a second time,” says Janine Neye, who has a 13 month gap between Jake, 13, and Maddi, 12. “It was tough physically, but in some ways that small gap was easier – it got the nappies out of the way all at once. At the same time, it was a bit like having twins but scarier. I remember Jake running in one direction and Maddi lying in his way dangerously in the other.”
But are there any clues to what is the “right” gap? According to the Office of National Statistics, the median interval between births (for married women in England and Wales) is 35 months, a sensible interval if you’re trying to minimise sibling rivalry. This almost three-year gap could also be wise when it comes to maternal health - research by the Catalyst Consortium, which covers family planning and reproduction, suggests that it is near to optimum for health reasons. Much of their data was based on the developing world, which has much higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, but experts here agree that it makes sense to let the body recover from one gruelling pregnancy and childbirth before moving onto another one.
A further study from the Centre of Population Studies at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, supports this. It discovered that women who wait less than 18 months between having children are more likely to die young than those who have a bigger gap. By the age of 50, the death rate for those women in their study was 20 percent higher than those with a larger sibling gap.
Shelley Lief and her husband Kevin have a seemingly perfect gap between their two sons, Alex, who’s nearly 6 and Jacob, who’s coming up to 3. Another baby is due in February.
“We didn’t think we could cope!” says Lief, 37, as she explains why they went for that interval between the boys. “We didn’t sit down and plan a three year gap, and there was definite peer pressure to go for two or two and a half years, but I didn’t want a toddler and a baby. I wanted an older child who was a bit more independent, but not so much older that he wouldn’t be friends with his new sibling. I knew I didn’t want a tiny gap; that’s very hard on the parents.
“The two boys are very close and play together all the time,” she adds. “I don’t know if it’s an optimum gap, but it works for us.”
Professor Judy Dunn, a developmental psychologist and expert in child development, agrees that this three year interval may be a good one.
“It’s true that there are big differences in how a first born reacts to the arrival and upheaval of a new baby, depending on how old they are,” she says. “A two year old will show upset in a very different way to a five year old, and if a child can talk, lots of things are different. You can amuse and distract a verbally precocious three year old when you’re with a young baby. That’s harder with an 18 month old.
“By three, most first-born children are amenable to parental pressure not to beat up the baby. But how well siblings get along with each other is very dependent on the older child’s temperament.”
Lief also believes that gender made a positive difference.
“I knew nothing about boys before,” she says. “But they have got so much in common, from superheroes to play fighting. I’m sure it makes them closer.”
Gender may well play a part, but it’s debatable whether this is good or bad. Many women who get along just perfectly with their little sisters as babies (all that sharing of pink tutus) find that this sharing turns into competitiveness as they grow up and are compared more easily than siblings of opposite sexes. The same goes for those Spider-Man playing brothers.
“Everyone’s experience is different” says Dr Woolfson. “The kids may get along fine when they are 4 and 2 or 8 and 6, but the gap can seem vast when they reach 13 and 11, whatever their gender. Social interests may not start to level out until they are much older.”
“If you’re interested in a child’s wellbeing, then they can do very well with a five or six year gap, or a year between them,” adds Professor Dunn. “If you’re worried about the quality of the relationship between your children, you’re right, it will be very different depending on whether the gap is small or big, but there’s no simple equation.”
Janine Neye agrees with that. She claims that her children’s age gaps are far from optimum, but that it works in practice.
“We’ve got the worst case scenario,” says Neye, 43. “We’ve got too small a gap at one end – just 13 months – and too big a gap at the other!”
Neye was horrified when she first found out that she was pregnant for the third time. Her two children, Jake and Maddi were 9 and 8, and she thought her new baby days were over.
“It nearly finished us off,” says Neye, who’s now 43. “The older two were devastated because it signified such a change in our lives, and obviously we weren’t expecting it. It’s definitely affected the family dynamic.”
But while Neye is a real life example of a small and large age gap, she can see the benefits of both. This was also true of her own upbringing - she gets on especially well with her youngest sister (a 12 year age gap).
“It has been nice having a large gap and it’s lovely having a small one around - Spike’s a great asset. But it has changed our lives on a complicated level. When we went on holiday to Cornwall, the older two surfed with their dad and I had to stay with Spike. These days I don’t get to do as many things with the older two, and we aren’t quite as complete.”
For some people, a small age gap makes perfect sense: like Janine Neye (with numbers one and two!) they want two children who will grow up together, have much in common and be close. For others, it makes no sense at all. Why, they wonder, would you want to go back to sleepless nights and breastfeeding just when you’ve finished them? Doesn’t it make sense to spend time with the first child, and not share him or her with a tiny, screaming number two? Even Neye feels her first son missed out on her attention. “He was tiny when I got pregnant again,” she says.
There’s also the question of intellectual development, as it’s suggested that this is helped by a larger gap. Language development in particular improves when a child spends more time with adults rather than similarly aged siblings. However, once again, there are many other factors at play when it comes to intelligence.
“Every age gap brings strengths and weaknesses,” says Dr Woolfson. “I would strongly discourage any parents from choosing an age gap on the basis of reducing tension between children or how intelligent they want their child to be.”
And whatever the age gap, parents need to prepare children carefully for any new arrivals, or face dire consequences. How siblings get on may owe more to personality than age, but parents can make a real difference.
“If it’s not resolved in childhood, then the impact of age gaps will continue into adulthood,” warns Dr Woolfson. “Parents need to be aware of this and make every effort to work at it with the children, encourage them to get on and make each of them feel special.”
Ends

Would like to meet......

2008-11-25T10:11:00.001-08:00

I have an article about new ways to meet people in this week's Body and Soul in Saturday's Times. You can read it there (where there is a great picture!)

Or you can read it below....

From The Times
November 22, 2008

Singletons find love at singing and dance classes
Forget speed-dating, performing arts classes are increasingly playing Cupid to those looking for love

Sarah Ebner

Adam Mattison-Ward is no Gene Kelly, but acting, dancing and singing have changed his life. He met his girlfriend, Anne, in a singing class, and is convinced that shared interests and the buzz he gets from performing led to his “amazing” new relationship.

“I wanted to do something completely different,” says Mattison-Ward, a television producer. “I'd been with someone for 11 years, but that had come to an end, and I was interested in meeting someone new. The only thing was, I wasn't sure about the best way forward.”

The 34-year-old wanted to meet someone “like him”, with similar interests and values. And like an increasing number of today's singles, he rejected internet dating in favour of joining a performing arts evening class to de-stress and learn new skills, as well as to meet someone new. “I'd always been interested in drama and singing, and when a friend told me about the City Academy performing arts school, I signed up. I got such a kick out of it. It gave me a new identity and inspired me. And it quickly introduced me to new people.

Everyone's in the same boat

“When you meet somebody in this way, there's far less pressure. Everyone's in the same boat, so you're all supportive of each other, and of course, you lose your inhibitions. You know everyone's seen you make a fool of yourself singing and dancing, so you can't be embarrassed. You also know you have some interests in common - otherwise you wouldn't be there.”

Mattison-Ward started at the academy, based in North London, in December 2007. In March, Anne joined his singing class. He was smitten.

“To meet someone and hit it off with them instantly is amazing,” says Adam. “We have such fun and enjoy the same things. It's like a cliché - to find love when you're not seriously looking.”

There are more singles than ever in the UK (6,622,000 aged between 25 and 44 in England and Wales in 2006, compared with 4,657,000 in 1996 and 2,532,000 in 1986 - and these figures don't include the divorced or widowed). Around 8 million people use some form of online dating service, evidence suggests that it often doesn't end with a lasting relationship. A survey by YouGov found that only a quarter of people who used internet dating sites were confident that they would find the person they were looking for, and many lapsed members insist that the pool of potential partners is simply too broad.

“We mustn't raise the internet's status too much,” says Dr Lisa Matthewman, a chartered psychologist at the University of Westminster and an expert in romantic and sexual relationships. “There's such potential to portray yourself - and of course for others to portray themselves - falsely. It can feel artificial and impersonal. Classes, particularly classes in the performing arts, can be more fruitful as inhibitions are cast aside and friendships quickly formed. You build up an emotional connection as well as a physical one. People are looking for all sorts of values in their partner, and it's hard to see how you can get those from the superficialities asked for by internet matching sites.”

Bridget Ragazzini, 39, a publishing executive, initially turned to the internet when she split from her fiancé three years ago. “I started with such high expectations - it seemed a lot less daunting than speed dating, which I tried and hated - it's all about first impressions. However, I quickly discovered that while prospective dates sounded wonderful in their profiles, in real life' we would struggle to find things in common and there would be no chemistry at all.”

Ragazzini persevered for a year before logging off for good. “The whole experience was actually a bit depressing, and shook my confidence in the dating process. Instead, I resolved to focus on myself for a while. I'd enjoyed acting at university, and signed up with my local drama group. I attended an open audition one Saturday, which was pretty scary, but I quickly found myself opening up. The nicest thing about it was that there were so many people like me there - thirty and forty-somethings who were interested in the theatre and up for a laugh. By the end of the day, we'd acted together, eaten together, laughed together and were really bonded. I left with five new numbers in my phone and found the whole experience really liberating; I felt more confident and open to new experiences as a result. The theatre group has definitely expanded my social circle, which can only be a good thing in the search for a partner.”

Andrew G. Marshall, a relationship expert and author of the forthcoming book The Single Trap: How to Escape it and Find Lasting Love, sees clear problems with what he calls “conventional dating” and is fully in favour of expanding social circles and interests to meet new people. “The problem with internet dating and speed dating in particular is that we judge people so quickly when they walk through a door,” he says.

“We think they're too fat, too thin or too Primark for us. But the problem is that we're actually making a judgment on the most superficial of levels. What counts is whether we have a proper emotional connection with them, whether they complete us and provide balance. If you join a choir or a dance group, you talk to the other people there as human beings and you have room to talk to each other and to find out if there is a proper emotional connection rather than just lust.”

Marshall also has another explanation for why meeting in this way is beneficial. It's all to do with the difference between what he terms “bridging” and “bonding” capital.

“Bonding is like the friends in Sex and the City; people who are like you,” he explains. “It's very good for getting by and for emotional support, but it's a defined unit. You're not going to meet new people through this circle. Bridging, however, is quite different. It crosses existing groups of people, and is a great way to meet new people.”

Anne Birgit Saeves - Mattison-Ward's girlfriend - can echo that. The 28-year-old is a television production manager and joined classes at the academy to meet new people. “Taking a class is not like a pub or a club, it's a nice, safe atmosphere, where you meet people you already have things in common with. I wasn't really prepared to meet the love of my life, but when I met Adam, I did.”

“We thought it would help people destress”

Mike Ward, the co-founder of the academy, is amused, but not surprised that his evening classes in the performing arts now have a sideline in romance. “When we started the classes in 2007, the idea was that it would suit people in the City, those who wanted to de-stress after work, and also to express themselves. But while we're finding that people love the courses, it's also become clear that they don't just come to have fun, they also want to meet someone. It's a great place to develop relationships.”

Performance classes aren't the only option for those sick of internet or speed dating. Romance thrives more in an atmosphere conducive to relaxation and breaking down barriers, than the intense pressure of a “date”, as organisations like the adventure and social group Spice UK have found. Dave Smith, its founder, says he never pitches his “multi-activity adventure, sports and social group”, as a singles' club. The purpose “is to have fun, not just to meet people. Relationships blossom though, because this is a far more natural way to meet someone than singles nights or speed dating”. Spice UK members, he claims, now boast a wedding a week.

“We are all about coming together and having fun at the events,” he says. “But that can lead on to other things. I used to give people a spice rack when they said they were getting married. Then I started to buy in bulk. Now I've stopped, because it cost too much.”

You may not get a spice rack any more, but if you try something new, you will be adding more flavour to your life. And if you want to meet someone for a lasting relationship, you probably need to move away from your computer.

For more information about the City Academy, call 020-7704 3717 or visit www.city-academy.com

Don't fancy singing? Try these...

Charity fundraising

Having values and interests in common is always good ground for romance - especially, it appears, when it comes to the desire to help others.

The disability charity Scope has been running fundraising treks and challenges to far-flung locations, including China, Peru and Vietnam, for more than 12 years. Recently organisers have noticed that a number of participants have met their partner while taking part. “Kilimanjaro 08 with Scope was advertised as a life-changing experience and for us it has been,” says Graham Isaacs, 32, who met his partner Julie Evans, 31, on a Scope trek in July. “I think the environment of challenge and achievement with new people really brings personalities to the fore so it's a great way to meet like-minded people.”

Those taking part usually include a good mixture of men and women so the chances of meeting a partner or simply making new friends are pretty high. The average age is early thirties but there are twenty, forty and fifty-somethings too. For more information: email events@scope.org.uk or visit www.scope.org.uk

A new body and a new partner?

Research by Mintel has revealed that one in five private health club members met close friends or their partner at the gym. More than one in four saw it as a good place to meet “like-minded people”, and an increasing number of gyms are now organising social activities for their members.

Victoria Branch, marketing manager of Harpers Fitness, says that people tend to use their trips to the gym in two ways - to flirt, but also work out, or to switch off and work out. She says that the gym definitely appeals as a place to meet.

“There's less pressure,” she says. “If you're single and on a night out there is always that thought - will I meet someone? Whereas when you're in the gym you are relaxed and not usually expecting to meet someone in that way. Also, if you meet someone at the same gym you probably know that you are quite similar in terms of lifestyle.” www.harpersfitness.co.uk

Spirit of adventure

Dave Smith set up Spice UK because he wanted to join a club just like it, and couldn't find one. It began in Manchester, by offering outdoor pursuits each month, but now runs a variety of activities and get-togethers all over the country. Children are not invited. Membership is £12 a month, and there are currently 12,000 members. “It's about making friends and enjoying yourself,” says Smith. “It's best described as an adults' youth club.” www.spiceuk.com

The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting

2008-11-25T10:07:00.000-08:00

Brett Berk is the author of a great new parenting book called The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting. You can read my interview with him in The Jewish Chronicle this week

Or you could read it here:
By Sarah Ebner

When Brett Berk invited his friends and their young son for dinner, he didn’t expect a potty to be placed next to the table.
“We should be celebrating,” said the boy’s proud mother, after her son had demonstrated his toilet training prowess.
“We should be fumigating,” Berk replied, quite put off his food.
This was the trigger for Berk to take action. Having seen too many friends fall prey to what he calls the “parenting bubble” (where they can no longer see sense, and life revolves around the children) he decided something must be done. The resulting book, The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting, has become a phenomenon in the States. Berk has become a modern parenting “guru”, and there are now plans to turn his book into a reality TV series.
“These days there’s so much emphasis on people being perfect parents and raising perfect children,” says Berk from his apartment in New York. “I wanted to offer parents a new perspective on how to deal with kids and deliver sound, actionable advice. I also wanted to let people laugh at themselves and to realise that they are the grown-ups.”
Berk, who’s 39, seems to have delivered what he intended. The book is 230 pages of candid advice, wrapped up with some delicious anecdotes - the parents who worry that their pre-schooler is choosing the “wrong” child to be friends with, the new mother convinced that her baby’s nappies don’t smell and the granny who pinches her 3-year-old granddaughter and claims that the pre-schooler “started it”. As an “outsider”, Berk considers himself eminently well qualified to try to bring parents back to reality. He’s emphatic that the book is for those who want to be “people as well as parents,” and wants them to step back from trying to control every aspect of their children’s lives,
“Investing all your time and energy in your child is a lot of pressure to place on a kid,” he says, “but there are things you can do to really focus on the big picture, rather than whether you’re feeding them the right organic grape or not.”
Berk is scathing about people who pander to their children’s every whim. He clearly feels that parents are out of control, spoiling themselves and their children with all sorts of things they don’t need.
“The baby business seems to play on your fears that you’re ill equipped for the job and going to do it all wrong,” he writes. This is where his checklist for “Baby Product Substitutes” comes in. Instead of a digital bath thermometer, Berk suggests using a finger or wrist. Instead of an “infant in-crib sleep positioner,” he suggests a mattress or rolled up towel, and instead of a baby wipes warmer (for those ever so sensitive babies who just can’t handle a wipe at room temperature) he suggests…a lobotomy.
Despite having no children himself, he doesn’t see that as a problem. He’s worked with children for such a long time (he has a Masters in education, taught in schools and also ran a day-care centre) that he feels he knows an awful lot about them. He’s also convinced that it’s about time gay men, who are already feted as gurus on clothing, style and grooming, moved into another arena.
“Some people said maybe we should take the “gay” part out of the title,” he says, “but in some ways, that’s part of the shtick of the book, you know what I mean? Gay men have taken on this role as lifestyle gurus and this is the next logical thing for us to address, telling people how to raise their kids.”
The appealing thing about The Gay Uncle’s Guide is not just that it’s funny, with a wry sense of Jewish humour (Berk says that, although the book isn’t “overtly” Jewish, he guesses that “everything I do is somehow informed by my Jewishness), but that the advice is actually useful. Much of it is common sense – that the adult should be in charge, or that children benefit from routines – but it’s amusingly presented.
“Don’t worry about whether your child or children can cope if you’re thinking of adding another child to the family,” he says. “Think about whether you can cope. Your children are going to resent you for the rest of their lives anyway, regardless of how many or few of them you have. Providing a sibling will at least give them someone to corroborate the reasons for their resentment.”
Berk has been with his partner, a screenwriter called Tal, for 18 years, but is adamant he doesn’t want children of his own.
“I’m not opposed to gay parenting in any way, shape or form. It’s just not for me,” he says. “I do more good as an uncle and an educator than I would do as a parent. I think we all muck it up as parents. It’s impossible not to.”

The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting: Candid Counsel from the Depths of the Day-care Trenches, by Brett Berk, is published by Three Rivers Press.
Brett Berk’s blog is at http://brettberk.com/

Want to know about education? Read School Gate

2008-07-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Having spent the last year editing Supernanny.co.uk, I now have a new job, editing School Gate, a new blog for Times Online.
Please check out my blog and make comments and suggestions.
Thanks!

Placebo pills for kids.....

2008-06-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today I have a piece in the Times about placebo pill for kids. You can read it here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4182294.ece

My original piece was rather different - firstly, because it was longer, but also because Dr Ian Paul and the GP mentioned were both people I interviewed at a later date.

So if you want to read my original piece, here it is:

By Sarah Ebner

Your child is crying, unhappy, and says he is ill. You know he isn’t hurt or so unwell he needs medicine, but long for something to help calm him down. Now the makers of Obecalp think they have the solution. Their product, the first standardised, especially made placebo “pill”, has just gone on sale via its American website. But their new product raises a huge number of questions.
The website for Obecalp (placebo spelt backwards) quotes “mommy” Jennifer Buettner, who came up with the idea. “It does nothing,” she writes. “Just like it’s supposed to. The brain does it all (with a kiss on the cheek.)”
It sounds like a brilliant idea, a harmless substance to comfort someone not really in need of medication. But if someone doesn’t really require medicine, should we be giving them a substitute at all? Many medical experts (and parents) think not.
“There’s definitely ethical issues about giving a medication that’s not got any active substance in it,” says Dr Margaret Bamforth from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. “You’d have to think very carefully about it.”
The placebo effect has long been documented. It is usually explained as something which occurs when a patient’s symptoms improve, despite being treated with a product that has no active medical ingredients. It’s thought this happens because patients believe the treatment will work (in other words, they don’t know it’s a placebo). Recent research also suggests that taking a placebo pill stimulates the release of endorphins (which release feelings of euphoria) in the brain.
Of course it would be very rare to find someone who would ask for a placebo rather than medication, and this is one of the ethical issues in which Obecalp is now tangled. By suggesting that parents give their child such a pill, aren’t they suggesting a deception?
Dennis Buettner, co-creator of Obecalp and Jennifer’s husband, thinks not. He’s hoping that Obecalp will help thousands of people, citing children, the elderly and those with special needs.
“This isn’t the deception of a child,” he says firmly. “We like to look at it as the protection of a child. To give them medicine of suspect efficacy is a deception. Children are over-medicated in this country. This is not medicine.”
The Buettners, who have, rather ironically, called their company “Efficacy Brands”, say they are genuinely amazed by the storm their product has created.
“That caught us both,” says Dennis Buettner. “This is a product that is designed to be absolutely nothing, inert. The controversy caught me completely off guard.”
It’s understandable that the Buettners were taken aback. At first glance, their product seems simple. It’s almost like giving a plaster to a child who doesn’t really need one, just to placate them. Except that a child knows that a plaster is just something to cover a scratch. The danger is that they’ll think this cherry flavoured tablet is medication.
“It’s full of contradictions,” exclaims Dr Bamforth, who’s an expert in child and adolescent psychiatry. “It’s saying go to your doctor, but when you find there’s nothing wrong with your child, give them a pill anyway. That doesn’t make any sense, does it?
“You’re also teaching children to rely on a pill. You’re not helping them deal with whatever the problem is, to develop a functional coping strategy.”
When the Buettners initially had the idea for Obecalp, it seemed straightforward.
“My wife and I had our young niece to stay because her parents were on vacation,” says Dennis. “We anticipated that she would be anxious and when she said she had a bad tummy. Jen said that I should go to Wal-Mart and buy a placebo. But they had nothing. That’s when I began to research and found that nowhere in the world had retail placebos.”
The Buettners thought they were on to something big and decided to make a placebo pill themselves. They contacted every drug manufacturer in the country, spoke to numerous scientists (one of whom gave them the idea for making the pill out of dextrose) and eventually came to an agreement with one particular company (with whom they have a non-disclosure agreement.)
“One guy told us that he’d spent his entire career developing products that were designed to do all types of things, but really did nothing. He couldn’t believe that he met us, and we were asking him to specifically design a product that does nothing.”
The sample products (given a cherry taste, because, Buettner says, it’s the most popular over-the-counter flavour), were tested positively on friends and family. Rather surprisingly, Buettner admits that none were tried as a placebo on someone who had a malady, but simply handed out to taste. The couple were obviously happy with the results as the first batch of tablets (5-7000 bottles) went on sale to the public at the beginning of June. The first orders are just being dispatched.
Buettner is passionate about the idea that too many people are given medication when they don’t need it, and argues that Obecalp addresses that issue. That children (and adults) are given too many pills is something others agree with. What they can’t understand is why a product which looks like a pill (even if it isn’t one) is seen as the solution.
“It’s a nonsense,” says Imti Choonara, a professor in medical health at Nottingham University and expert in paediatric clinical pharmacology. “I have no problems with placebos in general, but I’m concerned that this will make children think they always need a medicine to make themselves better.
“I don’t see the logic in having something available that you can buy over the counter as a placebo. It’s a contradiction in terms. You’re not going to buy it for yourself, and it’s inappropriate to give it your partner or other family member because you know it doesn’t work.”
Buettner is exceptionally keen to stress that Obecalp is not medicine, that he doesn’t have medical training, and that he recommends speaking to a doctor before using the product. He won’t even say what he thinks Obecalp might be able to treat, just that it is sold as an over-the-counter dietary supplement.
“We make absolutely no claims which might be construed or misunderstood to be medical advice, so I am unable to give particulars as to its use,” he says when pressed.
However, he is less reticent when talking about the placebo effect in general. He cites a number of medical studies, explaining that recent ones which appear to show that both cough medicines and Prozac work little better than placebos, inspired him to speed up production.
One study he enthusiastically points towards is from the University of Chicago. Earlier this year researchers there found that nearly half the doctors they questioned admitted to giving out a placebo to patients at some point.
“We’re hoping that there’s a potential that if you see your physician and he thinks there’s nothing wrong, we’re providing him with the knowledge that there’s a standardised placebo of high grade quality that exists for use,” says Buettner.
It’s ironic then that Professor John Hickner, who worked on the Chicago study, is not a fan of Obecalp.
“I think it is a terrible idea for parents to give placebos to their kids,” he says. “We are already a society that believes pills are the easy answer to too many problems.”
But Buettner is sticking to his guns. He says that sales are already going well and is keen to move forward. He has plans for a diabetic version of the pill, and a distribution deal to take it into Europe. Could the next big American export really be something that is simply mind over matter?

Ends

The lowdown on parenting websites

2008-04-19T08:33:00.001-07:00

Hello

Today I have an article in the Telegraph Weekend Section about parenting websites. You can read it on their site: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xml=/education/2008/04/19/famums19.xml

Or by continuing to read here:

Internet mums: help's within site
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 19/04/2008

The internet is proving invaluable for isolated mothers, discovers Sarah Ebner

Ellen Kirkby was nervous. The birth of her first son, Matthew, had not been easy and as the due date for her second child loomed, she realised she didn't want to be alone.

Fortunately fate - in the form of parenting website, Mumsnet - intervened.

"I posted a thread saying I was worried. DaisyMOO came on and said she would like to be there for me," says Kirkby. "It was a week before my due date and I knew nothing about her. But we chatted and I thought: 'Go for it.'?"

DaisyMOO (who's also known as Caroline Newey) was indeed there at the birth, and Kirkby says her presence made all the difference. (Her second labour was far better than her first.)

"She gave me the confidence to have the birth I wanted, to turn down drugs I didn't want and to help get Joe to breastfeed. She even went to get my ex-partner so he could see the baby, while making it as stress-free as possible for me."

To those not familiar with the astonishing growth of parenting websites, Kirkby's story may sound unusual. But to the hundreds of thousands of devotees, these sites fulfil a very real need, and one which politicians have heeded. David Cameron recently made his second appearance on Mumsnet, while the Department for Children, Schools and Families has just awarded a £500,000 grant to Netmums.

In a world where the extended family has often disappeared, parenting websites provide support and friendship 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They offer advice from other parents who have "been there", an emotional outlet and the opportunity to chat about anything from global warming to what to cook for supper.

Mumsnet stands out because, with 75 per cent of its users having a degree, much of the talk is caustic, argumentative and some might say intimidating. "They are honest," says Kirkby. "Maybe people in real life aren't brave enough to tell you to snap out of it. They will on Mumsnet."

"We have 20,000 posts a day so it's any question you may want to ask," adds the founder of the site, Justine Roberts. "It's not just sleeping and breastfeeding."

Parenting gurus have been around for decades. Dr Spock, Penelope Leach and more recently Gina Ford have told parents how to bring up their children, but these days many parents want more than the one point of view they get from a single expert.

"I've read so many books, but they seem almost dictatorial," says Suzi Shaw, who credits Mumszone for helping her through the loneliness she felt when her husband was diagnosed with depression.

"It was really hard being on my own, but knowing other people were going through the same thing really helped me," says Shaw, who adds that she loves getting "15 different points of view, instantly".

Linking people up, wherever they are, is definitely one of the websites' main attractions. The cloak of anonymity probably helps too - there are some questions parents don't want to ask face to face.

"I can be the person I want to be, not necessarily the person other people think I am," says Shaw, who adds that she constantly asks, and offers, advice to her friends online.

Chrissi Hudson, a Netmums aficionado, does likewise. "I don't want to be labelled a bad mum by someone in a white coat," she says. "I meet people in the same boat as me and we support each other. If I had a problem I would go on Netmums first."

It's that instinct, of going to a website rather than a professional, which prompted the huge grant awarded to Netmums. It's intended to help more than 50,000 parents in 18 months and Siobhan Freegard, founder of the site, hopes to employ some expert advisers.

"When we set up the site, we weren't expecting to get the number of serious cases that we did, from postnatal depression to domestic abuse," she says. "We have mums at their wits' end, some suicidal, but we don't have any specialists, just one counsellor behind the scenes. We told the Government that we had the mums and the problems, so the money should come to us. We're filling a gap in the system."

Freegard initially set up the site on a local level, with information for mothers in Harrow, where she lives. Soon emails came in from elsewhere asking for similar sites. There are now 152, which are all tightly moderated to provide what Freegard describes as a "safe and friendly environment".

But parenting sites aren't all about anonymity and computer screens. Many of those online have now met up with their friends offline and found a real connection. Perhaps one reason for this is that unlike mother and baby groups, websites allow you to meet other parents without children being present. You don't need to talk over, or even pretend to like, someone else's wailing toddler. Instead, you have the time to discover shared interests.

"It's like lonely hearts in effect," says Chrissi Hudson. "I've made so many friends."

www.mumsnet.com: witty, acerbic, with a huge range of topics. Just signed six-figure deal for a series of "modern, funny" parenting books.

www.netmums.com: vast membership, lots of support and advice. Also has publishing deal.

www.badmothersclub.co.uk: set up by Stephanie Calman to reassure mums muddling through.

www.supernanny.co.uk: advice based site based on the TV show

www.gurgle.com: newest site, backed by Mothercare and the Early Learning Centre.

www.mumszone.co.uk: supportive forum, section on mums who work from home.

Shortlisted at the Press Awards

2008-03-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hello

I have some news - I have been shortlisted for feature writer of the year at this year's British Press Awards. I am, as you can imagine, delighted, especially as freelancing is never easy. It's the fourth time I've been shortlisted for one of these awards (and, I don't think I'm being particularly humble if I add that it's very likely to be the fourth time I don't win!) Still, I am very pleased.

You can see the list of nominees here:

http://www.britishpressawards.com/2008/shortlist.htm

Empty nest syndrome - and he's only two!

2008-02-25T11:20:00.000-08:00

I have an article in the Daily Telegraph about early empty nest syndrome. You can read it here.....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xml=/education/2008/02/23/fanest123.xml

Or here:

Empty nest: mothership lost in space

Sarah Ebner knew empty nest syndrome would strike one day - but wasn't expecting it when her youngest was just two

I feel bereft. My son has left me. My cheerful, gorgeous, golden boy has moved on, with barely a thought for how I will cope. He talks now of other women and has become so secretive that I have no idea what he's up to ("I don't know," he repeats firmly). He's only two and a half, but it'll never be the same again.

If I'm honest, I can't believe it. I had no fears about my son starting nursery. I thought that as long as he was happy, I would be. But I was wrong. As Robbie skipped away merrily, I felt ridiculously emotional. While the staff were thrilled that he was so happy and un-clingy, I felt an almost irresistible urge to rush into the nursery, grab him and bring him back home with me.

He's only at pre-school for three hours a day, so could I really be suffering from empty nest syndrome?

"Yes," says Jacqui Marson, a chartered counselling psychologist who specialises in motherhood. "It's a definite loss and reacting to it is completely normal."

I have to admit that I'm feeling pretty silly. When my elder daughter began at the same nursery, I waved her off with none of the same emotions. But perhaps that was because I still had a baby at home with me. Now that he has bounced off into the (beginning of the) adult world, I am strangely lost. The time, which is only relevant on the two days I don't work, seems so vast that I worry about how best to fill it. How did he grow up so quickly? It's as if he doesn't need me any more.

That's a feeling Jeannie Ford can certainly relate to. Her younger son, Oliver, joined reception class last September but still doesn't spend every day at school.

"There's a very long settling-in and assessment process and we're now at the stage where Ollie does four days until 3.20," she says. "His teacher has said that he can now do that on the other day as well, but I don't want him to. He's my baby and I can't face losing him for that fifth day too. Then it'll be forever."

Empty nest syndrome was so termed to explain the loss and sadness that many parents experience when their children no longer live with them or need day-to-day care. It's very common, usually when children leave home for university. But it can strike, as I now know, at any age. Parent coach Sue Atkins says that a recent client was worried about her 25-year-old son, who was getting married. She felt she was losing him to his wife.

"Parenting is a constant letting-go," says Atkins. "From the moment you play peek-a-boo with your child, you've started them off being independent and letting them know that you won't always be there. Feeling sad is common at any stage. There's no right and wrong about it." I know I should be thrilled that my son's so settled and secure but a hint of clinginess from him would, secretly, be nice. Maybe that's selfish. But losing your baby to the growing up process is always hard.

Alison Dishington would agree with that. Her youngest child, Grace, began school last year.

"I was very emotional and cried when I got home. I actually felt a little sick," she says. "I was sad when each of my four children started but it got stronger with each one. With Grace, it was the end of an era and the house seemed so empty and quiet. I still find it terribly quiet and always have the radio on."

But Alison says that the feelings of sadness didn't last. "I felt very morbid at the loss for a short while, but then I felt some relief too. After all, I now had time to empty those cupboards I'd been meaning to do for months and space to do some things for me, too. I began swimming again and took up yoga, which I love. So I have to say there is a positive side and you can certainly fill the gap."

Jacqui Marson agrees that the key is not to panic desperately about filling the time with more work, as I have done, but to take it slowly and decide what's best for you.

"We all neglect ourselves when we have young children. So, with the realisation that you are beginning not to be the centre of your child's universe, you have to work out how to be the centre of your own universe again. It might be that you turn back to your career but it might also be that you decide to take up pottery." Sue Atkins suggests that the key is to try to relax and to celebrate the start of nursery, school or university as a step forward for your child and for you.

"Focus on the plus points," she says. "Be delighted that your child is happy, having fun and learning new things. You can't live your life through your children and when your last one goes, they do leave a gap. You have to decide how to fill it." My new life has begun. What do I do now?

Ends

The mother-in-law of all battles.....

2007-09-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

Today I have a piece in the Telegraph about the problems that some women have with their mothers-in-law. Many people will be able to empathise!
Here is the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml?xml=/education/2007/09/15/famother115.xml

Or you can read on here....

The mother-in-law of all battles
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 15/09/2007

Dare to marry another woman's son? That's just asking for trouble, says Sarah Ebner

When Tania Harper's mother-in-law came to visit her, she brought with her two bibs, presents for Tania's baby son, Paul. One bib announced: "I love my Daddy." The other proclaimed: "I love my cat." Mummy, it was clear, did not merit a mention.

"It's absolutely typical," fumes Tania. "She's made it clear that I am surplus to requirements. When we see her friends, she tells them: 'This is my little boy.' Or: 'This is my son's little boy.' I feel like the invisible woman."

Tania's experiences will be familiar to millions of women. For want of a better name, we can call it "mother-in-law syndrome". It's what happens to so many innocent souls when they marry another woman's son.

"By the way I love Paul, I can already appreciate that there's something very special between boys and their mothers," says Tania. "Maybe mothers-in-law are so awful because we've stolen their sons."

Mums-in-law don't always get a great press, but it's often men who moan about them. Les Dawson and Bernard Manning weren't the only comedians to profit from mother-in-law jokes. But research suggests that men actually get off lightly. It's daughters-in-law who suffer.

"Studies show that the mother-in-law, daughter-in-law relationship is the trickiest," says Terri Apter, a psychologist who's writing a book about the subject.

"Men simply aren't as involved," she adds. "They can take a low profile."

Apter says that daughters-in-law feel judged and pressured by their mothers-in-law. She's also found that even modern mothers-in-law disregard feminist sympathies when it comes to their boys.

"They want what's best for their son. If that means suppressing their daughter-in-law's career, they think that's okay."

Lorraine Gibb can echo that: "When I met my mother-in-law, I quickly discovered we had nothing in common except that we both loved her son. Now what really irritates me is the way she discounts anything which contradicts her view that I am an ambitious career woman who doesn't put her darling boy first. This is despite the fact that I do all the cooking, organise the household and, having produced two children, gave up my high-flying job to work part-time. She still seems to think that I could look after her beloved child better."

When you marry, you often don't realise that you're not just marrying the man you love, but also his mother. Many in-laws are paragons of virtue and a joy to know. This article, however, isn't about them.

"I went out of my way to be nice to her," says Gillian Campbell of her mother-in-law. "But she just never made the effort with me. She doesn't ask me anything about myself and always expects me to run around after her. She visited four days after I gave birth and still expected me to make her a cup of tea. She told me it would 'do me good' to get up and about. I'd had a caesarean."

But Gillian knew from her wedding day what she was in for. "My sister went in to see that everything was ready in the church and saw Ian's mum. She introduced herself, saying: 'Gillian looks lovely. Isn't it a wonderful day?' Ian's mum - who was dressed all in black - just looked at her and said: 'Well, I think it's a very sad day.'

"My sister rushed out to tell me not to get married because my mother-in-law-to-be was so awful."

Problems with in-laws can veer from the foolish ("She hates the fact that I'm from London," says Celia Sharman, whose husband is from Nottingham) to the ridiculous ("She couldn't believe that I had a daughter when she'd always wanted one," says Lorraine Gibb). One woman even put a private detective on t her potential daughter-in-law. Amazingly, the couple went on to marry. Less surprisingly, they have now divorced.

Gillian Campbell admits she was so innocent when she got engaged that she didn't think it mattered what her mother-in-law was like. "But she made it obvious that Ian could have done so much better. She's always thought I wasn't good enough."

It's strange how all the women I spoke to, bar one, had mothers-in-law who didn't have daughters of their own. The one who did have a daughter (Celia Sharman's) didn't get on with her. Also, none of the mothers had sisters and none had got on with their mothers. This may be entirely anecdotal but it does suggest difficulty relating to other women.

But perhaps the real problem with mothers-in-law is the very name. It sounds like your own mother, someone you love, who's brought you up and knows you. Mothers-in-law, however, are thrust upon you.

"My mother-in-law has only ever bought me one present," says Tania Harper. "She arrived at our house smiling, and I was really touched, because she'd never got me anything before. Then she opened her bag and got out a T-shirt. It said: 'My mother-in-law went to Crete and all she bought me was this lousy T-shirt.' I was stunned. Then she said: 'You are going to wear it, aren't you?' "

Names have been changed.

DOS AND DON'TS

Be realistic. High expectations are bound to be dashed. Why should you expect a close and fulfilling relationship when you haven't chosen each other?

Remember she is not your mother, which means she isn't, necessarily, on your side. Watch who you complain about her to. Sympathetic female friends are probably better than husbands. You don't want your marriage affected.

Damage limitation may be the wisest option. It could be that a slightly cooler relationship is the best you can do.

Don't think that children will make you bond with your mother-in-law. They just offer lots more opportunities for conflict.

Hallam Foe - how the original writer feels!

