Living with fear
Fear was a huge part of my childhood. I don't have very many memories. I've always assumed it's because my brain was so focused on terror that it didn't lay many down. I wa s born by emergency C-Section (referred to by Mum as 'you almost killed me') and it sounds as if the trauma set me up for life. I'm told that at 3 days old I almost jumped out of the cot at the sound of a loud thunderclap. Having had my own babies, I guess that was probably one of Mum's highly exaggerated stories but there's no doubt that my early childhood was a daily struggle to cope with noises that other people often weren't even aware of. Back then, certain emergency vehicles had a siren which was like a high-pitched warble. I could feel this in my body before it was audible, and would stiffen like a pointer dog - eyes wide, hands over ears - long before my family heard anything. They knew what was coming though! I don't think my super-acute hearing was ever seen as...