(www.tripfiction.com) I lived in Ethiopia for four years when my young family and I were posted there with my husband’s job. As a diplomatic family, we’d lived abroad before, but Ethiopia got under my skin like nowhere else. My book, Open My Eyes, That I May See Marvellous Things, is set in Addis Ababa. I […]Read Post ›
My favorite childhood toy, or to coin the great British psychologist D.W Winnicott’s phrase, my transitional object, was (actually he still is) a puffin. He was given to me when I was two and quickly usurped a boss-eyed white bear to which I had previously been attached. I was faithful only to Puffin throughout my […]Read Post ›
Getachew gestures expansively at the massive range of flat- topped mountains before us. “This place, Ethiopia,” he muses, “is very up. Very down.” He’s not wrong. The drive to Magdala, Emperor Tewodros’s mountain fortress, takes 10 hours by 4×4 from Addis Ababa, rising slowly until the final hairpin ascent beneath sheer cliffs. Inspired by Philip […]Read Post ›
Open My Eyes, released March 2017, Pinter and Martin.
“She lies in an open crib, wrapped in a blanket. She knows neither blanket nor crib, only the feel of where they touch her body. She is raw, uncooked, exposed. Burned by the elements.”
When she is allowed to get a word in edge ways, Dutch-Ethiopian Heran Tadesse speaks eloquently in this Aljazeera piece…
Kangaroo care helps fragile premature babies survive, sleep better, develop protection against allergies and infection by being exposed to friendly bacteria, regulate breathing, temperature and heart rate. When it’s done with the mother, it supports breastfeeding, and helps babies bond better. Some kangaroo care experts reckon that during the last six weeks of pregnancy, babies […]Read Post ›