2007-08-31T04:59:00.000-07:00

Please read my article about turning books into films. I interviewed Peter Jinks, author of the much acclaimed Hallam Foe, for it. The film - which stars Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles - is out today. The book is excellent by the way..

Having your book turned into a film, says Peter Jinks, author of Hallam Foe, is like “handing over your baby for a medical experiment.”
“You have to be aware that it’s going to be changed,” adds Jinks. “You can’t be surprised if it comes back with limbs in different places.”
Hallam Foe, an unusual coming of age tale about voyeurism and a boy’s tense relationship with his new stepmother, was Jinks’ first novel. It was critically acclaimed on publication, but not a huge best-seller, and Jinks admits that he was surprised when Scottish director David McKenzie (a former flat-mate of his) wanted to adapt it for the big screen.
“Everyone who writes a book hopes it will get optioned and made into a film,” says Jinks. “But I didn’t have any idea how it would work with my book. I knew that I liked Dave’s films and that he understood the underlying idea of the novel, but the book was just source material. They’ve been making their own piece of art.”
Hallam Foe – which stars Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles – is released today. But what made this particular book ripe for a film translation? And why are so many novels turned into films anyway?
“A book is something that actually exists,” says director McKenzie, whose two previous films, Young Adam and Asylum, were also based on novels. “It’s easier to galvanise people around a book than a screenplay, because it’s a tangible thing.
“Books are objects and people need objects to take hold of in the film business because there’s so much talk,” he adds. “It also means there’s a narrative there. With this book, I really liked the idea. It wasn’t your average coming of age stuff.”
But moving from the written word to the big screen is not always the easiest thing to do. Books are constantly turned into films, but for every big commercial and critical success – the Lord of the Rings films or The English Patient, for example - there are others which do not reach the heights they aspire to. The Da Vinci Code is one current case in point, but it joins many others including Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated.
“A good book does not necessarily make a good film,” says Nick Marston, who runs the film and television department at literary agents Curtis Brown. “It’s such a combination of different talents, a translation into a totally different medium and a genuinely collaborative procedure.”
Almost every week it seems as if a book is either being turned into a screenplay (recent examples include Lionel Shriver’s award winning We Need to Talk about Kevin, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials) or actually being released. Many of th4em are award-winning, from Rebecca to Brokeback Mountain.
“What we want is a really good story and a richness of character,” says Amelia Granger from film producers Working Title. “But what everyone is looking for is the holy grail – a manuscript that is brilliantly written, commercially appealing and yet prize winning!”
Granger is constantly on the look-out for new material, whether fiction or non-fiction. “True-life is often more exciting,” she says. “It all depends on the story and how good it is. If it’s original and feels like a world that hasn’t been seen before, then it may well be inspirational for a film.”
It’s true that film-makers don’t limit themselves simply to fiction. Fast Food Nation, Syriana and Munich are all based on non-fiction work, and in many ways, it’s the success of a book which helps to get it made.
“If a book has done well, it does give it a head start in terms of brand identity,” admits Nick Marston.
Last year, Marston set up a new in-house development and production arm at Curtis Brown. Its very existence demonstrates how many authors and agents have become more demanding when it comes to optioning their work.
“We did it because we felt that material wasn’t being fully developed and that there wasn’t enough imaginative twinning of writers and material,” says Marston. “It’s still the case that more things get optioned than get made, but some companies have really wised up and I don’t think we’re going to see such huge money coming out of the studios anymore.”
Amelia Granger agrees that in the past, “the creative process was being stifled,” by huge options on books which were then left languishing in development. She says that what authors and agents want now is an assurance that a film version of their book will actually get made.
“For example, we took on Ian McEwen’s Atonement for a director, Joe Wright (who made Pride and Prejudice) and a screenwriter, Christopher Hampton,” she says. “A creative approach was what was wanted and that was what we provided.”
For Peter Jinks the whole experience has been a delight, although he’s still overwhelmed by his visit to the set.
“I felt a bit like a ghost drifting around, but it was really emotional, a nice feeling,” he says. “It was a bit like seeing a dream become flesh.” And he adds that, although he’s currently writing a third novel, he has another ambition.
“I would like to write my own original screenplay,” he says.
Ends

My son reeled into the room and I knew something was horribly wrong...

2007-08-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Today I have a very sad article in the Daily Mail about a boy who died, suddenly, leaving his family devastated. They chose to donate his organs - helping many other people.
Here is the link to the article, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=478232&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source=

Or here is it in full...

My son reeled into the room and I knew something was horribly wrong...

On this day four years ago, 16-year-old Martin Burton died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage. His parents, Nigel, 48, and Sue, 47, donated his organs for transplantation, saving one boy's life and helping many others. Here, Sue tells SARAH EBNER the tragic story of what happened to her son...

"Martin was hooked up to tubes and monitoring equipment, but he seemed peaceful. I couldn't believe we had lost him, even though I knew he was brain dead.

He was pink and warm, and looked as if he were asleep. I sat and held his hand for hours and hours.

We had decided to donate Martin's organs and were asked if we wanted to take him into theatre. I declined. I'd been there for 36 hours and at some point we had to make a break. But the hardest moment for me was walking out of that hospital. I knew I was leaving my son behind.

Martin's death was the most profound loss, something you cannot imagine until it happens. Losing a child is the wrong order of things. All your hopes, your plans, your dreams of their future and your future are shattered.

You have to get used to a new life with a big part missing for ever. And that's the hard part to accept: that it is for ever.

Immediately after Martin died, I was too upset to think about the boy who received Martin's heart. Now I do think about him, particularly on days like today, the anniversary of Martin's death. It's as important a day for his family as ours, and I don't doubt that his parents give thanks every day for our decision.

It was the school holidays. Martin was his usual boisterous self. He'd gone to bed fine, but in the early hours of August 27, I heard a thud. It sounded like he had fallen out of bed.

Martin was often noisy, so I didn't thud. It sounded like he had fallen out Martin was often noisy, so I didn't worry. But the noise continued, like a banging. I realise now he was probably staggering and hitting the walls and furniture.

I sat up in bed and shouted: 'Martin, what are you doing?' The banging continued, so I called out: 'Are you all right?' He appeared in my bedroom doorway. 'Are you all right?' I repeated.

He looked at me with a glazed, confused expression. I realise now his brain was shutting down; he probably couldn't see or hear me, and he certainly couldn't speak. I've re-lived the expression on his face millions of times.

Martin staggered towards the bed and collapsed on it. I thought it was concussion, so I shook him.

He then rolled over and fell on the floor. I didn't realise it at the time, but he was in a deep coma.

I now feel naïve that I didn't realise how serious it was, but he seemed fine when he went to bed.

When I couldn't wake Martin up, I rang for an ambulance and it took us straight to Grantham Hospital. Nigel, my husband, was working in the RAF in Las Vegas when this happened, while my elder son Chris was staying with his girlfriend. When we got to the hospital, Martin was whisked away and I was left in reception.

I was in a daze - it seemed unreal. After a while, a nurse told me Martin was really ill and suggested I phone somebody. I rang my parents.

When they arrived, we were taken to see Martin, who was on a life support machine. We were told he'd had a brain haemorrhage (bleeding in the brain) and were advised to tell Nigel to come home.

Martin was transferred to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham at 5am. Three hours later, the consultant said the extent of the bleeding was so great that there was nothing they could do. He then asked if I would consider donating Martin's organs.

I immediately said yes. Although we had never discussed it, I was sure Nigel would agree. I think Martin would have wanted it, too.

He was young and healthy. He'd had no illness, no medication and no injuries. The only part of him that was damaged was his brain. I thought that if I could save one mother from going through the nightmare of losing someone, it was worth it.

And I did save a family from that hell because Martin's heart went to a 15-year-old boy who'd had only hours to live. Hopefully he will now live a long, healthy life.

But while I do think about that boy, there's no comfort for me in the donation. Maybe there is consolation in knowing Martin did not die in vain. But at the moment I still see it as them having what I want: they've got a healthy son.

Martin was kept alive on life support until Nigel got home. It took him three flights and he arrived at 9.30am the next day.

I sat by Martin's bedside for all that time. Apart from a dressing over the pressure gauge which had been inserted into his brain, he had no injuries to his face or body, so didn't look any different. It was as if he was still alive.

When Nigel and I saw each other, we were in floods of tears.

You have to sign an agreement for each individual organ. You can say yes to some and no to others, and you also decide, if the organs aren't fit to be used, whether you want them to be left in the body or taken for research.

We said yes to everything, but no to the research. I've never seen the donation as a violation of Martin's body, but I think I felt giving his organs for research would be.

Because he was a multiple organ donor, we had to wait until all the doctors were ready, which wasn't until 8pm that night. I didn't want to see Martin go, so the transplant co-ordinator accompanied him to theatre for me. Nigel and I then left the hospital. YOU choose if you want to know what happens to the organs and we decided we wanted information.

Martin's lungs, heart, liver, both kidneys and both corneas were donated. All the organs were used that night, or in the early hours of the following morning, apart from the corneas. They were frozen and I don't know if they've been used.

Except for his heart, Martin's other organs went to older people. His liver to a middle-aged man; his lungs to an elderly gentleman; one kidney to another elderly man; the other to an elderly woman.

I would have liked more of Martin's organs to have gone to children because I feel enormous empathy with the mother My Lifesaver of the boy who has Martin's heart.

But when we agreed to donate them we knew we had no say in what happened. They must go to the person who has the best chance of receiving them successfully and that's much more important than age.

Still, we would love to meet any of the recipients. It would be nice if the transplant teams around the country could encourage contact between the families by letter for a longer period of time - perhaps an exchange of photos to make it less anonymous for both families.

Currently, they can only send an anonymous thank-you letter, with transplant co-ordinators acting as go-betweens. But I do realise it must be hard for the recipient families to know what to say.

At the time, we didn't know why Martin had collapsed. He'd always seemed healthy. We now know that he'd had a brain haemorrhage because of an arteriovenous malformation of the brain, or AVM, and that it could have happened at any time. AVMs occur when blood vessels develop in a malformed way.

Blood is normally pumped by the heart to the brain via arteries. When it's in the brain it's nourished by the capillaries before going back through the veins.

When you have an AVM, you don't have these capillaries. This means there's pressure on the blood vessels, which can rupture.

The consultant who looked after Martin described it to me as being like a twig - fine one minute, then snapping. The bleed would have been so catastrophic that Martin's brain would have started to shut down in a few minutes.

The brain haemorrhage caused Martin's death, but that was caused by the AVM, something he was born with. He could have collapsed at school or out with his friends, but he happened to be in bed. I'm grateful for that because I hope in his last thoughts, he knew I was there.

It's now four years since Martin died, but life never goes back to normal. The pain never goes away, but you learn to cope with it.

At first, I couldn't remember Martin's life; I could only remember the death.

It was a long time, maybe a year, before I could think back to the good times. But memories are there for ever. Now I remember Martin with a lot of smiles. He was that sort of a person."

For more details about the Donor Family Network - a charity run by donor families for other donor families - see www.donorfamilynetwork.co.uk.

‘My Scottish ancestors were heroes’

2007-08-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hello
This weekend I have a "First person" article in the FT magazine. It is about a fascinating woman called Pearl Duncan, who has a great story to tell about her family history.
You can read it online here, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6d4f7fc4-4a09-11dc-9ffe-0000779fd2ac.html
Or here....

‘My Scottish ancestors were heroes’
‘Many black Americans are afraid, as I was initially, of finding a slave trader in their family tree,’ says Pearl Duncan

First Person: Pearl Duncan
As told to Sarah Ebner

Published: August 18 2007 00:36

When I started to look into my family tree, I couldn’t have imagined the conflict it would cause. I spent 10 years researching my ancestors, and a lot of people didn’t like what I had to say at the end of it. I’d tracked the cultural history that shaped my DNA in America, Europe and Africa, and discovered that not all white men in the British colonies who fathered children with black women in the 18th century were evil slavers. I found at least one ancestor who was an abolitionist and who did not abandon his children.

My family emigrated from Jamaica to New York when I was young, and I was always fascinated by where I had come from. My parents told me we were descended from the Maroons, or runaway slaves. Years later, when I went to our old family graves just outside Kingston, Jamaica, I couldn’t believe it when I found our birth and baptismal records dating back to the 1700s.

I now know that my roots are incredibly diverse: I am descended from slaves; from free people who worked and bought their freedom; from Maroon warriors who waged military rebellions in Jamaica against slavery; also from British merchants, and European and African nobility.

My Jamaican grandmother’s name was Rebecca Smellie and her ancestor was John Smellie, a Scottish merchant. In 1726 in Jamaica he had a child, George, with a “free negro” whose name was Ann Roberts. Even though there were penalties at that time – huge fines, deportation, imprisonment – for keeping records of black children, John Smellie left birth and baptism records with George’s name on them.

Three of John Smellie’s Scottish descendants settled in Jamaica on land he left them. One of them was called William Smellie and he died in 1800. He was an abolitionist, and when I found his will it showed that he left the maximum amount allowed under the slavery laws to his mixed-race children and their mother. Finding out about both these men changed everything for me. I had thought I was learning about the awful people who owned slaves, but instead I was discovering heroism, and people who stood up for what they thought was right.

I followed up these discoveries with research in Scotland, hiring Scottish genealogists and local historians. It turned out that John Smellie was of noble birth. I sent the records to the Court of The Lord Lyon, the heraldic authority for Scotland, which said I qualified for a coat of arms. I now have one that reflects the diversity of my ancestry.

My research also took me to Ghana. I tracked down dozens of ancestors and collected DNA from Ghanaian families whose names matched nicknames still used in my family. I spent a lot of time on the linguistic research, and DNA confirmed the connection. As far as I know, I was one of the first people in the world to use DNA in this way.

I’ve written a book about my research but publishers seem to think it’s too contentious to publish. Talking about black ancestors who rebelled apparently goes against how Americans see these people – slaves were victims, not rebels. Editors are happy to accept stories about slaves who escaped one at a time, but they don’t like the idea that they grouped together and stood up for themselves. That’s too threatening.

I’ve also learned that many black Americans are afraid, as I was initially, of finding a slave trader in their family tree, so they don’t really want to talk about their European ancestors. I got into trouble with my black friends for saying that John Smellie was a more caring man than many other colonials because he left a record of his child.

When you start looking into your genealogy, you have to come to terms with admirable and despicable behaviour, and that’s what I’ve done.

Who says single men can't adopt?

2007-07-25T10:21:00.001-07:00

I have an article in the Times about single men who choose to adopt. It's really very interesting indeed (trust me!)
Here is the link...
Or here is the text.....

Who says lone men can’t adopt?
The number of single male adopters in Britain is small but growing. Sarah Ebner talks to three happy fathers

Last year 3,700 children were adopted from care. Many more, desperate for a family, were disappointed – but adoption agencies have begun to look farther afield. Unmarried heterosexual and gay couples can now adopt jointly, while another small but growing part of the adoptive parent network is single people. And while it’s true that most single adopters are female, there are some men, too.

Single men are probably the most maligned group of adoptive parents, and are subjected to intense questioning about why they want to become fathers.

Although it is not illegal for a single man to adopt a female child, it happens rarely. Single male adopters tend to adopt boys who are slightly older than the average. As in any adoption, the child’s needs must be paramount.

David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), says: “It is a myth that single men can’t adopt. The number of single male adopters is small but growing. What children need most is security and stability, and in most cases this is more important than the gender of the carer.

“We know that single people can do just as well as couples, and we encourage adoption agencies to think about what single men and women have to offer. The national minimum standards for adoption state that people who are interested in becoming adoptive parents will be welcomed without prejudice.”

Here, three single men recount how they became adoptive fathers.

— Richard Stuart, 42, lives in Sandhurst, Berkshire, with his two adopted sons, Paul, 18, and Aron, 12. Richard, who also fosters two teenage boys, looks after the children full-time.

“I thought I’d have all the normal things in life – kids, a wife and a dog – but it doesn’t always work out like that,” he says. “When I was 23, a close friend died. I took her loss badly. I got to 27 and hadn’t had any serious relationships since her death. But I’m an impatient person and wasn’t happy. I had always wanted to be a dad, and began to think that I would never have kids.

“I was surprised when I found out that single men could adopt. However, my local authority said that although they were legally obliged to carry out all the checks on me, they had never taken on a single male adopter before.

“It took me three years with different agencies to be approved. Eventually I went to an independent adoption service and they took me on. I had to be thoroughly checked, but that didn’t bother me. If you can’t put up with the checks and intrusiveness then you shouldn’t try to adopt in the first place. I’d have given everything I had to be a dad, so I was prepared to be harassed.

“Once I was approved, I went to a matching panel. Paul, who was nearly 10, had been in a care home and I was his last chance. He really wanted a family, and there was something about him that made me want him. We clicked.

“Everything changed after Paul came. I had no social life and couldn’t go anywhere without him following me. But it was what I wanted. I chose to do it. However, it was an issue that I was a single man. I ran a huge Cub pack, and once Paul came the numbers nosedived. People thought that I must be odd, or that Paul was potentially dangerous.

“I lost some friends when Paul arrived but made new ones, too. I didn’t really care what people thought of me but I did care what they thought of Paul.

“Two years later I got Aron, who was then 6, and I now sit on an adoption panel. I don’t have relationships because I don’t have time, but I don’t think the boys miss having a mum. I’d have liked to adopt a girl but it was difficult enough getting a boy as a single man.

“I’m exceptionally proud of the boys, even though they completely wind me up. They really do complete my life, and I have no regrets.”

— Thierry Lambert, 34, lives in Wiltshire with his adopted son, Liam, 8. He works for Wiltshire police. “I first met Liam in April last year. I walked into the room at his foster home and he looked up and said, ‘Hello Dad, I’m just having a sandwich, I’ll be there in a minute’. It felt incredible. When I left, I shed more tears than I’d ever done in my life. I was so happy.

“I had always wanted children and was in a seven-year relationship where we were planning to have them, but we broke up in 2003. I was just turning 30 and wasn’t keen to start over again. What if I met someone new, then waited more years to have a child, only for it not to happen again?

“I came across adoption on the internet and it seemed like a great idea. For me, the child was more important than the partner, and adoption cut out that relationship completely. I contacted Wiltshire social services and they didn’t think it was a problem. I went on a course which was very female-orientated (everything was about mothers), but I met nice people and no one was especially negative. However, some people did ask if I was gay.

“I also had an in-depth assessment. Every angle was covered – my social group, my work, what support I had, even how a child would cope with me being diabetic.

“It took nearly a year to get approval. I did have relationships during that time but they didn’t last. The adoption was my priority.

“Liam’s father had died and he hadn’t had a particularly good experience with his mother. Because of this he found it difficult to trust women. He needed a father.

“I was sent the forms of 20 possible children, and when I saw Liam I said, ‘That’s the one. That’s my son’.

“Liam moved in last May and I’ve had to adjust more than him – being more tired, more responsible, making sure that he gets fed and bathed and does his homework.

“But it’s completely worth it. Liam makes me laugh every day and I feel I’ve known him since he was born. I adopted him on October 10, 2006 and he says that I’m his real dad. I feel this was meant to be.”

