Is the veracity of memoirs that important?
How many people do you know who always tell the truth? Plus, how many people do you know who tell a good story that has no embellishments in order to make it a slightly better story?
Even aside from enhancing a story, most people's memories are inherently inaccurate. Two people at the same event will not report the exact same scenario.
A memoir is an opinion of a history that has been embellished to make it a good story. A memoir is not a dry historical account of events.
Just like a conversation in real life, readers need to distinguish the facts that they choose to believe from those that are embellished. I have no problem with this. A perfect historical account of most people's lives would be very boring indeed. Rachel A LawrenceSan Francisco, California, US
The best justification for the veracity or otherwise of memoirs comes in the prologue to Spike Milligan's memoir 'Rommel?' 'Gunner Who?', in which he used a line from the ancient Greek historian Thucydides on the reliability of memoirs: 'I have described nothing but what I saw myself.' Then added: 'I just jazzed mine up a little.'Andrew Keeley Warrington, Cheshire
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2 hours ago
- The Independent
Large great white shark spotted swimming close to Santa Monica pier
A large, 15-foot great white shark was spotted last week off the coast of Santa Monica – sparking real-life Jaws fears for California beach goers as the predator usually stays further off the coast. Photographer Carlos Guana sent out a drone to capture footage of the shark on Thursday after hearing reports that some Great White sharks had been breaching, or launching themselves out of the water and into the air, he told the Los Angeles Times. Video shared to YouTube shows the massive white shark swimming near someone on a paddleboard who appears completely unaware of its presence. When Guana heard there were great white sharks in the area, he assumed they were juveniles, which are smaller and known to frequent the area as they are attracted to near-shore warm waters. However, when Guana reviewed his drone footage, he was surprised to see an adult great white, which usually opt for colder, deeper waters, swimming near the surface, about 50 yards off the coast. 'The Santa Monica Bay is known as a nursery ground for juveniles,' Gauna told the LA Times. 'But this was no juvenile. This is the real deal.' Guana said he told a local lifeguard as a precaution, as encounters with violent sharks, like the great white, are rather uncommon in California. According to the California Fish and Wildlife, about 200 incidents involving great white sharks have occurred in the state's waters from 1950 to 2021. Of those encounters, 107 have resulted in injuries and 16 in deaths. Attacks from great whites are also incredibly rare. Fish and Wildlife officials say that while the sharks don't usually prey on humans, they may pose a threat to humans if they find them on their 'turf,' or near them in the water. The sighting was more awe-inspiring than scary for Guana, who took the chance encounter as a reminder of what wonderful wildlife exists just off California's beaches. 'It's a good reminder of how a great ecosystem exists next to one of the busiest cities in America,' he told the paper. 'And just how rare a shark attack here really is!' The sighting also comes after the largest great white shark ever was tagged off the coast of Massachusetts last month. Contender, a mature male shark measuring 13.8 feet and weighing around 1,653 pounds, emerged near Nantucket on July 18. The shark's tag pinged around 100 miles south of Boston and 30 miles from Cape Cod – a popular tourist destination. The powerful animal had been tagged in January, around 45 miles off the coast of Florida and Georgia, in order to help researchers and conservationists. Shark Week 2025, an annual programming block from Discovery, coincidentally began two days later on July 20.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘They ate my ex's furniture!': people on their drastic divorce decisions, from training huskies to getting plastic surgery
She had green eyes that 'could see through walls', Chris remembers, not unruefully. When he and his Russian girlfriend broke up, Chris, originally from Sussex and now living in Maine in the US, admits he had Siberia (Elena came from the city of Novosibirsk) on the mind. He did the obvious thing: went and got a pair of three-month-old Siberian husky puppies: Loki and Freja, brother and sister – also with piercing eyes, but icy blue, especially Loki's. 'People would just stop on the street as he walked by.' Chris had owned dogs before– labradors. 'I figured that huskies were labradors with fur coats on,' he says, talking to me from his pickup truck after an early morning paddle in his kayak. 'They absolutely are not.' The dogs got bigger, and wilder. 'I was completely ill-equipped to train them as the role of dominant alpha doesn't come naturally to me. They didn't seem to want to reason with me. Despite four hours of walking a day, it wasn't enough.' Chris even bought a sled for them, because huskies are bred to pull. (Take note of the sled – it will come back later in this story.) But the dogs frequently escaped, killing chickens and chasing horses. 'Twice they were brought home in the back of a police car. They ate my ex-girlfriend's furniture and bit through electrical and internet cables. I had to duct-tape the fridge closed, because they could open it with their noses. The final straw was when Freja started ripping the plasterboard off the wall.' Now everyone could see through walls. 'I returned them to the breeder and wept in her arms,' Chris remembers. 