![]() We lived at first in the next-door borough, Stockton-on-Tees, where I went to school until I was sixteen. I was born in Middlesbrough (like my mother and her parents) at the tail-end of Thatcherism. What’s interesting isn’t the sort of person who moves away, but the sorts of place they move away from. I don’t think I’m interesting for having moved away from home, or for finding it complicated to go back. Since I left for university, going home has always seemed too much of a disruption to the smooth course of life – because it takes me away from my friends and my work, but also because returning feels like a reversion, like being forced to wear old clothes that don’t fit. In truth, I’m not used to seeing my parents very often, even though they’re only a two-and-a-half-hour train journey away. The government’s most unambiguous message during Covid – ‘Stay at Home’ – contains, for a lot of people, an ambiguity: staying at home has often meant staying away from Home. ![]() Home with a capital ‘H’ is the North-East of England, where I grew up and where my parents still live. I ’ve been home only once since Christmas 2019. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |