I never wanted to buy my own property until I watched my mother leave my father and fill out forms for council housing. ... That’s the moment I decided that would never be me. That I would always have a roof over my head that didn’t rely on a man, or the mercy of whichever man was heading up government at the time. ... And so I have just bought my own flat. And it’s the size of a shoebox. And it was impossibly hard to do. I am a working class kid from Newcastle who grew up on benefits, charity shops and neither of my parents owned property. There was so much I didn’t know. ... The working class kids don’t get that kind of education and some dreams are too big to contemplate. ... But here I am, in a flat that costs more than it should and it’s only the size of a shoebox. But it is my shoebox, and I am a woman in this world, and so for the first time, I feel safe here. ... #home #spilledink