'But she did tell me that in her 25 years of breeding huskies, she had never had two returned in such good condition and with such well-kept fur.' A big breakup can often prompt people to overhaul their life – whether that's a new haircut, career change or, say, acquiring two strapping great Siberian huskies. Why is such a painful time also one of renewal? And when the dust settles, do people look back with regret? Joanna Harrison, a couples counsellor, former divorce lawyer and author of Five Arguments All Couples (Need To) Have and Why The Washing-Up Matters, understands this better than most. As well as all the big stuff – children, houses, money etc – it's often the everyday things that people miss after a split. 'The quietness at home, not being able to talk about the little things – people feel alone, miss company. Getting a pet may be a way not to feel so alone again. And to have a new project, a new identity. Animals are a key part of people's identity; the animal we choose might reflect an aspect of our identity that we're trying to convey.' Chris just chose the wrong animal. Times two. Harrison says divorce or separation can have a profound effect on a person mentally. There's the pain, for starters. 'For some, there may also be relief, but there's still something that needs mourning – the relationship, the hopes and dreams that are no longer possible.' Of course, the pain will be much greater if you didn't want the relationship to end. 'There are all these different phases we know about: of grief, feelings of anger, shock,' she says. 'I work with people who are devastated by the end of a relationship, don't know which way is up or down. They feel disoriented, lost, broken, numb.' Numb is what Victoria, in Switzerland, felt when her long-term partner unexpectedly walked out. 'I doubted myself and everything. I was in shock, not able to feel anything – no anger, no pain, nothing,' she tells me. 'How could anyone feel so numb? Was I really dead inside? I decided to put it to the test, put myself into a situation I knew would provoke strong emotions to see if I would still be indifferent to life. My solution? Do something that had been on my bucket list for a long time – skydiving.' And so she found herself in an aeroplane, strapped to an instructor, looking out at the mountains, but still not registering any emotions. It all changed on hearing the instruction to open the door and thinking: hang on, we're on a plane, the door shouldn't be open. After watching two other pairs jump and disappear it was Victoria's turn. 'I was on the edge; I closed my eyes and let myself go. The adrenaline rush was something I've never felt in my life. I felt fireworks in my brain. Freefalling hundreds of metres above ground, I was happy, I was free. I took in the beautiful day, the wonderful landscape, my audacity to put myself through all that, the fact I was not only alive but ecstatic.' After landing safely, Victoria had a grin so big it began to hurt. 'I wrote immediately in my journal a note to myself: 'This period is not going to be easy, and it will take time to feel like yourself again, but life is much more than this episode. You will heal and you will laugh and love again.' It took years to fully get over my heartbreak but, as I promised myself, I went back to who I was, eventually. Since then, I always share with anyone going through a heartbreak: have you considered skydiving?' Or indeed backpacking? When Rachel's relationship of seven years came to an abrupt end, she found herself in a rut. 'I phoned my boss, gave my notice and began to plan,' she tells me. 'A couple of months later, I flew out of the UK for a solo round-the-world backpacking trip, at the ripe old age of 38. The following two years, I backpacked through Asia and Australia, then visited 30 US states in a beat-up old camper van. I gained a whole new view of the world, met a wonderful girl and emigrated to Germany to start a new life.' Harrison says that in virtually every relationship there are things you might like to do but, 'because of your dynamic, what works in your relationship, they don't happen'. It might be intolerable, because you can't properly express yourself, and it could contribute to a relationship ending. Or it could be something to do after the relationship ends – set off round the world with a pack on your back. A geographical move, a change of scene, is something that cropped up a lot among the people I spoke to. After her breakup, Deepa travelled from the US to Europe and immediately fell in love all over again: with Prague, where she signed up for an English teaching course. Now back in the US, she admits: 'We are sort of back together. But I would leave him for Prague and my own dreams all over again!' Harrison says the urge to go far away is understandable. 'Something possibly humiliating has happened, or you feel betrayed; maybe everything you see is going to remind you of it. It's quite human to wish to have a bit of space to lick your wounds.' She does have a couple of words of warning. 'The feelings will follow you. Going to the other side of the world isn't necessarily going to stop you hurting about the loss of your relationship. You might get there and feel just as awful.' The old problem with any kind of travel is that you tend to bring yourself – and your baggage – along, too. Separation might be an opportunity to get unstuck, says Harrison. 'You can claim some of those things back that you may have let your partner do, learn a new skill or do something intrepid, and discover you're more competent in that area than you realised. It's reclaiming some identity, and that could be quite positive and exciting.' When John in Belfast was, in his words, 'given the old heave-ho' by a girlfriend, he decided to fill the empty space in his life, and in his room, with a synthesiser. 'I learned the notes, a few chords, practised scales – no longer was I going to be pigeonholed as a mere boyfriend. I had recovered from the rejection and was forging ahead with a brilliant new life and future, quickly on the way to becoming the next Jean-Michel Jarre or Dave Greenfield [of the Stranglers] … ' But then John met someone else. 'She swept me off my feet, leaving the instrument to gather dust.' It became a repeated sequence, a loop perhaps, if you were looking for a musical analogy. 