Longing for sunset

She's usually desperate for sunny days, but right now Caro Giles can't wait for the darkness of night to envelop her

- With Caro Giles

The days are growing longer. If I am lucky, and find time to sleep a little in the morning, a chink of sky is visible through the curtains when I wake. When I drive my daughters home from school, the lights from office buildings no longer ripple back at us from their reflection in the river. Instead, clouds glow pink over the hills in the west, as a gentle dusk settles over the city. The year is getting lighter every day, but somehow the world seems only to be growing darker. So why am I reluctant to say goodbye to drawn-out, inky black nights? I have written before about my relationship with darkness. When I first moved back to the north of England from London, about 17 years ago, the longer winters took me by surprise. Subtle shifts in nature, on walks through wild moorland and along bleak beaches, forced me to become much more observant. I started to write around this time, as my brain adapted to a different way of life and I needed to find an outlet for the ideas forming in my mind. I didn't notice the light in the same way when I lived in London. I needed to live for a time in the middle of nowhere to understand the way the seasons shifted.