Category Archives: Family

Affairs of the heart

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

A friend wrote to me this week to let me know that a novel I had read for her a couple of years ago is starting to make waves. She has the interest of both a good Scottish publisher and … Continue reading →

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Stranger at the Rodeo

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

Lost in the hills to the south of Perth is a former schoolhouse, one of the four or five buildings in a hamlet gloriously named Path of Condie. The place feels like an eyrie, with brackeny valleys plunging away below … Continue reading →

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Closer to the stars

Posted on November 15, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

The last time I posted, nearly three months ago, it was with an unfinished story. My mother was in her final hours, and I wrote about how touched I was by the loving kindness she was receiving from the staff … Continue reading →

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Kind to the end

Posted on August 24, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

The kindness – perhaps I should call it love – that abounds at my mother’s care home is almost overwhelming. She is in her last hours. Since early yesterday morning my brother and I have been taking it in turns … Continue reading →

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Perfect lives

Posted on June 15, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

For the final day of our recent The Stories We Tell course at Cortijo Romero, in Spain, we invited people to write or tell a personal story that had not previously been told. The only rules were that it should … Continue reading →

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Keeping secrets

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

Eighteen months ago my daughter Anna left for Canada on a two-year working visa. She had been living in London since graduating from university, and finding city life less and less to her taste. She wanted freedom, room to breathe, … Continue reading →

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Five ferrets

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

If I ever saw my grandfather in full naval fig, I don’t remember it. He had retired by the time I was old enough to know him and his admiral’s uniform, dripping in what he referred to as scrambled egg, … Continue reading →

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The shortest distance

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

Last week I took part in the process of interviewing for a new manager for my mother’s care home. I was one of a panel of two relatives and two residents who met the candidates for an informal chat, before … Continue reading →

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In praise of footering

Posted on October 20, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

We were sitting round the dinner table in our Airbnb lakeside cabin at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, last week – Sarah and I and our two grown-up children, Anna and Jake. Anna’s reaching the end of the first year of a … Continue reading →

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The stories we tell

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

In the past month I’ve spent a week in Spain with a group of eight people on a The Stories We Tell course, and a week in the Northwest Highlands with a friend I’ve known for 45 years. At the … Continue reading →

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