Ok, ok, I know I said that we can all make our lives into the stuff of fairy tales if we want to, but I suddenly feel like my fairy godmother has taken her wand away and I’ve gone crashing head first into a stone wall of reality… What’s happened to this poor sweet English girl you might ask? Why the sudden loss of optimism? I have just one word for you: people.

When it’s just me and my baby singing and dancing, having belly snuggles and chatting away, all is right with the world; it’s when the world tries to sneak in that the trouble starts. I have finally had to admit, to myself, because it would seem that everyone already knew, that most people are not supporting actors to my Happy Princess protagonist. People are not there to make the world a better place, they are there to take what they can from the world, to make their own life better.

I’m not about to bore you with some self-righteous waffle about helping those less fortune and how we should save the planet, I guess I’m just old-fashioned and think that a little common courtesy and a big smile go a very long way.

I thought that my small Italian town with its strong sense of community could shelter me and my family from the cruelty of the wider world, but the darker side of human nature is insidious. It has been a shock to hear of goings on that I thought were confined to the British underclass, yet which have penetrated the barriers of my Italian sanctuary… or maybe they were here all along and I refused to acknowledge them.

Sarah Gudgeon, october 2018 – © Mozzafiato