Birds don't fly with leads...Safety belts are to learn with, not to live with - I'm safer on the trapeze than crossing the road. And I do that every day, often by myself.

Thirteen-year-old Avis confronts the limitations imposed on her at school. She has epilepsy and some of the teachers want to stop her participating in the sport she loves most. Susan Hawthorne captures the voice and longings...

Sometimes memory warps cobbling together a host of images leaving the self embellished by the past.

The poems in this collection are an evocative documentation of the harrowing experiences of a child living in a hostile and unhappy home. The reader is shown the pain, the bitterness and the mixed emotions that accompany the experiences of growing up in a family torn apart by domestic violence...