— John Williams*, 47, lives on Anglesey in Wales with his two adopted sons, *Keith, 21, and *Jamie, 20. He also fosters two boys aged 11 and 12, and looks after the children full-time.

“When I was told that I would be adopting two brothers aged 9 and 10, I was concerned. They sounded so grown-up and I thought that they would have missed out on so much. But when I met the boys I couldn’t believe how small they were. I knew they were the ones for me.

“I’ve always loved children but although I was married briefly, we had no kids. After we broke up in 1992 I began thinking about adoption. I wanted a family but wasn’t keen on another relationship and didn’t want to risk getting hurt again.

“I contacted Barnardo’s, who gave me a very thorough assessment. It wasn’t easy but I don’t think that it should be easy. I told my social worker right from the start that I would be open and honest. I had nothing to hide, and wanted to be a father more than anything. However, it is hard when you read so much about male abusers. You want to say, ‘That’s not every man’.

“At that time I worked for the Ministry of Defence, and because I worked I was told that I would have to adopt school-age children. I was expecting a five-year-old!

“The boys had been in foster care for more than three years. They felt very much that they were treated differently from the foster carer’s children and wanted a family of their own. Keith had written a letter saying that he wanted to live in the country with animals, and I was delighted to read that. It was my situation exactly, and he has loved being outdoors from Day 1. Meanwhile, Jamie, who barely spoke when he was with the foster carer, hasn’t stopped talking since he came here! He knew immediately that he belonged.

“I told Jamie and Keith that there were lots of other children who would like to be adopted, but it was important to them that their adoption was special. They suggested fostering.

“I wouldn’t change what I have for the world. I think how empty my life was before and take great pleasure in my sons’ achievements. Yes, I would have liked to have met someone and had children, but that didn’t happen. I haven’t had relationships since getting the boys, but my life is full and we are happy. I definitely feel that the boys are mine.”

* Names have been changed.

Hired Gunn

2007-06-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

Today I have an interview with Ali Gunn in the Guardian. She is the literary agent who now advises the Tories on lifestyle and women's issues. We met up a few weeks ago, and although I was expecting her to be very scary, she actually wasn't! I think that might be because she was worried about how she came across. She told me a few times that she didn't like talking about herself. "I like talking about other people," she said. "That's what I do."

Anyway, here is the interview...(or to see it online, cut and paste this link:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,2096420,00.html)

Hired Gunn
One of London's leading literary agents, Ali Gunn has been advising the Conservative party on 'lifestyle' issues for the past year. Sarah Ebner hears her views on class, Cameron and the women's vote

Sarah Ebner
Wednesday June 6, 2007

Guardian

Ali Gunn is a reluctant interviewee. It has taken months of cajoling to persuade the Tories' first "Head of lifestyle and features" to talk, and she is visibly uncomfortable. "This whole thing is terrifying me," she says, with only a half smile. "In 20 years of dealing with the media, I have only ever done one other interview, and that was for Publishing News. Now I won't give one for another 20 years."
Gunn has long been known in the publishing world as a tough literary agent, noted for the huge advances she negotiates for her clients. She represents celebrities such as Nancy Dell'Olio and Carol Thatcher, as well as best-selling novelists including Jenny Colgan (who recently landed a £1m advance to write two new novels).

Almost a year ago, Gunn was asked to lend her expertise to the Conservative party, after a mutual acquaintance set up a meeting between her and David Cameron's closest adviser, Steve Hilton. She is now an important part of Cameron's coterie, working for the party "at least" one day a week.

It has been said that her key responsibility is to persuade women to vote Tory, but Gunn says her remit is wider than that, explaining, "What I'm actually doing is looking, overall, at what we're doing with all our people in all our areas. It's much more about engaging the media and the electorate in our key personalities and our policies and not just about women. It never has been."

But it is also true that now, more than ever, the Conservative Party is frantically reaching out to women. The Tories' dismal electoral outings over the past 10 years haven't been helped by their dearth of women MPs (at the last election, just 9% of Tory MPs were women, compared to Labour's 27.5%). Cameron has therefore been making changes, with women now accounting for around 33% of the Tory candidates selected for the next election. Whether they are in winnable seats remains to be seen. They certainly need to be - as Theresa May has pointed out, there are fewer women in the shadow cabinet than men with the name of David.

While her remit may extend beyond the women's vote, Gunn notes that she is "working on a big new campaign about equal pay ... It's a cause that's very close to my heart, having worked over the years for many organisations where, not necessarily me, but other women were woefully underpaid. It all goes back to being a working mother as well. It is very hard to juggle your life and get childcare at the right times. What do you do in school holidays and at half-term? Your life is a constant negotiation.

"David and his team believe in women. He knows that women make up over half the workforce. He is not a traditionalist. He believes in flexible working hours. He believes that if you want to stay at home, that's fine, but if you want to go to work, that's absolutely fine as well. I think he is probably the most modern leader the Tories have had in 30 years."

Warming to her theme, Gunn dismisses the Lib Dems as being a "busted flush" and is openly hostile to Labour's new leader. "I think life under Gordon Brown is going to be pretty miserable," she says, and, when I ask if Cameron is better for women than Brown, she nods vigorously. "Sans doute," she says, "for women and men."

She is married to Nick Pople, head of an investment fund involved with environmental technology businesses and the couple have a four-year-old son, Jack. Gunn says, strikingly, that she suffers from none of the guilt that consumes many working mothers. "For me - and this is purely for me - I believe I am a better example for my son, as a mother and as a woman who works incredibly hard and wants to be there for him as much as I can. That's my choice."

Indeed, her personal philosophy appears to be perfect for the Cameron-led Tories. She insists that, although she had a private education, she doesn't believe in class. "I was brought up to believe in meritocracy, I wasn't brought up to believe in class," she says. "I was brought up to believe that if you work hard, hopefully you will get to be where you want to be and what you want to be."

Now 38, Gunn grew up in London's Notting Hill and attended Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, then boarded at Repton. But she won't be drawn on the current grammar school debate ("I'm not going to comment on that, because it's not my area of expertise"). However, she says she has always been interested in politics, and turned down a place to read law at Cambridge in order to read politics at Bristol.

Her father, John, is one of Britain's leading investors in smaller businesses, but she says her parents were not interested in politics. She notes, though, that her mother's experience of growing up in and leaving communist East Germany was a major influence in her decision to vote Conservative. "My mother escaped from the Berlin wall three days before it was finished, and left her whole family behind. We used to go through Checkpoint Charlie like other people go to Bognor Regis on holiday, and we used to try and help them as much as we could, emotionally and fiscally.

"With what my mother went through, under the thumb of communism, it would have been very strange for me not to have believed in the free market economy and the right of free speech. I always used to call myself a Whig actually. I believed in being strong on law and order without being fascistic, but also liberal on the social agenda, women's rights, that sort of thing."

Gunn made her name in publishing while working at the big literary agency Curtis Brown. She admits that being a Tory in the traditionally left-of-centre publishing world has not always been easy. "You absolutely did not declare your political affiliation," she says of the early days of her career.

When she left Curtis Brown to set up on her own 18 months ago, rumours abounded. Gunn initially insists that it was to "pursue my own opportunities". Later, however, she explains that "one of the major reasons for leaving a big agency which was run by men ... was to get more control over my life. I can take my son to school, and sometimes pick him up, and that makes me happier than anything."

She is also extremely happy to have become involved with the Busoga Trust (busogatrust.co.uk), a charity which seeks to provide clean water in rural Uganda. "What attracted me," she says, "was that in some small way it was helping to empower women in Uganda, whose lives were hitherto spent fetching and carrying water. Women are the mainstay of family society in Uganda, and if, through water, we can help them to help themselves, that has to be good, right?"

Gunn says she "decided what my priorities were in my life a couple of years ago. Trying to get the Tories elected would be one of them, definitely, and trying to get our message across, not just to women, but to everybody. Another would obviously be looking after my son, and also Chelsea winning the league next season. I am driven - yes, very - by the fact that I don't want to fail," she adds. "And also by the fact that I want to provide a good future for Jack."

Gunn is something of a contradiction. She is articulate but appears hesitant; and while she is clearly tough, she appears worried about how she is going to come across during the interview - she has a crib sheet with her, and ponders each answer carefully. Although she has a reputation for negotiating the biggest possible deals for her clients, she is charging the Tories far less than her usual rate. "Sometimes you have to do things because you really believe in them," she says firmly, "not for the money."

It’s only make-believe...

2007-06-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

Today I have an article in the Times about the phenomenon that is Rainbow Magic (huge for girls aged between 5-8). The books are "created" by a company which comes up with series to order......Read more here, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article1869918.ece
or below

It’s only make-believe
Sarah Ebner looks at the bestselling children’s writers who don’t actually exist

YOUNG READERS CAN’T GET enough of Daisy Meadows. Her Rainbow Magic books have sold ten million copies and girls aged between 5 and 8 are enraptured by the tales of Kirsty, Rachel and their fairy friends.

Ms Meadows should be a happy soul. Except that she doesn’t exist.

“It is unusual for children’s books to be written under a pseudonym,” Penny Morris, a director of Orchard, which publishes Rainbow Magic, agrees. “But it needed to happen in this case because there is more than one writer. Ownership remains with Working Partners, not the authors.”

Daisy is actually three people – and most people outside publishing will never have heard of Working Partners, who are responsible for her, and a huge number of other books. As well as Rainbow Magic, their creations include the Animal Ark series (“by” the equally nonexistent Lucy Daniels), the Lady Grace Mysteries and Warriors series. A series for boys aged 7-9 entitled Beast Quest is now in development. The company has deals with almost every big British children’s publisher, and is moving into the adult market (its first novel is out next year).

“I am surprised that they are the only company of their kind in Britain,” Ms Morris says. “But it would be difficult to match them. They now cover all the bases with their ideas.”

The company, set up 12 years ago, aims its books at specific audiences. “We want projects that are going to run for a very long time,” Chris Snowdon, the managing director, says. But he bridles at suggestions that the formula destroys the magic of being a writer. “A lot of people in books try to create a cult of the author, but a lot of demystification can be done.”

All Working Partners’ ideas come from its editorial team – not authors – and are developed in meetings. Once a story has been created, two people build it up, and authors compete to write it. “The storyline can be up to 2,500 words,” Snowdon says. “Rainbow Magicbooks are only 4,500 words long, so that’s a lot of detail. But it can be liberating because the writer is free to focus on the voice.”

Some writers might be aghast at idea, plot and structure being taken away, and Snowdon agrees that it’s a precise way to work. “We tell new writers our rules and that they shouldn’t deviate from the story,” he says. “If they have their own ideas, that’s fine, but they should tell us. Our integrity as a business is the ownership of the idea.”

Narinder Dhami, a children’s writer in her own right, is also one of Working Partners’ most prolific authors. She wrote Ruby the Red Fairy, the first Rainbow Magic adventure. “I prefer coming up with my own ideas,” she says, “but when those aren’t flowing very well, it’s a nice change to have someone send you a synopsis and tell you what to do.”

Many parents and teachers argue that the books are not great literature. Snowdon agrees, but adds: “I don’t know what great literature is, and I’d be interested to ask these people what they think it is. In this country there’s a huge snobbery about books, but we’re creating a reading habit.”

In fact, Working Partners no longer own Rainbow Magic (although they are working on the next two series). Ruby, and her fairy companions grew too big and were sold to HIT Entertainment last month. HIT, whose stable includes Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder, promises to build the fairies into a “global brand”.

Working Partners will focus on other titles. And while they may have “lost” Daisy Meadows, they haven’t lost the writers behind her. Children might not know their real names, but they’ll soon have more of their stories.

Turning out to be Jewish - what is it like to find out that you're not what you think you were?

2007-06-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

Today I have an article in the Jewish Chronicle.
Here it is....

Roderick Young was 23 when he found out that he was Jewish. It completely changed his life.
“I knew I was home”, he says of his first Friday night dinner. “It felt completely comfortable and right. I can’t say more than that. You can’t explain the inexplicable.”
Young, now 47, had no idea of his Jewish roots. He was christened at three weeks old and attended chapel twice a week at his public school. But discovering his Jewishness was a clearly an enriching experience. Eight years ago, he became a rabbi.
Barbara Kessel is the author of Suddenly Jewish, a book which tells the stories of Jews raised as gentiles, who discover their roots. She was prompted to write it by the experience of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who found out she was Jewish at the age of 59.
“I was so shocked and intrigued,” says Kessel. “I just wondered what it was like to find out that you’re not who you think you are.”
Kessel says that Young’s response, of feeling comfortable or “home”, is common. “It isn’t so much that they found out they were Jewish, but that they had been given an explanation of why they didn’t feel whole,” she says. “Some had even converted to Judaism before finding out.”
Rabbi Young’s Jewishness was hidden away from him on purpose (even his name was his mother’s attempt to situate him firmly in “English” society). His grandmother had been embarrassed by her East-End Jewish roots, and, when her observant husband died, decided to cover them up completely. Young even grew up thinking that his grandmother, Julia Stewart, was descended from King Charles II, Charles Stuart. It was not until he found her wedding certificate that he discovered she was actually named Julia Siegenberg.
“Being Jewish was often seen as something that could hinder your professional advancement, so it would get lost along the way,” says Barbara Kessel. Often it was also seen as dangerous.
That is certainly true of Zoltan Boros’s family, who turned their back on their religion after the horrors of the Second World War. Boros, 30, (who works as a security guard at a Jewish school in London) grew up Christian in a small town in Hungary. He knew little about the Holocaust, and nothing at all about Jews. But after the collapse of Communism, he started to travel, and at the age of 20 went to Israel. “I loved it there,” he says. “I loved the people, the weather, the fact that everyone was smiling, not like at home.”
Keen to stay in the country, Boros asked his mother if there might just be some Jewish connection in the family. This, he thought, could enable him to make aliyah. “My mother told me, over the phone, that when I came home, we would talk,” he says. “I felt there was something she was going to tell me.”
When Boros came home, his mother told him the truth — at least as far as she knew it. “She said that our family was Jewish, that we originally had a different name, and that my great-grandmother, who was no longer alive, had been in Auschwitz. She also said that her mother, my grandma, didn’t like to talk about it, so I should leave her alone.” However, Boros immediately went to his grandmother. “I asked if she could tell me more, but she didn’t want to,” he says. “She was still scared, and said she didn’t want me to be Jewish. She has numbers on her arm, and perhaps they are from Auschwitz. I would like to know more, but she’s the only one who knows.”
Boros’s grandmother told him nothing, instead asking him to do something for her. “She asked me not to do aliyah and I promised her I wouldn’t,” he says. “I love and respect her.
“I don’t feel I am Jewish or Christian. For the last 10 years I’ve been around Jewish people, here and in Israel, so maybe in some way I’m Jewish. But I can’t say I feel it. I know who I am, but if I look back at the past, then I’m not so sure.”
Boros’s experience is not entirely unusual. Some of the people in Suddenly Jewish talk about feeling “nothing”, even though they accept that they are “biologically Jewish”. Many also find it hard to deal with the deception involved.
“It seems so hypocritical that their parents — the people who are supposed to teach you right from wrong — have lied and manipulated reality,” says Barbara Kessel. “Sometimes, it’s the actual revelation that’s extremely painful. One man was training in a Lutheran seminary. The day his mother told him, he was livid. He told her it had ruined his life, and that he never wanted to speak to her again. They have not spoken since.”
When Roderick Young’s elderly aunt told him that she and his mother had been born Jewish, his immediate reaction was anger. “I said I was never going to speak to my mother again and it took me a long time to understand,” he says. “I certainly felt I’d missed out on things, and that I should have been told.”
American journalist Stephen Dubner had been told, but did not understand. The best-selling author (he co-wrote Freakonomics) was the eighth child born to religious Catholic parents. But his parents had not hidden their Jewishness because of fear of persecution. Instead they had both, separately, converted. “I didn’t know what a Jew was when I was growing up,” says Dubner, 43. “Even though I knew on some level that my parents had once been Jewish, I didn’t connect that with me.”
It was not until Dubner moved to New York that he became more interested in Judaism. He was 23 when a friend told him that if his parents were Jewish, then he was too. “When I learned that I was halachically Jewish, that was very jarring to me,” he says. “It made me think, what kind of religion would claim me as a member even though I had never set foot in a synagogue or uttered a word of Hebrew? I didn’t think I was Jewish at all until then — I was a contentedly lapsed Catholic. But the curiosity made me want to be Jewish, and so did the move to New York, where being Jewish is a state of mind.”
Dubner — whose sisters and brothers remain Catholic — has made his Jewishness a major part of his life. His wife is Jewish, and they are bringing up their two children as practising Jews. But his relationship with his mother did suffer — although the pair were reunited before her death in 1999. “She saw my decision as a kind of naïve one, and a rejection of her faith,” he says. “She also saw a problem that when she died and was sent to heaven, it would be a heaven for Catholics, and forbidden for us ever to reunite. As a mother, that was a very painful thought.”
Dubner sat shivah when his mother died, and seems happy with his new faith, but it is Roderick Young — now principal rabbi at Finchley Reform Synagogue in London — whose life has changed beyond recognition. “Ma used to be worried about what I wanted to do with my life and I told her that when it happened, I would know. Well, it happened and I love it. I feel 125 per cent Jewish.”

The first female American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is one of the most high-profile adults to suddenly discover that she was Jewish. Born in Czechoslovakia to a Catholic family, she left as a child in 1939, coming first to Britain and then to the US. As an adult, she became an Episcopalian. However, in 1997, Albright discovered that she had had three Jewish grandparents (they died in Auschwitz). Her parents had converted to Catholicism. “All this was a major surprise for me,” Albright said. “I have said many times my life was a reflection of the turbulence of the 20th century.”
Oscar-nominated film-maker Stephen Frears did not find out he was Jewish until his late twenties — and is not sure why the fact was hidden from him. The director of The Queen has described how he regularly attended Church of England services when he grew up in Leicester. It was not until his grandmother’s 90th birthday party, that his brother divulged the news.
“He said how pleased our grandmother was that I had married a Jewish girl — and that our mother was Jewish. Of course I was surprised that something like this had been concealed for so long.”
Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, whose original name was Tomas Straussler, always knew there was Jewish blood in his family. But it was not until he was an adult that he discovered both of his parents were Jewish. Sir Tom’s father died when he was still a young child. After his Czech mother remarried the very English Kenneth Stoppard, she was keen to hide her Jewish origins. “It was protection for me, mainly,” Stoppard has said, adding that he does not consider himself Jewish or Christian. However, in an article published in 1999, “On Turning Out To be Jewish” he wrote about his state of mind “now that I’m Jewish”.

The operation that can make breast cancer surgery less painful

2007-05-08T05:19:00.000-07:00

Today I have a health piece in the Daily Mail. Here is the link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=453402&in_page_id=1774

It is about a new procedure used to treat women with breast cancer. It's a procedure which is now being used more and more widely - which can only be a good thing.

Here is the piece......