'I found myself with another synth to fill the gap, but it, too, found itself in the corner as I hit the dancefloor, new girlfriend in hand … until, inevitably, another black-and-white-keyed friend with lots of buttons and switches joined the growing army of 1980s music technology.' You won't have seen John on Top of the Pops. 'I was never single long enough to program or even play them. But by the time I bought a house and tied the knot, I had an enviable collection of synthesisers and other beats-making hardware. Today, most have gone, but I do occasionally find myself browsing vintage synthesiser listings on eBay, to keep the marriage sharp … ' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Sometimes it's about a change in physical appearance. I heard about lizard tattoos, drastic haircuts and dyes (orange and blue). Han in Korea got breast-enlargement surgery after divorce. 'But I realised they were too big for my lifestyle, so I downsized two years later. Since then, I have promised myself not to make important decisions after a breakup.' Weight loss came up. Significantly, in the case of Christian in California, who dropped 100lb (45kg). 'After 15 years married to a narcissist, I was 315lb and very unhealthy. I wasn't always like that, but people in toxic relationships often end up not taking care of themselves and gaining weight.' Christian joined his healthcare provider's supervised weight-loss programme and was able to lose that weight over about eight months. 'The road is still ongoing, but the divorce was definitely drastically needed, not only for my happiness, but also for my health.' It wasn't the only change Christian made. 'I threw away my wardrobe of mostly black clothing and started wearing colours again. I wish I had done it sooner.' Rhyannon in Gloucestershire transformed her health – physical and mental – through open-water swimming. After ending her unhappy marriage, she realised she desperately needed significant change in her life. As well as getting a new job, she committed to swimming outdoors throughout the winter. 'After years of neglecting my body and succumbing to the demands of work and family obligations, I stumbled upon the pure exhilarating joy of cold-water swimming. It rekindled a long-buried need to indulge in activities that spark joy within me. In my late 40s I confronted my fears, including the intimidating uncertainties of what lay beneath the surface, and discovered I had the ability to swim distances I never thought were possible.' Three years after the end of her marriage, Rhyannon swam the length of Windermere – nearly 11 miles (18km). 'Change can feel daunting, yet it's those moments of stepping into the unknown that can uncover the profound joy we deserve.' Harrison says that separation means 'a shift from thinking about the needs of the relationship and more to protecting yourself. There can be a need to go into survival mode, and that might go alongside trying to take more care of yourself, look after things that maybe you haven't.' She also warns that dealing with a breakup is a long process as well as a stressful one. 'And it isn't necessarily linear – you might feel better, then go back to feeling not so good.' She thinks that people can make big decisions very quickly 'to get away from something really painful. My advice is often to slow things down, because you can't really bypass the mourning that needs to be done at the end of a significant relationship.' Some of the decisions I heard about might have benefited from a bit more time. Lawrence in Manchester had a partner who was obsessed with crystals, which he went along with because she was fun. He even collected some for her while out walking, including one 'which I was admittedly rather taken with myself, as it was almost perfectly shaped like a neolithic hand axe. Obviously, it wasn't really a neolithic hand axe, I told myself, as cavemen weren't making axes out of pretty crystals, were they …' You see where it's going, right? After Lawrence was dumped, he decided to sell his collection of pseudo-mystical rocks, which he did to a 'wizard' who only really seemed interested in the hand axe – £60 for the lot. The folly of his actions began to emerge on a trip to Lisbon where, in the prehistory section of the city museum, Lawrence found a cabinet of crystal hand axes. Then, on another trip, to the Scottish Highlands where he had originally found his, he learned 'it was one of few confirmed sites for hunter gatherers in the UK. And that their favourite material to work with was – you guessed it – crystal.' Lawrence doesn't know for sure that it was the real neolithic deal, but he has seen on the internet cruder versions selling for £4,000-£5,000. 'I think it should be in the National Museum of Scotland.' And remember Chris in Maine? You could say his purchase of two Siberian huskies to replace his one Siberian girlfriend wasn't the wisest of decisions. But this one does at least have a happy(ish) coda. Four years later, clearing out his basement, Chris came across the dog sled he'd forgotten about. With no use for it, he decided to take it to the breeder he had got the dogs from (and to whom he had later returned them). 'There were all these huskies running about, some loose, others in pens with runs attached. I asked her what happened to Loki and Freja. 'They're here, over in that pen,' she said. I stayed where I was, she went and opened the door, and out looked this big blond head with bright blue eyes – Loki! He took one look at me and came charging, followed by his sister. They jumped up, pinned me against the wall with their paws on my shoulders, licking me to pieces.' They had a better life now, Chris says – dog sledding in northern Maine in the winter, then spending summers on the farm. Has he seen them again? Does he visit? 'I think that would be too confusing, definitely for me.' The Russian ex had quickly found – and married – someone else. And what about Chris, what's his current relationship status? 'Single. And wary.'
