Connecting with the dead — The seance was conducted after Hannah’s father committed suicide. He shot himself in the head with a rifle laid between his legs and was found in a sleeping bag, inside the orange onsite work caravan. Hannah and I were fifteen. It was the eighties. We were best friends. The evening…

Thank heaven for little girls — Last weekend I hurt myself horribly by hefting a heavy compost bin. Suddenly I could hardly do anything. The muscles in my lower back felt wrenched from the bone and it was all I could do to get inside the house. Luckily I have an 11-year-old who can cook. Handy. …

Running away from home — Charlie was a runaway. Charlie looked, like the girl in this picture, to be about 14 years old — a wisp of a waif — perhaps she was older, but not by much. Her post on the New Zealand Off-Grid community read: Righto I made a slightly life-altering decision. I left…

The mystic sleuth — Trap doors and secret rooms hidden leavers and books with secrets — of course, you’re going to look, it’s what Eve did. Eve was told explicitly not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and she thought — why the hell not? Just one little bite. Eve’s curiosity was her…