Breast cancer surgery usually involves removing the lump and up to 30 of the lymph nodes under the arm — often causing painful chronic swelling.

With a new technique, only one or two lymph nodes have to be removed — an operation which is set to become more widely available now that 80 per cent of the UK's breast surgeons have signed up for training.

Victoria Yeates, 49, was one of the first to undergo the procedure.

Here, the law lecturer, who lives in Cardiff with her husband Philip, 55, tells SARAH EBNER her story.

The patient

When I discovered a tiny lump in my right breast, I was very blase about it. I'd had another one ten years before which had just disappeared on its own accord.

When I felt the new lump, I thought it would be the same.

It was my sister, who is a pharmacist, who persuaded me to get it investigated. I went to the GP several weeks later and was referred to the University Hospital of Wales.

I was so relaxed about it that when the appointment coincided with a holiday to Egypt, I went to Egypt instead. I feel terrible about that now.

Two weeks later, under the care of Robert Mansel, professor of surgery at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, I had a mammogram that came back normal.

I then had an ultrasound scan and was surprised when the radiographer said: "Oh dear, there's definitely abnormal tissue here."

They did a needle biopsy, in which a small piece of suspicious tissue was taken to be sent for analysis, and when I returned to the hospital a week later to find out the results, I knew it was bad news because I was accompanied by one of the breast care nurses.

Still, I felt very calm when they told me the lump was cancerous. My husband Philip, who had come with me, was ashen though. He went through hell.

I was told I had a small tumour which was not aggressive, and that a mastectomy (in which the whole breast is removed) would not be necessary.

They advised a lumpectomy — where only the cancerous tissue and a small area around it are removed — and then radiotherapy (they didn't know yet if I would need chemotherapy).

I came away feeling quite optimistic, but reality dawned over the next week.

I might face a disfiguring procedure and I learned that during the operation they would need to remove all of my lymph nodes in case the cancer had spread.

I was concerned about this and spoke to my breast nurse, who suggested discussing the options with Professor Mansel.

He said that of all tumours, mine was the best type to have — it was slow-growing and small.

He said he was working on a trial involving a technique called sentinel node biopsy, which might reduce the after-effects of having my lymph nodes removed.

The lymph nodes are part of the lymphatic system which draws lymph — fluid — from tissues all over the body back into the bloodstream.

If cancerous cells get into the lymph nodes, it can spread through the body.

Professor Mansel explained that 70 per cent of women with breast cancer have their lymph nodes removed unnecessarily, when they don't have cancer in them, and that lymph node removal can result in a serious complication called lymphoedema — chronic swelling — especially in the arms because lymph is no longer able to drain away.

This feels painful, and it is very hard to move the arm normally.

With sentinel node biopsy, only one or two nodes are removed. If no cancer is found, the rest of the lymph nodes can be retained.

Professor Mansel said the aim of the procedure was to check the first node the cancer would spread to — which is called the sentinel or guard node.

If there is no cancer present, it won't have gone to the other glands, so there is no point taking them out.

It made so much sense, and after meeting Professor Mansel, I went away feeling uplifted but also nervous that I wouldn't be selected for the trial.

I was attending an outpatient appointment in preparation for admission when the nurse told me I'd been selected.

On May 13, 2002, the night before the operation, I was seen by Professor Mansel and his registrar, who explained what would happen during the surgery.

When I was wheeled into theatre, I felt totally calm. The operation lasted two hours, during which time they took out the cancerous lump, removed the lymph nodes and put in a temporary drain.

When I came round, I felt marvellous. There was a tiny scar from where they had taken out the sentinel nodes and a neat line where the lump had been removed.

The side of my breast was a bit caved in because they had to take some tissue out, and I have since had two reconstructive operations.

I had full mobility in my arm afterwards and no swelling.

Ten days later, I went to get my test results and was told that the cancer hadn't gone to the sentinel nodes so I didn't need another operation. It was very good news.

I didn't need chemotherapy, although I did have radiotherapy to make sure no stray cancer cells remained.

I now have a mammogram every year. I consider myself very lucky to have benefited from this medical advance.

The surgeon

Professor Robert Mansel of University Hospital, Cardiff, says:

Sentinel node biopsy allows women who are undergoing breast surgery to have only one or two lymph nodes removed from under their arm, rather than the conventional 20 to 30.

The nodes are then checked in the laboratory for the presence of cancer cells.

If cancer gets into the lymphatic system, there is an increased risk of it spreading to the rest of the body.

Experts had thought that cancer cells spread to all lymph nodes equally — but in fact the cancer moves in a predictable pattern, going from node to node, starting with the sentinel.

If the sentinel node is found to have cancerous cells, then there is a possibility it may have spread to other lymph nodes.

In this case, the patient has to return to theatre for the remaining nodes to be removed.

But if there is no cancer in the sentinel node, then there will be no cancer in the others — and no need for further surgery.

The new technique not only reduces recovery time but also cuts down the number of patients who suffer long-term damage to their arms after the operation.

Removing all of the lymph glands can cause very painful after-effects, such as lymphoedema, where the arm swells up and feels heavy.

This affects around 20 per cent of women having full removal of the nodes and is incurable.

With the new technique, arm swelling is reduced by 80 per cent and numbness and tingling by 80 to 85 per cent.

I'm passionate about this procedure, which is now the standard operation in the U.S. and most of Europe.

I'd like to see it rolled out across the whole of the NHS because it has so many benefits for patients compared to conventional surgery.

When I first met Victoria, I was sure her tumour was non-aggressive and that she would be a good candidate for this operation.

A few hours before her operation, I injected a drop of fluid containing a tiny amount of a radioactive isotope into the skin at the edge of Victoria's areola (the area around the nipple).

The radioactivity travels from the skin to the lymph nodes, reaching the sentinel node first.

During the operation, the radioactivity guides me to this node.

Once in theatre, Victoria was given a general anaesthetic.

We also injected a blue dye under the skin around her breast.

Very occasionally, though not in Victoria's case, the radioactivity doesn't go to the lymph node, so we can then use the dye to guide us instead.

With Victoria asleep, we used the radioactive probe to find the sentinel node.

The probe is like a steel pen, and you point it at the area under the arm.

The nearer the probe gets to the sentinel node, the louder the noise it makes, until it sounds like a scream.

I made a small incision to let the probe in, and moved it around to find the exact position of the nodes.

The radioactivity had gone to five nodes, which I removed, before closing up the wound. (The nodes were sent off for tests — which later came back clear.)

I then made a two-inch incision on the breast to take out the tumour and a margin of tissue.

Once I was satisfied that all cancerous tissue had been removed, I stitched Victoria up.

Victoria recovered remarkably well. She was very positive about the whole thing and was up and about as if nothing had been done.

That's the great thing about this operation. It uses only small incisions and there's very little pain afterwards.

Marathon Task......

2007-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

The London Marathon is soon to be upon us, so here is an article I wrote for the Daily Express about three people's reasons for running.

WE'RE RUNNING FOR GLORY
3 April 2007
The Daily Express

Thousands will be taking to the streets for the London Marathon later this month.

SARAH EBNER talks to three of the runners

MILLIONS of us will watch in admiration as fun runners and professionals alike pound the London Marathon course on April 22. While we look on from the sidelines or our sofas, 46,000 will be sweating away, determined to finish the 26.2-mile course.

Professional athletes may be desperate to win this prestigious race but thousands of amateurs run for personal pride, in memory of a loved one or to raise funds for good causes.

The London Marathon is the world's largest annual fund raising event. Since 1981, £315 million has been raised, with £41.5 million added last year alone. Here, three runners talk about their reasons for taking part and their hopes of raising money for their chosen charities.

NICKI FORSTER, 33, lives in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, with her husband Matt, 35, and daughters Beth, seven, and two-year-old Alexa. Nicki recently lost nearly 10 stone. To crown her achievement, she is running her first London Marathon in aid of Children with Leukaemia

"I'VE ALWAYS been in awe of people who did the marathon. I watch it every year and always wanted to take part. I never thought I would actually run it one day. I've always been very overweight. I was a size 18-20 when I met my husband 11 years ago but I just got bigger and bigger until I weighed over 21 stone.

I was morbidly obese but I loved eating.

In everyday life, my weight didn't bother me and I've always been happy and bubbly. But after Alexa was born I began wondering how my girls would cope if I became ill because of my weight. I realised that if I didn't do anything, I might not see my daughters grow up.

I began my diet in January 2006 when I was 20st 6lb. I didn't go to classes because I didn't want other people to look at me but I followed a sensible eating plan and workout DVDs. I lost four stone in four months and thought that if I had the determination to do that, then I could run the marathon. One of the girls in Beth's year at school had been diagnosed with leukaemia, so I decided to run the marathon for Children with Leukaemia.

I now spend an hour or two on the treadmill at the gym twice a week, walk a lot and run two evenings as well. I've got so much more energy and confidence now and feel totally different, fit and happy. I'm a bit nervous about the marathon because I haven't ever done anything like it before but I really want to finish the course. That's my aim and I'm determined to do it."

To make a donation to Children with Leukaemia, visit leukaemia. org or tel: 020 7404 0808.

Nicki's personal fund-raising page can be found at bmycharity. com/ nickiforster

SUSIE HEWER, 49, from East Sussex, will be running in memory of her late mother Peggie Walton and raising money for the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Along with the running, Susie will be "extreme knitting" her way around the course

"I STARTED running five years ago in memory of my friend Caroline, who died of leukaemia, aged 44. I saw an advert for the 5km Race for Life and it seemed like a good memorial. I had never run before. At that time I wasn't working because I had given up my job to look after my mother.

She was suffering from vascular dementia and needed constant care.

My husband Mike said that he would take care of my mum for an hour each day to give me time to run. I started on the treadmill and soon became hooked.

By 2004 my mum was really deteriorating and it was extremely difficult for us to cope. She was incontinent, aggressive and couldn't feed herself any more. She didn't know who we were and needed 24hour care. Also, she wouldn't sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time, which was exhausting. Eventually, after seeing a specialist, she was put in a home. I was racked with guilt but know she would have been horrified by what we went through.

Living with dementia is so awful.

That's why I'm passionate about raising awareness of the disease.

When I saw an advert asking for people to run in the London Marathon for the Alzheimer's Research Trust, I decided to do it for mum. I ran the 2005 London Marathon in four hours 56 minutes. I raised £3,000 and loved it because there was such a tremendous atmosphere. It was also incredibly emotional. Mum died two weeks before the event and it was a real rollercoaster. I was crying and smiling when I crossed the finish line.

I've run other marathons and half marathons since but I'm 50 in June and decided that I should really go for it in 2007. I am doing the Kent 50mile challenge in July but before that I'm running my third London Marathon.

This year I decided I wanted to do something different and I decided to become an "extreme knitter". It was mum who taught me to knit and I love creating something from nothing. It's so relaxing and satisfying.

I run five days a week, for 50 miles in total, and for two hours of that I knit. I'm determined to knit a scarf during the marathon and a number of local knitting groups have promised to hold a Knit Out while I run. They're going to make me a silver blanket for when I finish.

Mike's really proud of me and I'm sure that mum would be, too. This is such an emotional year for me - I actually try not to think about it too much."

The Alzheimer's Research Trust is the UK's leading research charity for dementia. With no Government funding, the trust relies entirely on voluntary donations to fund its work.

Visit alzheimers-research. org. uk
Susie's fund-raising page is at justgiving. com/extremeredhead

DAVID REDGATE, 39, lives with his wife Karen, 35, and daughter Emma, six, in Nottingham. The London Marathon will be his first and he is running in aid of the Children's Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF). Emma was born with liver disease and has had two liver transplants

"EMMA was born on January 18, 2001.

Karen had pre-natal scans but none of them picked up on the catalogue of conditions she was born with. It was all a complete shock.

She was born with oesophageal atresia and a tracheo-oesophageal fistula. Basically, her oesophagus was closed off, which made it impossible for her to swallow. Her oesophagus and windpipe were also joined, which meant that anything she swallowed would enter her lungs.

Midwives and nurses didn't notice the problem for several hours but once they did, Emma was rushed to the operating theatre. She had her first operation at 12 hours old and, luckily, it was successful.

She also had a problem with her liver. The doctors should have picked up on it, not least because she was so jaundiced, but we were assured that there was nothing to worry about. A few weeks later, a health visitor noticed that, as well as the jaundice, Emma's stools were very pale.

She was convinced Emma should have some blood tests and contacted the hospital for us. Emma was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a condition in which inflammation develops within the bile ducts and causes scarring of the liver. It's vital to have a corrective operation, called a Kasai, as soon as possible but Emma's didn't work.

That left us with the horrific prospect that Emma needed a liver transplant. It was a hugely stressful time and I remember wondering if the phone would ever ring with news of a donor. But the first transplant took place in October 2001 and went smoothly. Three days later, Emma was sitting up in bed cuddling a teddy bear.

But liver disease is a life-long condition and we knew that Emma's body would always try to reject her new liver, however long it had been there. It was like living with a timebomb and in November 2003 we were told that Emma would need another transplant. All the fear and horror came back.

Emma had her second transplant in July 2004. Everything settled down reasonably well, and although it hasn't been easy and she will always be on medication, we now live for the day and enjoy Emma as much as we can.

I started running after Emma's first transplant. I was going through a very black time and a friend said that I should run to put me in a positive mood. It worked.

I'm determined to run the marathon and hope to raise a lot of money for the CLDF because we've had so much support from them.

You can't comprehend something like this until you've been through it and we wouldn't have managed so well without the help of the foundation."

The Children's Liver Disease Foundation is the only organisation in the UK dedicated to eradicating childhood liver disease. It can be contacted on 0121 212 3839 or see childliverdisease. org

You've bought the Princesses - now fork out for the Fairies

2007-03-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

Today I have a small piece in the Guardian about Disney fairies - the new phenomenon which is aimed at those young girls who are growing out of Disney princesses. Disney, it appears, is aiming to capture the imagination of little girls from toddlerdom to teenagerdom!
Here is the link to the Guardian piece, http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2031641,00.html
Or you can read my original piece here:

By Sarah Ebner

Once upon a time there was a Scot called Andy Mooney. He travelled to faraway Hollywood and changed the lives of millions of young girls. For it was Mooney who begat the Disney Princess phenomenon – proving that an apparently simple idea can be among the most successful.
Mooney decided to join together all the Disney Princesses – adding in a few other heroines, such as Mulan and Pocahontas, whose link to royalty was somewhat tenuous. Little girls across the world were enraptured, and sales of Disney merchandise, from vests to bicycles, rose from $300m in 2001 to $3.4bn last year.
The genius – and I say this as the mother of a five-year-old who has a poster of Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) on her wall, and Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty dresses in her wardrobe - was that this all happened without having to invent any new characters, and with no initial fanfare or advertising.
It sounds like a happy ending, but Disney and Mooney are not resting on their laurels. Instead, having captured two to five year olds, they’ve now got five to eights in their sights. Disney Fairies are set to be the next big thing, and if the website, http://disney.go.com/fairies/, is anything to go by, Tinker Bell and her new friends look like a flying version of the Spice Girls.
“Tinker Bell is perennially popular for us,” explains Kirsten De Groot, European Director of Disney Princess and Girls franchises. “She’s a very vivacious, fun character, and her world of fairies resonates with older girls.”
The American website has already had nearly 17 million hits in just one month, and a British version launches in the summer. A Tinker Bell film (which finally gives the little fairy a voice, courtesy of Brittany Murphy) will be released onto DVD next year while a new Disney Fairies magazine is already proving popular. There is also soon to be an onslaught of books, costumes and other fairy merchandise.
So how do the fairies compare to the princesses? Well, there’s a distinct lack of ballgowns and no princes in sight. The fairies will be able to mix with each other (unlike the princesses, who are all limited to their original settings) and there’s also been an obvious attempt to make them ethnically diverse, although beauty is still as much of a requirement as ever. Tinker Bell, who looks as if she’s had a 21st century makeover, is the only blonde, while Silvermist even looks a little like one of the Bratz – although that’s clearly a heretical thing to suggest to anyone at Disney, and De Groot, naturally, disagrees.
“Do you wish you were a fairy?” asks the new website, and a whopping 87 per cent of girls say they do (as opposed to the 13 per cent “happy being me.”). Disney will be thrilled. But when your daughters no longer believe in fairies, the corporation will still be there. High School Musical – the Disney TV movie which has captured the imaginations of 8 to 12 year olds across the world – is ready and waiting.

The Tragedy Of Alzheimer's

2007-03-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

As many of you will, unfortunately, know, Alzheimer's is a dreadful disease, which robs sufferers of their memory and eventually strips them of their dignity.
Today I have a small interview in the Daily Mail. It is with a wonderful woman called Mary Stevenson whose husband, John, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he was only 53. Mary is a strong, intelligent woman whose life has been changed irrevocably by the disease John is suffering from. Obviously John's life has been changed too. As Mary says, he is no longer the intelligent, witty businessman that he once was.
Please read my piece in the Mail, although you'll have to be quick because it doesn't appear to be online!

However, if you are interested in some of the other current issues around Alzheimer's, take a look at my very long article below. It tells you more about Mary and John, but is written mainly because of the recent decision by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence to restrict the drugs that help Alzheimer's sufferers.

