The People on Platform 5

by Clare Pooley

‘Darling, what is the point of being alive if you go through life unnoticed, without standing out and making waves?

to stand tall. They want us to be invisible, so we have to be seen. They want us to be quiet, so we have to be heard. They want us to surrender, so we have to fight.’

‘No woman is anyone’s “other half”. We are all entire people. Completely whole, and totally unique. But sometimes when you put two very different whole people together, a kind of magic, an alchemy, occurs. Bea said I was like eggs and sugar, and she was flour and butter, and when you mixed us together, we were more than just the combination of our ingredients, we were a whole damn cake. And the problem is, when you’re used to being a magnificent, mouth-watering cake, it’s really, really hard to get used to being just eggs and sugar once more.’

‘The only way to be guaranteed of failure, dear boy, is not to try,’ said Iona. ‘Love is the greatest risk of all, but a life without it is meaningless.’