First person

From here to paternity: facing up to fatherhood

When the writer’s partner became pregnant, he had to confront his deepest fears

The hole truth: my gender dysphoria and mysterious phobia

It was moment of realisation when my trypophobia and sexual identity were connected in therapy

‘My sexual recovery after cancer’

After cancer treatment, the author tuned into the pleasure of touch in other ways

‘The torment that drove my mother to kill my father’

The writer reflects on a crime which shaped his own life, 10 years after coercive control was made a crime

‘Model trains are my meditation’

Model railways offer a ticket to a safe world – no wonder it's good for hobbyists' mental health

Dream bears and desires: a moment that changed my life

Seeing a dance troupe confidently perform a rugged version of queerness helped the author confront his own attractions

‘This is what happened to me’: Grace Spence Green answers nosy questions on her spinal injury

Adjusting to life as a wheelchair user changed the writer in many ways. What she didn’t expect was that her vulnerability would empower her

Gareth Southgate on the importance of male mentorship

A lack of positive male role models means too many young men are falling behind. How do we fix the problem?

David Whitehouse on loss – and a vanishing woman

After his father died, David Whitehouse regretted the things he’d never know about him, but unravelling the story of a stranger who’d disappeared helped make sense of his loss

I knew the axe we’d found was old ... but that old?

When her husband picked up a stone axe in a flint-strewn field near their home in Dorset, Emily H Wilson experienced a rare ‘woo-woo’ moment. Could the hand that made it really have belonged to a Neanderthal?

‘Without memory and words, what is left?’

As a writer, words mean everything, but facing her own memory loss gives an author an unexpected insight into what it means to be the person she is

Jeremy Atherton Lin: the gayest love story ever told

A relationship with so many obstacles was always going to be messy – but it’s also that’s what made it so strong

I found out my older lover was cheating... from his therapist

‘I came out as autistic. Everyone said: That explains a lot’

An autism diagnosis helped Laurie Penny make sense of their experiences, but its real value was in helping them understand the rest of society

I was propositioned by my electrician. But why?

An unexpected proposition from her tradesman leads a writer to examine her own sexual kinks

Finding my people: life and community after serious illness

After the birth of her baby, Lauren Bensted became spectacularly sick. Life-changing surgery followed. Then, slowly, she discovered a ‘secret city’