Telling Stories

If this hand-knitted dress were the main character in a novel, the opening chapter might detail it being wrapped in starry paper – opened the following day. Then there would be a flashback to the night some three weeks previous when a woman with red hair sat at her computer, screen illuminating her face as she placed her bid. The action would be suspended so that the author might make some ever-so-meaningful point about the beginning of a new story. Put simply, my mum bought it second hand on eBay. We love to give things narratives. A piece of costume jewellery from a market stall had a previous life while a battered sideboard was obviously unloved or much...