Mary Stevenson is angry. She cannot believe a drug that has helped her beloved husband John so much will now be denied to people just like him, who suffer from Alzheimer's.
“I hate to think what life would have been like if he hadn’t been on Aricept,” says Mary. “I don’t think I could have coped. To withdraw these drugs is absolutely stupid and awful, and I’m sure it’s only because it’s the older generation who get the disease. The drugs only cost £2.50 a day. Aren’t people like John worth that?”
Aricept is one of three medications known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors that are used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease – a physical disease that affects the brain. It is progressive, and has no cure – cells die off over time, and the brain becomes increasingly damaged. No one is quite sure why it happens, but the greatest risk factor is age (one in five 80-year-olds will be affected by the disease). Around 400,000 people in the UK are currently affected, but this is set to increase rapidly in the future as the population ages.
The illness begins gradually. Sufferers may notice problems with their short-term memory, for example, and then as the disease progresses, usually over a period of years, become prey to more marked changes. They may forget names and faces and need help to eat, dress and wash. In the final stages, sufferers need to be looked after 24 hours a day, often away from the loved ones they can no longer remember - and in hospital or care homes. Alzheimer’s starts by stripping people of their memory, but goes onto strip them of their dignity.
John was prescribed the drug seven years ago, around nine months after being diagnosed. The diagnosis came as a dreadful shock. “Nobody knows what they're going to have to face in life, but it was devastating to be told this when John was only 53,” says Mary, 63. “What we could cling to, however, was the fact that there was something that could help him and stop him deteriorating so quickly. Everybody knows there isn’t a cure for Alzheimer’s, but you can still have a quality of life. Aricept has given us so much more time together.
“Over the past seven years, John has given away three of his daughters at their weddings, and made speeches at them too. Before he took the drug, he was so confused that he couldn’t remember his figures, and had no idea about the difference between a 10p piece and a £10 note. He was still working as a chartered surveyor, but unpaid bills were mounting up. He would look at cheque books and not know what to do with them, or put a CD rom in the wrong place on the computer. He'd forget names, or say the wrong thing in meetings. His mind couldn't explain what he wanted to say; he was losing it. He'd think Tuesday was Thursday, or Wednesday was Friday, repeat what you said, and get his facts confused.
"We didn't tell the children what was wrong until we had the diagnosis, but they told me afterwards that they thought he had a brain tumour because he was acting so strangely.
"Aricept enabled things to return almost to normal for a while, although he still wasn't brilliant with figures, so I took over the bills. He was able to keep working for another 18 months and, since then he's seen our youngest daughter, Rebecca, through sixth form and university, and gained so much pleasure from our three young grandchildren. I honestly don't think we'd have had that much time together without the drug.
“When we were first told that John might have Alzheimer's, I found out more about it and couldn’t believe it. The more I looked into it, the worse it seemed. It's the kind of thing you just can't imagine happening to you, and John and I discussed it - we could talk about things then. I remember, he said 'I promise you, I won't let it get that bad,' and I said 'but you don't have control over it.'
“Without Aricept, I think John would have slowed down so quickly, although nobody can say for certain how bad he would have been without the drug. It made an immediate difference when he started taking it, and I am convinced it has held off the disease more recently. I think it has meant he has deteriorated more slowly.
“John was a clever, witty, intelligent business man, but last week we were told that he is now in the moderate to severe moderate stages of the disease, and getting worse. Being told that was very emotional, and I admit that I have cried a lot. Life is very stressful, and without the tremendous support from our family, I would have gone under ages ago. But the children live all over the country, and I've got no back-up here, where we live, in a small village in the Lake District.
"John can no longer write now – his brain can’t tell his hand what to do – and he’s finding it hard to read too. He can’t make himself a cup of tea, and on a bad day he can be very uncooperative - for example, he will let me put shampoo in his hair to wash it, but he won't then let me wash it out again. He also fidgets a lot, folds things up, or cuts bits out of the newspaper, so that when I go in the room, there are pieces of paper all over the floor.
“Still, we’re trying to make the most of the time we’ve got. I still love John, no matter what, but it’s different - he’s not the same person. He was always so dynamic, but now it's like role reversal. I have to make all the decisions, from what to we do each day to what we eat. He was so go-ahead, and now he's closing down. But sometimes, his wit comes back, and he makes a great, dry comment.
“I do get very weepy, although I don't think you can wallow in self-pity. But I do wonder what the future holds for me, and think that it's not a lot. When we met we already both had children, and then had Rebecca together, so we never really had time for just the two of us. The children are wonderful, so we don't regret that at all, but because of the Alzheimer's we now don't have time together when we thought we would - once the children left home. Still, we try to keep busy. If I couldn't get out and do things, life would be unbearable. We have lots of friends in the village, belong to the Rotary Club, and I belong to the WI as well. But it's still lonely. My best friend is gone, and he's not coming back. Yet I’m sure he would have reached this stage far sooner without Aricept.”
John is one of the lucky ones. Last November, it was announced that people like him will now no longer be prescribed drugs like Aricept – and so gain valuable time with their loved ones - when they are first diagnosed. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which was set up to advise the NHS on how to best spend its money on drugs, ruled that treatment with the three acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl) and rivastigmine (Exelon) should be restricted to people in the 'moderate' stages (as opposed to the earlier, 'mild' stages or the later 'severe' stages) of the disease, and stopped when patients enter the later phase. In addition, it ruled that memantine (Ebixa), which is the only drug treatment licensed to deal with behavioural symptoms in the severe stage of the disease, could no longer be prescribed at all – unless it was for a clinical trial. This has also been greeted with dismay, as Ebixa can reduce symptoms such as aggression and agitation in Alzheimer's sufferers. The only alternative way to treat these symptoms is with antipsychotic sedatives called neuroleptics which are not recommended for people with dementia.
Now the Alzheimer’s Society has said that it is going to go to the High Court to force NICE to explain how the decision to restrict the Alzheimer's drugs was reached – and to make them reverse it. It’s the first time that NICE has been challenged in this way.
The companies that make the Alzheimer’s drugs are also involved. But Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, says their challenge has a different motive.
“It makes sense for us to be part of the same judicial review, but we are completely on our own,” he says. “We’re not interested in who's making money, we’re interested in whether these drugs are available or not. We think they should be.”
The NICE ruling – which allows those already on the drugs to keep getting them - did not surprise many experts, as it upheld an earlier decision announced in March 2005. The drugs appear to be relatively cheap, but the Alzheimer’s Society and others are convinced that the decision was taken on cost grounds alone as NICE did conclude that the drugs were clinically effective. NICE rejected appeals from patient, carer and professional
groups, as well as the drug manufacturers, and says that for many patients there is "no benefit" from taking the drugs, and that it doesn't want to give them or their carers "false hope."
"We have a responsibility to help the NHS spend its money wisely," said a spokeswoman. "It is far better to treat patients for whom the drugs have the greatest benefit, and evidence has shown that these are patients with moderate Alzheimer's disease."
Roy Jones, director of the Research Institute for the Care of the Elderly in Bath, and a professor of gerontology, the study of ageing, was one of those who gave evidence to the appeals committee. He can’t understand how it upheld the earlier verdict.
“We are now being told to diagnose people with mild Alzheimer’s but then tell them that we can’t give them drugs - so they should come back when they’ve deteriorated, then we can try to improve their symptoms again.
“This is a very unusual concept. No one says to someone with mild diabetes,
we’ll treat you when you’re worse. It puts doctors into difficulties to have
to say this to patients. It’s a real ethical dilemma.”
Professor Jones is curious about the model that NICE used to determine the cost effectiveness of the drug in the different stages of the disease (this will also be one of the drug manufacturers’ main bones of contention in the judicial review). The decision was dependent on a complicated model that uses a measurement called a “quality adjusted life year”, but Alzheimer's experts say that it isn't clear exactly how this has all been worked out.
Professor Jones is particularly concerned that the calculations don’t fully take account of how the drugs may enable patients to be looked after at home, rather than in expensive care, for much longer. Nor does he think the organisation properly considered the positive effects the drugs have on carers. “Carers who are stressed use their own doctors more for problems such as anxiety and depression caused by dealing with the day to say difficulties of looking after someone with the disease," he says. “That’s part of the overall cost of Alzheimer’s to society.
"The evidence that these drugs work in mild Alzheimer’s is undoubted and NICE accepts that, but they used a particular model to work out cost-efficiency, and our advice was ignored. It looks as if we are going back to the situation we used to have – when getting the drugs you need depends on whether you can afford it.”
According to the Alzheimer's Society, the benefits of the drug treatments for people with Alzheimer's disease in both the mild and moderate stages are evident from the results of more than 30 placebo controlled trials which were evaluated as part of the Cochrane Collaboration, the leading body for undertaking systematic reviews of treatments. The research also suggested that people who began drug treatment at a later stage never caught up with those who began earlier. This implies that earlier treatment leads to an improved long-term prognosis.
Dr David Wilkinson, a psychiatrist and founder of the Memory Assessment and Research Centre, at Moorgreen Hospital in Southampton, agrees.
“Everybody involved in the use of these drugs knows they work,” he says. “I gave evidence to the committee on this, but they didn’t want to hear it. Yet the data from analyses of clinical trials shows that the key to getting the most benefits from these drugs is to start patients off on them early, and for them to be used continuously.”
“I’ve been working in this field for 25 years,” says Dr Wilkinson, who describes the NICE decision as a “betrayal” of patients and their families, and considers it “ageist”. “Treatments have got so much better – we simply don’t see the decline we used to, as the drugs change the course of the disease, slowing its progression down. But what we’re doing now is turning the clock back. The decision on Memantine means doctors can only
give people tranquilisers to calm them down in the later stages, when they get agitated, while the ruling on the other drugs suggests that if we diagnose patients early, we then do nothing to help. That’s wrong. We’ve got an ageing population, and it’s absolutely crucial that we make sure people remain independent for longer.”
Dr Wilkinson says that one of the main problems with the decision is its rigidity about determining who is or isn’t eligible for the drugs. The NICE ruling relies heavily on a patient's mini mental state examination (MMSE) score. This examination - a series of questions and tests covering topics such as memory, language, writing and orientation – was originally designed as a screening tool for dementia. It does not enable doctors to diagnose or rule out the disease, but to enables them to decide whom they should further investigate. However, NICE uses it to measure how severe the disease is, stating that only people with a score of between 10 and 20 (out of 30) will have access to the main three drugs. However, patients with a MMSE of 20 may already be having major difficulties with memory and managing everyday activities.
There is no common sense here, and it is not good medicine to take decisions which aren't on an individual basis,” says Dr Wilkinson. “We know that these drugs work in ways that this test can’t measure - on behaviour, mood and sleep - and we have data that was not available in the early trials, but has been clearly seen in more recent studies, which shows that these important aspects of the disease treatment were ignored."
Experts also argue that there are other problems with using the MMSE test so strictly. Scores can differ from day to day. For example, those with a high level of education may score highly, even if they are in the moderate rather than mild stage of the disease.
“For years, people have tried to practise for these tests to achieve the best score they can and reassure themselves that they are not deteriorating,” says Hunt. “In the future, perhaps they will deliberately try to forget things, so that they can get the drugs.”
There is ongoing research into the field of drug treatments, vaccines and blood tests to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. However, at present, the four drugs subject to the NICE ruling are the only treatments available – around 60,000 people are currently taking them.
Research has shown that there is not enough of a chemical called acetylcholine – used for memory and communication - being produced in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Acetylcholine is broken down by an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase, and this damages communication between cells. Three of the drugs, the acetylcholinesterase inhibitors Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon, work in similar ways to prevent this enzyme from breaking down the acetylcholine in the brain, while Ebixa works by blocking a messenger chemical that damages brain cells, known as a neurotransmitter glutamate.
“The drugs are very effective,” says Dr Wilkinson. “I would probably resign first before telling a patient that they had Alzheimer’s but couldn’t have these drugs.”
The guidelines issued by NICE are not mandatory, but if local primary care trusts - which take control of local health care - do follow them, no budget will be provided for doctors to prescribe these drugs as they wish. “We’re told that clinical judgment is up to the doctor, but if we decide to prescribe them, then we’ll be overspending and something else will be taken away from our budgets,” says Dr Wilkinson.
Back in 2001 NICE recommended that the three drugs (Ebixa wasn’t then licensed) for treating Alzheimer’s disease should be made available on the NHS. The Health Minister at the time, John Hutton, said the announcement represented “a step forward in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease” and that it would make a “real difference to the lives of tens of thousands of people". With the more recent costing appraisal that, of course, has
changed. NICE has also since claimed that the drugs are not effective for everyone.
“It’s true that not everybody benefits from the drugs, but that’s not an acceptable reason for denying them to people for whom they do make a big difference,” says Mr Hunt. “Our research, which NICE accepts, suggests that around 50 per cent of people benefit, while those who don’t simply stop taking them.
“The question is how to make sure people are not unnecessarily prescribed them, rather than to prevent everybody in the mild or severe stages of the disease from getting them.”
Andrew Dillon, NICE's chief executive, has said that he is “disappointed” to hear of the judicial review proceedings, and that any court action would “divert energy and funding” from NICE’s work.
“Health service funding is limited, and it is our job to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of both drug and non-drug interventions to ensure the money spent by the NHS is well spent.
“Our consultation, decision-making and appeals processes are transparent and fair. We share our methodology and enable our stakeholders to see the basis on which our experts arrive at their decisions. We invite patients, medical professionals and anyone who has an interest to express their views and comment on our proposals.”
“I’d be interested to know what someone on the committee would do if a member of their family got mild Alzheimer’s,' says Prof Jones. If it was someone in my family, I wouldn’t want to wait until they got worse before they received the drugs.”
Mary says she’s sure that without Aricept, John’s care would be costing a lot more, while the couple’s quality of life would be far poorer.
“Although John is now worse than he was, and deteriorating all the time, I still believe the drugs are holding the disease back,” she says. “If he hadn’t taken them, he’d have deteriorated so quickly and he might be in a care home now.
”I was 33 when my first husband, David Legge, died of cancer, leaving me with two young daughters. That was in 1977, but back then, David, who was also 33, was given
every drug he needed. Now we’re in 2007, and if John was to be diagnosed now, instead of seven years ago, he wouldn’t be able to get the drugs he needs. That’s age discrimination, and also discrimination against Alzheimer's as a disease, because drugs are available for other illnesses. I can’t believe it’s happening today.”
Meanwhile, John says that people must have access to the drugs. “I’m a person who never wants to give up and I do want to keep going,” he says, “It’s the Aricept that has allowed me to do that. If I didn’t have it, I’d be lost.”

To donate to the Alzheimer's Society appeal, log onto: www.alzheimers.org.uk/emergencyappeal or ring the donation hotline on 0845
306 0898

John and Mary Stevenson's daughter, Rebecca, is running the NY Marathon in aid of the Alzheimer's Society. Please sponsor her at http://www.justgiving.com/rstevenson .

Perfect timing

2007-02-28T04:12:00.000-08:00

I have an article in the Guardian about natural family planning. Please follow this link, http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2022065,00.html, to read it online, or see below for my original piece.

Can natural family planning really be as effective as the pill? New research suggests that it is, says Sarah Ebner - once you have learned the ropes
Tuesday February 27, 2007
The Guardian

Women rejoice! Finally there appears to be an effective method of contraception which is in sync with your body. Except that it isn’t new at all as latest research suggests going back to basics. Could natural family planning - which removes the need for hormones, injections and the delightfully named intrauterine devices - really be the answer?
“Women know about all types of contraception from the pill to the cap, but nobody talks about what you can do naturally,” says Toni Belfield from the Family Planning Association. “If you’re taught right, then this is a method you can use for life.”
The new research, which is published in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that one particular method of natural family planning was just as effective as the pill. The Sympto-thermal method or STM, uses two indicators - body temperature, and changes in cervical mucus - to identify the most fertile phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle.
“This puts contraception under a woman’s control,” says Toni Belfield. “It’s easy to learn, it can enhance a relationship, and it’s also very easy to stop if a woman decides she does want to become pregnant.”
Rebecca is just one woman who was eager to try the Sympto-thermal method. The 25-year-old musician began using it after a bad experience with an IUD (intrauterine device) which left her in constant pain and bleeding. Ironically, she only started using that because the vaginal ring – which contains a combination of oestrogen and progesterone – had left her unhappy and suffering from mood swings.
“I loved the fact that STM didn’t require hormones, or putting anything unnatural in my body,” she says. “It wasn’t going to give me any pain, and was also going to make me more aware of my body. I was very happy to try it.”
Rebecca, 25, and her husband Geoff, were taught how to use the method by Jane Knight, a specialist nurse who runs a NHS fertility clinic in Oxford. Now Rebecca takes her body temperature each morning, is aware of any changes in her cervix and monitors any changes in her cervical secretions.
“STM has helped me to be aware of my fertility cycle,” says Rebecca. “It did take a little time to get used to, but then it became obvious. It hasn’t been at all problematic.”
Professor Petra Frank-Hermann, from the University of Heidelberg, led the new research.
“For a contraceptive method to be rated as highly as the hormonal pill, there should be less than one pregnancy per 100 women per year when the method is used correctly,” she says. “The pregnancy rate for women who correctly used the STM method in our study was 0.4%, which can be interpreted as one pregnancy occurring per 250 women per year. Therefore, we maintain that the effectiveness of STM is comparable to the effectiveness of modern contraceptive methods such as oral contraceptives.”
Of course, natural family planning has been around for years, and has often been used by those who oppose contraception on religious grounds. But the so-called rhythm method – which simply involved counting the days of the menstrual cycle - has long caused despair in family planning circles.
“It went out with the ark,” says Toni Belfield. “People talk about rhythm and natural family planning as a kind of Russian roulette, but once you know the signs and symptoms of your body, they’re so powerful. There really shouldn’t be any stigma about it.”
According to the most recent statistics, the pill, which is used by nearly a quarter of women, is still the most common method of contraception in the UK. The second most popular method of contraception is the condom, used by 22 per cent of couples, with around four per cent using hormonal injections or implants, and another four percent using IUDs. Condoms are the only barrier against sexually transmitted diseases, but have a 2 per cent failure rate, as opposed to around one percent for the pill and IUDs. Diaphragms and caps are only around 92 to 96 per cent effective.
“Natural family planning is successful, but less than one percent are using it,” says Toni Belfield.
Jane Knight, who runs the website, www.fertilityuk.org, has taught hundreds of women the natural family planning method.
“Many of them are at a time in their lives where they don’t want to be using pills anymore,” she says. “They’re often in their mid twenties to thirties and in a steady relationship. We need to get away from the idea that this is for particularly well-educated women. It’s a lot simpler if you’re a bit more in touch with your body, and it’s a method which needs both partners to be committed, but it’s not just for the educated.”
It’s true that anybody can use this natural method, but it certainly does need commitment. It’s not for the scatterbrained, as women must keep daily records, and according to Jane Knight, there’s a “learning phase” of around three months. However, this can take longer if a woman is stopping a hormonal contraceptive, as hormones can interfere with the calculations.
Perhaps more importantly, anyone following STM has to realise that there will be certain times each month – when a woman is most fertile, and according to some, most lustful - when sex is simply not allowed. The obvious solution would be to use a condom, but Toni Belfield says that might not be the only answer.
“There are other things you can do in the fertile time, just not penetration,” she says. “And all those other things can enhance a relationship.”
Rebecca agrees. “Eventually we’re hoping never to use the barrier method at all,” she says.
It all sounds perfect, if you’re organised, but it’s clearly not suitable for people who are still looking for their perfect match. After all, it might be difficult to explain that you’re abstaining from sex because of your chosen method of contraception.
Some people also feel that natural family planning is not for the young.
“If someone undergoes the necessary training, it’s very effective,” says Catherine Evans, from Brook, the sexual health charity for young people. “But it doesn’t protect you against sexually transmitted infections, so it’s not a method we would promote.
“Unless you’re in a relationship where there’s no risk of infection, we don’t think it’s a good idea. We would recommend using condoms.”
Rebecca admits that the first time she and Geoff “took the leap” into having sex with no other contraception, it was “a little scary.”
“But we did it,” she says. “And I feel that we’re learning more all the time. Taking these steps has led me to become more curious in other ways. It’s made me more aware of what’s going on in my body and I feel it’s really changed our sexual life in a positive way. It’s really liberating.”

