Walking into the light

We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its business. … More

Ten years today

This is a momentous week. It marks the tenth anniversary of the day I was told I had cancer. To … More

This is the link to the podcast of the interview I gave yesterday on the Arena programme, RTE, about … More

Nine years ago today I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells. Even though I have … More

Reading Arthur W. Frank’s astonishing At the Will of the Body recently has given me pause to reflect on the relationship … More

A scan, with different initials. The train journey to it, biting nails; the one back pretending not to be radioactive. … More

Don’t forget, this is inside us every day -Stephen Berg This is not happening. It happened. Past tense. One … More

Then this. We are sitting with hospital mugs of tea, in the Quiet Room. We are all leaning forward, listening … More

We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its … More

On headphones in the day case ward and in my kitchen late at night, Mogwai’s New Paths to the Helicon, … More

I wrote here recently about losing my ambition as a writer. In case readers are in any doubt, the stuff … More

This is Jörn Cann. He was my ward doctor at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma … More

Love for Now did not begin with an idea but an illness. As I have written elsewhere, there wasn’t a plan. I … More

Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of my … More

Tomorrow the Church Times publishes a combined review of my memoir of cancer Love for Now and Riddance, my … More

It was great to hear the BBC’s Deputy Political Editor James Landale’s interview about his experience of treatment for cancer … More

I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More

The Next Big Thing I have been been tagged by poet and blogger Abegail Morley to answer set questions relating to my memoir … More