The Family Planning Association can provide more details about natural family planning, and also about NFP teachers.
www.fpa.org.uk

'I didn't want hormones or condoms'
Penny Warren and her husband Martin, an Anglican minister, came across the natural family planning method 26 years ago through the Couple to Couple League, an American-led organisation which aims “to share the Good News of Natural Family Planning”.
The couple are enthusiastic proponents, still use the method and teach it too. They have three children, and live in North Devon.
Penny, 47, says:
“I was looking for something which didn’t involve going to the doctor. I didn’t want hormones or condoms and I didn’t fancy IUDs.
Martin was studying in Cambridge and Couple to Couple were running a course. Although it was run from a Catholic perspective and we aren’t Catholic, we went to four sessions (across four months) and it taught us the basic rules.
What we learnt, very clearly, was how to take your temperature and how to chart it. We were also taught how I could use my mucus signs, which change throughout your cycle. I was told what to look for, and charted this alongside my temperature.
We were advised not to use the method while we were still learning, but that wasn’t a problem for us, because we weren’t sleeping together at that point.
From our experience, it’s been terrific. We haven’t ever found it difficult to manage - it becomes an everyday habit, like brushing your teeth - and I wouldn’t swap it for anything. The only problem comes when your body’s feeling very fertile, you’re crying out for sex and you can’t have it!
Lots of people say they can’t follow this type of family planning, perhaps because they don’t have regular periods. But the whole point is that it’s personal to you, so it can work for anyone. What it does is teach you exactly what’s going on with your body. I know my body really well and that’s very liberating for a woman.”

More on The Couple to Couple League in Great Britain can be found at: http://www.cclgb.org.uk/

What's the alternative?

2007-02-20T02:03:00.000-08:00

Today I have an article in the Guardian about alternative therapies and the boom in using them to treat young children.
To read it online, click on http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2016867,00.html
Otherwise, read on....

Risky alternative?
More and more parents are taking their children to complementary therapists. But just how safe and effective are such treatments? Sarah Ebner reports

There's a baby boom in the world of complementary medicine. Therapists are treating more and more infants, as many parents abandon long waits at the doctor's surgery in favour of costly visits to alternative practitioners.
"There's much more of an awareness of what we do," says June Tranmer, who specialises in paediatric acupuncture at the Healing Clinic in York. "We have had hundreds of children coming through our doors and the numbers keep going up."

Probably the most popular treatments are baby massage and yoga - the infant Leo Blair was reputedly taken to baby massage sessions run by beauty therapist Bharti Vyas - as well as homeopathy and even acupuncture, kinesiology (which claims to diagnose imbalances through analysing movement) and chiropractic. But why is the next generation having these treatments? Alternative therapists usually spend longer with their patients and claim remarkable results. So for parents with money and initiative, they are an attractive option.

Caroline Hind took her twins, Corem and Jaimie, to see Tranmer at the end of last year. The boys, who turn two at the end of this month, had whooping cough. "There was nothing the doctor could do, as it was really a nursing issue," says Hind. "We suffered broken nights with the boys coughing so much they were sick." Tranmer spent an hour with the family, before carrying out acupressure and cupping treatments. "It was a really calming experience for them, and for us," says Hind. "Everything was so gentle. Afterwards both babies slept through the night." The whooping cough didn't go away completely, but Hind is sure the treatments helped. "I suppose you never know for sure, but it did seem to make a difference," she says. "I think doctors are very good at serious illnesses, but for allergies, migraines and the sorts of things where they're at a bit of a loose end, this is a good option. Medicine is so reliant on drugs. This is a gentler alternative."

Many medical professionals, however, disagree. "I remain sceptical until there's good evidence," says paediatrician Jethro Herberg. "My antagonism is proportional to the degree of harm they can do. At best they are benign and, at worst, can do an awful lot of harm. Herbal remedies are littered with case studies where they have done damage. People have an inconsistent view ... If they go to the doctor, they demand an extremely high level of proof that what they're getting is efficient and not harmful. But they'll go and see an alternative practitioner, with no idea whether it could be harmful, or not."

Tranmer admits there is not a "huge body" of research, but questions who would finance it. "You can't do research for nothing, and drug companies won't fund us," she says. "Anyway, if you see a child screaming in pain, and they're better after you treat them, how do you deny it is working?"

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, agrees that more evidence is needed. "Without proof, we only have hearsay and clinical experience, which can be misleading," he says. "Little children are very fragile and, to me, there is an ethical imperative to find more evidence. The official bodies - the NHS or Wellcome Trust, which have no commercial interest - should fund research."

In the meantime, Ernst is dubious about the benefits of treating infants this way. "Gentle massage is definitely very good for babies, but kinesiology is nonsense," he says. He also believes that acupuncture could be downright dangerous. "Everything is so tiny in a baby. In a jiffy, a needle could be in the heart or lung." Although, as acupuncturist, Vera Wong, points out, actual needles are rarely used on babies. Acupressure is more common: "We use skin rollers, toy tractors and spring-loaded pointers usually used on adult ears," she says.

According to Ernst, the main determinant of whether a child is treated with alternative medicine is whether its parents also use it. However, homeopath Jo Redmond, director of the Health Works clinic in east London, says they are treating more young families and more black and Asian patients. "People think it is only a white, middle-class domain, or only for people who have treatments themselves. We are seeing parents who are fed up with doctors, and don't want endless prescriptions."

Around three quarters of Redmond's 1,000 patients are babies and small children. Ruqiyah Henry is one of those. She was seven months old and suffering from severe eczema when her parents, Aa'isha Henry and Abdul Raheem, took her to the homeopath. "She was scratching all the time," says Henry, "waking up in the night and she was so distressed. It was awful to see her unhappy."

The doctor had prescribed hydrocortisone cream and antibiotics. "The cream was so strong I was concerned about putting it on her face. The eczema came back each day ... I didn't want her to be on a steroid cream for ever." When one of Henry's friends suggested homeopathy, she decided to give it a go. Interestingly, her health visitor also recommended it. "The doctor said there was no cure ... she would have to grow out of it. The homeopath said she could be cured," she says.

After two monthly sessions, during which Ruqiyah was given homeopathic pills nearly every day, her eczema cleared up. "Her skin is so soft and smooth," says Henry. "I can't believe the results." With treatments at around £30, Henry wishes it was available on the NHS. "We're not rich at all," she says, "but it is worth it."

Despite these results, homeopathy has not been proved clinically effective. Ernst, who has just published a review of homeopathic trials, claims "there is no good evidence" it works for children.

And while Herberg sympathises with parents "driven to distraction" by a difficult baby, "it shouldn't surprise anyone that children get better," he says. "A lot of these alternative therapies treat the mother rather than the baby, and placebo also has a measurable effect."

Redmond naturally disputes that view. "How does the placebo effect work with babies and animals?" she asks. "Colds and skin problems can't clear up just because mum's calmer and happier".

Goodbye Mary, Hello Manny

2007-02-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

Today I have an article in the Weekend Section of the Daily Telegraph. But there's no need to click on, as I've reproduced it in full, below...

Now it's Manny Poppins
Sarah Ebner meets the parents who prefer a shot of testosterone to a spoonful of sugar
By Sarah Ebner

She may be wowing them in the West End, but it appears that Mary Poppins is out of fashion. According to those in the know, if we want to ensure that our sons and daughters grow up to be well-rounded individuals, we need a modern solution. The woman who was "practically perfect in every way'' has a rival: the manny.

If you've never heard the term, you're a few steps behind in the childcare stakes. For the uninitiated, author Holly Peterson is here to shed some light on the issue. As one of the characters in her new book, aptly named The Manny, explains: "It's a manny. M for male nanny... Think of it as the older brother we all dreamt of, but with the patience only money can buy.''

Peterson first heard about mannies soon after having her third child. She felt that her son, Jack, then three, was being "squashed'' by spending days with his older and younger sisters, as well as his mother and nanny.

Now it appears that mannies are all the rage. Gwyneth Paltrow and Britney Spears are fans, and the attractions seem obvious. It's not so much a spoonful of sugar, as a shot of testosterone around the house. Not only do mannies keep temptation at bay (female nannies, as Jude Law discovered, can be a bit too distracting), but they happily play in the garden for hours, and seem genuinely interested in sports, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man and snails.

"Boys play differently to women,'' says Peterson, 42, whose children are now 10, eight and four. "The nanny is more of a comforter, while the manny is a 'throw me across the room' kind of guy. They fool around, play football and are happy to run around and around the park. I thought Jack would really benefit from it and he has.''

They may sound like a perfect playmate for any sons you may have, but what about the girls? Peterson thinks a male role model is good for them too. "Mannies have a different attitude,'' she says. "They see situations in another way.''

But hiring a manny wasn't just a way for Peterson to solve her childcare issues. It also led to a new career, as a novelist. The book - her first - sold for $1 million in the US alone, with the film rights fetching another $600,000.

The story is set in what Peterson describes as "this ridiculous, hilarious world of rich people on the Upper East Side''. It's a place she knows well as she grew up in, and still lives in, that very exclusive part of New York. Some families have one nanny per child, while housekeepers and drivers are de rigueur. However, as a Newsweek journalist, Peterson says she's a step apart. "The rich in New York are a very peculiar group,'' she says. "But 95 per cent of my friends are not in that world.''

Peterson's book, out next week, is certainly being published at the right time, as mannies have become increasingly popular in Britain. My Big Buddy (http://www.mybigbuddy.com">www.mybigbuddy.com>), an agency specialising in male nannies, recently launched in London. And Gumtree (http://www.gumtree.com), a website used by working parents to look for childcare, reports that searches for "male'' or "male nanny'' have gone up sevenfold in the past few months.

With increasing numbers of single parents, as well as older fathers who might struggle to run around a football pitch, mannies may well fill a gap. But one recent survey suggested another reason for the rising demand. In an apparent blow against sisterhood, almost 80 per cent of mothers admitted that they felt threatened by attractive female nannies, while 94 per cent said they would consider a male nanny instead. "We simply don't have enough men on our books,'' says Oliver Black, director of Tinies, the supplier of childcare staff which carried out the survey. "Only five per cent of our nannies are male.''

One of those is Craig Smith, 20, who works as a manny for Alison and Michael Goff in Sevenoaks, Kent. Craig looks after the Goffs' three sons, Hamish, 10, Louis, eight, and Theo, three. "I couldn't imagine doing the same thing every day,'' says Smith, who explains that he always wanted to work with children. "Every day is different and really rewarding too.''

Smith describes his three charges as "sporty and boisterous'' and much of his time is spent ferrying them to and from different sports activities. But he also attends mother and toddler clubs with Theo and plays "a lot'' of football with all three. Smith cooks for the boys too (although he admits that the domestic side is not his strong point).

"My friends are builders, carpenters and electricians. They laughed their heads off when I told them what I was going to do. But when I say that I've been playing in the garden, they're a bit jealous.''

He is sure that he got the job because the children are boys, but Alison Goff insists that's not true. "People assume that because I have boys, I wanted a male nanny, but he was the best person I interviewed,'' she says.

"I admit I've been surprised to see how the kids are happier with him, perhaps because he loves the rough and tumble and is physically fit and active. If you have three boys, it's no good having someone who wants to plait hair and paint fingernails.''

Holly Peterson would agree. Then again, she seems to have it all the book deal, the investment banker husband, and even a nanny and a manny.

But for those of us in the real world, choosing the perfect child-carer might never be the same again.

Bullying: The lies that led to death and devastation

2007-02-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

Today I have an article in the Independent about the issue of false accusations of bullying in schools.
If you want to read the article online, here's the link, http://education.independent.co.uk:80/schools/article2246762.ece

If you don't want to click and move on, then here's the piece in full....

When Lucy Cochrane was accused of bullying, her school was obliged to investigate. But the allegations were false - and now Lucy's parents are dead. What went wrong?Sarah Ebner reports on a tragic case

The Children's Commissioner, Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, has warned that relentless bullying is driving some children to the brink of suicide, while the number of children counselled by ChildLine about bullying rose by 12 per cent last year.

But what of those children who are accused of bullying, but aren't guilty? Just as it took years to recognise that charges of assault against teachers can be false, so people are starting to realise that accusing another child of bullying may simply be a way of getting them into trouble. And that trouble can have devastating results.

At the end of last year, Michael and Jane Connor were convicted of the murder of another set of parents, Maureen and Alex Cochrane. Their daughters, Natalie Connor and Lucy Cochrane, had been at the same schools and at some stage had fallen out.

Lucy, who has learning difficulties, was regarded by school staff as a pleasant but vulnerable girl who was bullied by Natalie. However, it was Natalie who claimed to her parents that Lucy was the bully, accusing Lucy of assaulting her at a dance class at school. A subsequent police investigation found the contentions to be entirely baseless, but they still had to be investigated.

Natalie's allegations, which were described during the Connors' murder trial at Manchester Crown Court as "groundless and an invention", goaded her parents and contributed to the ill-feeling between the families. The Connors plotted to set fire to the Cochranes' house and Michael Connor subsequently poured petrol through the letter box, killing both parents and seriously injuring Lucy.

Michael and Jane Connor were convicted of double murder, and Natalie Connor was convicted of manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm with intent and arson.

Clearly this was an extreme case, but the prosecution lawyers agree that the false bullying allegations exacerbated the situation. Such claims are not entirely unusual.

"Contrary perspectives and malicious reports will always be part of bullying disputes," says Sir Albert, while John Stead, education adviser for the NSPCC and a former head teacher, agrees that false accusations are "certainly something that you come across". However, he adds, when a child makes a false accusation, it is often a cry for help.

"It's never straightforward," says Stead, who is also the Anti-Bullying Alliance co-ordinator for Yorkshire and Humberside. "Sometimes it's quite deliberate because a child wants to get someone else into trouble, but sometimes it may be that the child is unhappy because of something else, such as other children not playing with them. Occasionally there's almost a sense of delusion - the child actually believes they are being bullied."

Still, Stead is keen to emphasise that he believes most bullying accusations are true. "The danger is that children who are being bullied are ignored," he adds.

Joanna Ross (not her real name) accepts that it's important not to dismiss children who accuse others of bullying. However, she is also concerned that increased openness about the subject of bullying may be leading to false accusations. She's convinced that more care is needed with young children.

Ross's son Leo, 10, was accused of seriously bullying a younger boy towards the end of last year. The trouble began in the summer term when class teachers discussed bullying and then asked the children to fill in forms saying whether they had been bullied. One child - who was friendly with, and in the same class as, Ross's younger son, Callum - said that he had been bullied, by Leo and two of his friends. This boy, David, said that the older boys had told him to go away and said they didn't want to play with him.

Callum Ross says their teacher told David, then seven, that such behaviour was not bullying. However, the forms were filled in, and Leo and the two other boys were accused.

"Everyone thought it was minor," says Ross. "I spoke to David's father and he said that his son simply wanted to join in with the older boys and then when they didn't want him to, he would poke, prod and kick them. They would respond by cuffing him and telling him to go away. Neither of us was really concerned."

After the summer holidays, there were new, more serious allegations. David accused the boys of punching him, kicking him and kneeing him in the groin. He also said that they had "threatened to bully him more than he'd ever been bullied before".

"It was quite ironic, because one of the boys he had accused had been off sick on the days he specifically said some of these things had happened, so I really thought they couldn't be true," says Ross. "Still, it was awful. The previous term I had told Leo to keep away from David, and he assured me that he had, but as one of the oldest boys in the school, the younger ones want to play with him and his friends. David's father then came to speak to me and said he hadn't been concerned before because it was rough and tumble, but that now he felt it was getting serious. He thought there was no smoke without fire.

"He also said that the bullying had gone on for two years, even though for a lot of that time, David had been coming to my house to play with my younger son. He alleged that three times a week Leo and his friends had been kicking him, punching him and threatening him. He also said that they had been bullying his sister, Ruby, and held her upside down, threatening to drop her on her head.

"I was really worried about the whole thing, but most of it just didn't ring true. It's not simply that I would defend my own son, but the fact that when I started asking around, no one had seen any of this so-called bullying. The children attend a very small school, but none of David's friends knew anything about it, none of the teachers said that David had seemed unhappy or hurt and, despite him accusing Leo of forcing his head into the toilet on more than one occasion, no one had seen him with his hair wet or in tears."

John Stead says that falsely accusing another child of bullying is one way to seek attention.

"There aren't any easy answers when you've been falsely accused," he adds. "The biggest way we protect against false allegations is to look into it as soon as possible."

Ross agrees that, once the allegations had been made, the school had to look into them, and that they did so fairly. At this point Ruby admitted that she had made her story up, but David stuck to his.

"I think he was in a bit of a trap," says Ross. "His father had asked him many times if the accusations were true and he could have got into more trouble if he'd backed down."

However, Ross has a problem with the way the school initially went about encouraging the reports of bullying.

"The school gave out these forms and a lot of children felt they needed to fill them in," she says. "I think the school handled that badly, and I also felt the onus was on me to disprove everything. I thought they should have given my son some defence mechanism."

"Schools need to talk about what is and what isn't bullying and encourage children to talk about it," says Stead. "And I do believe we should be asking children every year how safe the school is. But I'm not sure we should be asking them to specifically name people."

Joanna Ross has some sympathy towards her son's accuser because of his age, and also because she thinks he might well have been unhappy.

"The family had moved a lot and were actually about to leave again to live abroad," she says. "It probably was disconcerting for David. His mother sent me an e-mail saying that they weren't going to pursue the accusations, that she didn't want any bother and that they would leave school a few weeks early. She also said that only the boys would 'know the truth' of what had happened.

"But that view has left my son and his friends under a cloud. If the school had actually believed David, my son would have been expelled. It's left him vulnerable and having learnt a funny lesson, that you can say bad things and get away with it.

"You have to take bullying seriously, but you also have to analyse it. Parents have to accept that children can be mean, but that's not necessarily bullying. There are noticeable symptoms when it comes to a child being bullied, but David wasn't unhappy, crying on the way to school or upset during the school day.

"If a small child picks on a big child they are in a win-win situation. If a big child lashes out, then he'll be accused of bullying. I've told Leo that he must now always walk away."

New schools admissions policy - a case of misplaced priorities?

2007-01-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Today the government announced that school admissions procedures are to be changed. But while the intentions are clearly good, what will the reality be?

These days, getting your child into not just the “right” school, but any school, has become incredibly stressful. It sometimes seems as if it’s partly a game – if you are brave enough to stick it out and wait until July or even August, then you may well find that your child does get a place at that popular, coveted, local institution. But if you just can’t bring yourself to leave your child school-less just a month before he or she is supposed to start reception, then you’ll probably accept what you’ve been given (or not given in our case – our daughter got into none of our local schools. Fortunately she is now at a lovely, local faith school).

In our case, the nearest school (and only one within walking distance) is excellent. It’s so excellent, in fact, that it is incredibly hard to get into, and unless you live about 100 yards away, you have little chance. (In fact, we discovered that the people we bought our house from moved up the road so their children could attend this school).

Moving nearer to the right school is exactly the kind of behaviour the government is keen to stop. It’s true that it works against having a good social mix, because house prices near the school become so expensive. But I’m not totally sure that a “school-places lottery” is the answer.

What the government doesn't seem to understand is that most parents want their children to go to a good (not necessarily the best) local school, which is in walking distance. Surely the best thing to do is not expand the catchment area via a lottery, so that other children have to be driven or bussed to school, but to improve the not-so good other local schools, so parents want to send their children there. It seems like a case of misplaced priorities, and also appears to be quite an un-environmentally sound policy, as it works against the most local children (and I, of course, say this as someone who didn't exactly benefit from the current admissions procedures)

In any case, by keeping the siblings rule (which the government has agreed to), it probably won't help that many people anyway. At our local school, there were 24 siblings last year (out of a class of 30!)

Happy new year (and an article about a man who says he's Jewish by DNA)

2007-01-04T04:07:00.000-08:00

Hello
Good wishes to one and all for 2007.
I have had an article published in the Jewish Chronicle about a man called John Haedrich, who, although he was brought up a Christian, says he is Jewish by DNA.
I am reproducing the text below, but will leave you all to make your own judgements. It's all quite fascinating.

John Haedrich just wants to be accepted for what he says he is – a Jew. But it’s not that simple. For Haedrich claims to be Jewish through his DNA, and his determination to be acknowledged as such is proving more than a little contentious.
“All I want is to be recognised as a Jew,” says Haedrich, who says he will file a claim to recognise his religious status at the High Court of Jerusalem. “I don’t want any money or benefits, but I want legal acceptance. I consider myself Jewish.”
DNA testing has become big business in the States and Haedrich, a 44-year-old nursing home director from California, is one of millions who have sent off swabs to find out who they are, and where they came from. Most, however, do not then decide to change their religion.
“I know that the question ‘who is a Jew?’ is extremely controversial,” he says. “I was brought up Christian, but now I feel Jewish and that is not going to change. I have a willingness to be Jewish, to learn Hebrew, learn the customs and go to Temple.”
There are, however, some serious obstacles ahead. Haedrich faces both scientific problems (it’s questionable whether you can actually determine religion through DNA tests) and halachic ones too.
“Jewish laws are very specific - the only way you can identify someone as Jewish is if their mother is Jewish,” says Rabbi Moshe Elefant, from the Orthodox Union in New York. “That has to be verified from generation to generation.
“This DNA testing is an unacceptable process and in my opinion, it’s also an unnecessary process. If he wants to be part of the Jewish people and act as a Jew, let him convert.”
John Haedrich’s Jewish journey began when he took a trip to Eastern Europe six years ago. His parents and grandparents were German immigrants, and he wanted to visit Germany and from there drive east.
“I couldn’t put my finger on why it was,” he says, “but I was so interested in Jewish things. I visited synagogues in the Czech Republic, stayed in the Jewish quarter in Krakow and was overcome when I went to Auschwitz.”
That trip got Haedrich thinking, but it wasn’t until 2004 that he took the DNA test which, he says, revealed his origins to be Ashkenazi Jewish.
Haedrich has now had numerous DNA tests, both on his Y DNA (which comes down the generations on the father’s side) and his Mitochondrial DNA, (which comes from his mother). He argues that the results show him to be Jewish on both sides (albeit going back centuries), and he is currently trying to track down old German synagogue records to boost his claims.
Haedrich is clearly a man obsessed with his discoveries, even though the science is debatable.
“We’re just not yet able to prove to someone that they’re Jewish, although we might be tip toeing in that direction,” says Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist and co-author of Trace Your Roots with DNA. She explains that if someone was Jewish, certain genetic markers would probably appear, but that this is not foolproof. “It sounds a bit like wishful thinking on his part.”
For Haedrich, it’s not wishful thinking, but clear reality.
“The Israeli authorities would not accept my evidence, and I think that’s ridiculous” he says indignantly. “In the law courts, they accept DNA for medical, legal and forensic reasons. They can’t allow DNA evidence for some things, but not allow it for me.
“I’m now trying to persuade the State of Israel to accept DNA evidence to support an Aliyah application. It’s not just for me, it’s for others as well. This could potentially open the doors to a whole category of people who are otherwise not recognised.
“Imagine if a legal precendent was set. This could help the tens of thousand from Tsarist Russia, who had to conceal their Jewishness during WW2. It would help people who lack paperwork to demonstrate that they are Jews. They are entitled to recognition and so am I. My purpose is to do good, not to alienate or inflame anybody. My intentions are positive.”
Haedrich says that he does not want to “disrespect” the rabbinate and that he has enlisted “experts” to help his cause.
“Some may brand me as a nuisance or crazy person,” he says. “But I’ll settle for being called a trailblazer.”
In his quest to blaze that trail, he has travelled to Israel - where he took out a full page advertisement in the Jerusalem Post - and even set up a new ‘Jewish by DNA’ research institute in LA. It’s already cost him tens of thousands of pounds (he won’t say how much) and he’s not even brought his case to court yet.
Rabbi Dr Michael Shire, acting principal of Leo Baeck College, says he’s not surprised by Haedrich’s pursuit of what he sees as his rightful heritage.
“It’s not unusual for people who find out that they’re Jewish to become completely passionate and obsessed by it,” he say. “It’s something I’ve experienced many times, and often people have had an inkling of it.”
Rabbi Shire has some sympathy for Haedrich’s cause, but not totally.
“On the one hand, as a modern liberal person, I reject a genetic form of Judaism,” he says. “I don’t have a sense that one’s Jewish identity is determined genetically. Anyone can become Jewish – they can choose to become Jewish.”
But he adds that under reform Judaism, Haedrich would be expected to convert, and that’s not something the Californian is prepared to do.
“If I am a Jew, why should I convert?” he asks. “I’d rather fight this for years than convert for the principle of it.”
Haedrich is clearly in this for the long haul. He celebrated his first Passover this year, and also his first Yom Kippur (he didn’t fast, but says he “may” next year.). His next goal is to prepare for an adult bar mitzvah.
“It’s nice to be Jewish by DNA but it’s more important that you should be Jewish by choice,” he says. “I’m Jewish by choice and willing to learn and embrace it. I’ve got no time frame. How long has the Jewish religion been around?
“I’ve had frustrations and disappointments over this, and I’m willing to do everything but convert. If someone can conclusively prove that I’m not Jewish, then I’ll convert.”

If I want a girl rather than a boy, is this wrong?

2006-12-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Today I have an article in the Times, which you can read on their pages by following this link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2505381,00.html

However, if you don't want to move on (!), then I've republished the text here.
Before you add comments, please note that I have kept my arguments specifically to the UK - so there's no point warning me about potential problems in India or China. I have also proposed that sex selection should only be allowed after the first child - which would remove the issue of certain cultures ending up only with boys. And finally, if you do read on, you will see that I honestly don't think most people will do it - it's far too intrusive. I wouldn't have - but I don't have a problem with people who really want to....

Could someone please explain why parents shouldn’t be able to choose the sex of their children? The imminent shake-up of our fertility laws — as set out in yesterday’s White Paper — is set to impose a total ban on choosing the sex of a baby for non-medical reasons. But I’m still waiting for a good reason why not.
The main argument against appears to be the “what next?” scenario. It goes something like this: if the Government allows parents to choose whether to have a boy or girl, this will be just the start and soon everyone will demand a tall, blond, blue-eyed Aryan-looking “designer baby”. What rubbish — particularly if the people in question are small, dark and, like most parents, keen on seeing some kind of family resemblance in their offspring.

Some people’s neuroses are not a good enough reason to prevent parental choice. Neither are claims that the existing delicate gender balance will be skewed, particularly towards boys — although another way around this would be to offer sex selection only from the second child onwards.

However, recent research has suggested that British people favour an equal number of boys and girls (the researchers at the University of Giessen interpreted this as a social preference for a “balanced family”). In fact, the numbers saying they wanted more girls than boys or vice versa were almost identical, suggesting an almost negligible effect on boy-girl ratios. In any case, offering people the choice of a son or daughter doesn’t mean that everyone will take it. Indeed, most won’t even consider it, as it means undergoing intrusive assisted fertility treatment. To do that, you would need much more than a simple whim.

Alan and Louise Masterton’s young daughter, Nicole, died in a fire in 1999. As the parents of four boys, they were desperate, they say, not to “replace” her, but once again to have a female dimension in their family. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) wouldn’t let them try sex selection here, so they tried — albeit without success — in Italy. However, they still believe that they were right, that people should be able to balance their families, and that all it does is bring much-wanted children into the world (as opposed to the thousands born “naturally”, but unwanted every year).

I know of numerous families with two or three sons or daughters who would like to have another child, but only if they know it will be of the other sex. I can’t say I have a problem with that. We’re facing a demographic disaster in this country and need all the children we can produce. Why shouldn’t some parents receive a little extra help?

Is it just me or does the future sound scary?

2006-11-28T08:42:00.000-08:00

Apparently there will be a 38 per cent increase in those aged 85 and over in the next ten years.
Not only that, but a new Treasury document also points out that, as the baby boom generation ages, they will make up a far more demanding elderly population than the one we have at present. In other words, these people – who did not live through the depression - have higher expectations. Having spent their working lives in generally good health and with what is described as "higher material comfort", they are unlikely to be happy living on small pensions or suffering poor public services (in other words, a bus pass won't be good enough for these oldies; they, quite rightly, want an impressive bus service to go with it).
This shouldn't be bad news, but it strikes me as a bit scary. I have two young children, and as far as I can tell, the world in which they are growing up is not as rosy as I could have hoped. Too many different problems seem to be accumulating at the same time.
The main one, of course, is safety. The world does not seem to be as safe a place these days - and I say that having grown up with the IRA threat in London. At one stage, there were weekly bomb alerts while I was studying at the LSE, but all these were heralded by warnings, and we were lucky to live in times where there were no suicide bombers on the mainland.
Leaving safety aside, there are so many other issues that seem to be getting worse, not better. If my children go to university, they will leave burdened with huge debt (who can say how much it will cost to attend a good university in 2020?). They will then be lucky to find anywhere affordable to live, and they will have to fund the rapidly growing elderly population I mention above. If the numbers of people over 85 is rising that quickly in a decade, what about in two decades or more?
It seems as if my children’s lives will be much more limited than mine, whether for good or bad reasons (I’m not trying to be judgemental here). They will have to work later in life, spend less and save more. They’ll also be encouraged not to travel abroad because of climate change (bang goes that gap year in Australia).
Environmental changes are something I haven’t even touched on, but they could be potentially catastrophic. Honestly, it’s enough to make even the least neurotic of parents worry, at least a little.

The Chancellor's taxing decisions

2006-11-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

Gordon Brown is said to be delaying plans to increase council tax because he’s apparently worried about a “damaging backlash”. He should be. The ideas which seem to be coming from the council tax review are seriously worrying.
I know this topic may not sound particularly sexy, but what happens to our council tax is important, and you should care about it. You should also care that the Chancellor’s apparent response is to delay publishing Sir Michael Lyons’ inquiry into local government finance because he’s worried about a negative reaction? Delaying something is hardly the stuff of strong decision making. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to address what it says and decide whether to implement it?
Sir Michael began his inquiry back in 2004. He has yet to report, but leaked suggestions would increase council tax bills hugely. And that, of course, is on top of the huge increases in council tax since Labour took power in 1997. Average bills have more than doubled – to £1,053.
If changes happen, then some – such as those of us who live in London and the South East - seem more likely than others to suffer.
Many people seem to think that if you live in London and the South East, then you’re incredibly lucky because your house will have greatly increased in value in recent years. But unless we wanted to move out London and the surrounding area completely, I’m not sure that lucky tag is true. All that’s happened is that our houses have moved into a higher stamp duty bracket – thus making moving very difficult – and that the people who used to be able to afford to live in Notting Hill or Belsize Park now have to look further out to be able to afford anything – some are even looking in our humble neck of the woods. And that changes the whole complexion of an area (not always for the best).
Salaries have not doubled or tripled in the last decade, but houses have. So where does that leave us? Stuck where we are, happy to be owning something, but sad that people like us – on reasonable but not huge salaries – can’t afford to move into the area.
And if people like us do want more space, we can’t afford to move, so we add extensions or convert our lofts or old coal cellars (I am fascinated by this as it is going on across the road from where I live, and I am desperate to see the results.) All these additions push our mortgages ever higher, but I shouldn’t complain, because we are lucky to be on the housing ladder (I dread to think how much houses will cost when my children grow up. If property prices continue to increase as they have, I can’t ever see them owning anything).
The council tax review is said to be looking into reassessing council tax bands – and so increasing what we currently pay because our house is obviously worth more than it was when the bands were set. It is also suggested that taxes may be imposed according to the “extras” which the property has, such as those loft conversions. This of course means penalising the extras that many people have added on becomes they can’t afford to move. In fact the government should be thanking these people – they, at least, are not helping fuel the property boom.
Most worryingly, the government is said to be considering a tax which would be a percentage of the value of the house. This may sound ridiculous, but it has already been implemented in Northern Ireland where some people have found that they simply can’t afford to pay the huge increases in their bills.
Why doesn’t anyone seem to realise that the value of your house does not necessarily equate to your disposable wealth? If you are retired and live on a pension, then how on earth are you supposed to find thousands of pounds of money to pay higher council taxes with? Is the government suggesting that people whose houses now happen to be in areas which have rocketed in value, should move?
I find this whole issue really exasperating. We don’t have a great deal of disposable income – mine goes on childcare in any case, but that’s a different story – and if council tax is going to be put on the value of our house, then we are going to have real problems. It’s not even as if we are benefiting from our house being worth a lot! Not unless we move hundreds of miles away – from our family, school and friends.
No wonder Gordon Brown is concerned about a backlash. When the poll tax was scrapped and the council tax implemented, Michael Heseltine said that it should “reflect people’s ability to pay and be seen to be fair”. Is this really true of the council tax? I don’t think so. Perhaps it’s time for a local income tax.

Interview with the young star of British comedy drama Sixty Six

2006-11-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

There's currently a British film out called Sixty Six. I did an interview with its young star, Gregg Sulkin. Please take a read!

By Sarah Ebner

Child stars do not often have a happy tale to tell. Some descend into a drink and drugs hell, while others “divorce” their parents or spend years trying to live up to their early celebrity.
The latest in a long list of youngsters to make it onto the big screen is 14-year-old Gregg Sulkin, who takes the lead role in the new British comedy-drama Sixty Six. But Sulkin is an unusual child star. For one thing, he’s not even sure that acting is his dream.
“I’ve been brought up playing football and always wanted to be a footballer,” says Sulkin, who’s on the books at Spurs. “I love playing football and I love how 30,000 people sing your name.
“Actually my mum wants me to play tennis, because she likes how it’s an individual game, and my dad wants me to play football. I definitely love acting, and if you told me I had to give one of them up, I don’t think I could. But maybe people give you more credit when you’re an actor, rather than a footballer. I wouldn’t mind being an actor…I think.”
With all his sporting talents – Sulkin has also been a junior British champion in Eton Fives - it’s ironic that in Sixty Six, Sulkin plays a geeky non-sportsman by the name of Bernie Rubens. Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah is approaching fast, but it just so happens to be scheduled for the day of the World Cup Final in 1966. As England progress through round after round, it looks as if football is set to ruin the best day of Bernie’s life.
“I couldn’t identify Bernie with me,” admits Sulkin. “I just trusted Paul (Weiland), the director. Maybe that made it easier. If Bernie had been the same as me, perhaps I might have over-acted”
It should be easy to hate Sulkin. After all, he has been blessed not only with a great deal of talent, but he’s good looking too. However, he seems genuine (he admits he’s not the fastest footballer in the world, but says he “knows when to pass”), is charming (it’s difficult to resist those dimples) and shows no obvious sign that he’s becoming obnoxious. He even sends his mum flowers and claims he’s not completely perfect.
“I’m not good at everything,” he explains. “I’m not good at maths.” He’s also not even the most famous actor in his class at Highgate School. That honour goes to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Freddie Highmore.
Sulkin was cast in Sixty Six as an acting novice. In fact, he had only acted once before and was seen so much as a footballer rather than actor, that when casting directors visited his school, he wasn’t even put forward for the role.
Instead his father, Graham, took him to the audition as an “experience”. He wasn’t expecting to actually get the part and had to audition four times before having a screen test.
“I was surprised every time they asked me back” he says disarmingly. “But I really did enjoy the auditions. I liked how there was pressure on you. I liked how if you didn’t do well, then that was it.”
He obviously adored the entire experience and still talks enthusiastically about his screen parents Helena (Bonham Carter) and Eddie (Marsan, who played Reg in Vera Drake), whom he describes as being “like my hero”.
“The people were just so amazing,” he says. “I was scared of meeting Helena because she was so famous and I thought she might not talk to me. But when I met her, she gave me a kiss and a cuddle and she was so down to earth. She’s just like a beautiful mum.”
When I first met Sulkin, his enthusiasm was palpable. He had just finished making the film, described it as the best time of his life and was desperate to do more acting.
“The night it all finished, I was just so sad, because I wanted to do it for ever,” he said emotionally. “I just loved every minute of it
Eight months later, he’s still keen on the acting, but, because he’s back playing football (he had to stop when he was filming), he’s enthused about that too. And that’s despite being an Arsenal fan who’s now playing for the “wrong” North London club.
The intervening months were not always easy, as Sulkin failed to get other acting roles. More recently, however, he has done some filming for Channel 4 and got his confidence back.
“I was worried,” he says. “I wondered if I was doing something wrong in the auditions and whether Paul had seen something other people couldn’t see.”
Right now, he’s looking forward to the film’s premiere, although, having been to a screening already, he’s still in shock about seeing himself on the big screen.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “All that work and it ends up as an hour and a half.”
Ends

Blair's last Queen's Speech - but what legacy has he left?

2006-11-15T09:38:00.000-08:00

So, Tony Blair has delivered his final Queen's Speech. Is now the time to assess his legacy? It seems strange that he may well be remembered solely (or at least mainly) for the Iraq War. After all, he obviously had so many New Labour plans for change when he came to power on that real wave of optimism in 1997. Sometimes I feel almost sorry for him that they have been swallowed up by the disaster of Iraq.
When I was at university, we discussed Thatcherism and people had an idea of what that word meant, whether they agreed with it or not. I'm not sure if Blairism is more than just a word. It doesn't seem to have a real ideology behind it, but maybe that's because Blair hasn't managed to do all he wanted - even though he's had a pretty good run (a decade next year - almost as long as Thatcher). Perhaps expectations were set too high in 1997?
Yes, it's true that Blair was responsible for devolution, but that doesn't exactly seem to have worked as planned. His other great promises, on education and the NHS, are yet to be fulfilled. It's astonishing that this government has pumped so much money into different areas, but that the results are still unsatisfying. Today the Queen's speech has talked about crime, immigration and climate change. There's obviously still an awful lot to do, but will Blair be able to leave behind the legacy he wants or will Gordon Brown, and perhaps even David Cameron, transform the political agenda?

Welcome

2006-11-14T08:46:00.001-08:00

Journalists everywhere need to be on the Web, or so I'm told. Finally, as 2006 comes to an end, I am joining them, although I'm not sure that the world has been holding its breath and waiting for this moment.

I am a journalist who has worked for a variety of national newspapers and magazines, as well as the BBC. I write features and opinion pieces, on whatever topic takes my fancy, or that of the commissioning editor.

I am married, live in North London and have two young children, a girl and a boy. I work part-time and am freelance. This is one of my bugbears - surely it should be easier for women to get good part-time jobs. Otherwise you are losing a whole swathe of people from the job market, simply because they want to balance work and their offspring.

More later.