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘They ate my ex's furniture!': people on their drastic divorce decisions, from training huskies to getting plastic surgery
She had green eyes that 'could see through walls', Chris remembers, not unruefully. When he and his Russian girlfriend broke up, Chris, originally from Sussex and now living in Maine in the US, admits he had Siberia (Elena came from the city of Novosibirsk) on the mind. He did the obvious thing: went and got a pair of three-month-old Siberian husky puppies: Loki and Freja, brother and sister – also with piercing eyes, but icy blue, especially Loki's. 'People would just stop on the street as he walked by.' Chris had owned dogs before– labradors. 'I figured that huskies were labradors with fur coats on,' he says, talking to me from his pickup truck after an early morning paddle in his kayak. 'They absolutely are not.' The dogs got bigger, and wilder. 'I was completely ill-equipped to train them as the role of dominant alpha doesn't come naturally to me. They didn't seem to want to reason with me. Despite four hours of walking a day, it wasn't enough.' Chris even bought a sled for them, because huskies are bred to pull. (Take note of the sled – it will come back later in this story.) But the dogs frequently escaped, killing chickens and chasing horses. 'Twice they were brought home in the back of a police car. They ate my ex-girlfriend's furniture and bit through electrical and internet cables. I had to duct-tape the fridge closed, because they could open it with their noses. The final straw was when Freja started ripping the plasterboard off the wall.' Now everyone could see through walls. 'I returned them to the breeder and wept in her arms,' Chris remembers. 'But she did tell me that in her 25 years of breeding huskies, she had never had two returned in such good condition and with such well-kept fur.' A big breakup can often prompt people to overhaul their life – whether that's a new haircut, career change or, say, acquiring two strapping great Siberian huskies. Why is such a painful time also one of renewal? And when the dust settles, do people look back with regret? Joanna Harrison, a couples counsellor, former divorce lawyer and author of Five Arguments All Couples (Need To) Have and Why The Washing-Up Matters, understands this better than most. As well as all the big stuff – children, houses, money etc – it's often the everyday things that people miss after a split. 'The quietness at home, not being able to talk about the little things – people feel alone, miss company. Getting a pet may be a way not to feel so alone again. And to have a new project, a new identity. Animals are a key part of people's identity; the animal we choose might reflect an aspect of our identity that we're trying to convey.' Chris just chose the wrong animal. Times two. Harrison says divorce or separation can have a profound effect on a person mentally. There's the pain, for starters. 'For some, there may also be relief, but there's still something that needs mourning – the relationship, the hopes and dreams that are no longer possible.' Of course, the pain will be much greater if you didn't want the relationship to end. 'There are all these different phases we know about: of grief, feelings of anger, shock,' she says. 'I work with people who are devastated by the end of a relationship, don't know which way is up or down. They feel disoriented, lost, broken, numb.' Numb is what Victoria, in Switzerland, felt when her long-term partner unexpectedly walked out. 'I doubted myself and everything. I was in shock, not able to feel anything – no anger, no pain, nothing,' she tells me. 'How could anyone feel so numb? Was I really dead inside? I decided to put it to the test, put myself into a situation I knew would provoke strong emotions to see if I would still be indifferent to life. My solution? Do something that had been on my bucket list for a long time – skydiving.' And so she found herself in an aeroplane, strapped to an instructor, looking out at the mountains, but still not registering any emotions. It all changed on hearing the instruction to open the door and thinking: hang on, we're on a plane, the door shouldn't be open. After watching two other pairs jump and disappear it was Victoria's turn. 'I was on the edge; I closed my eyes and let myself go. The adrenaline rush was something I've never felt in my life. I felt fireworks in my brain. Freefalling hundreds of metres above ground, I was happy, I was free. I took in the beautiful day, the wonderful landscape, my audacity to put myself through all that, the fact I was not only alive but ecstatic.' After landing safely, Victoria had a grin so big it began to hurt. 'I wrote immediately in my journal a note to myself: 'This period is not going to be easy, and it will take time to feel like yourself again, but life is much more than this episode. You will heal and you will laugh and love again.' It took years to fully get over my heartbreak but, as I promised myself, I went back to who I was, eventually. Since then, I always share with anyone going through a heartbreak: have you considered skydiving?' Or indeed backpacking? When Rachel's relationship of seven years came to an abrupt end, she found herself in a rut. 'I phoned my boss, gave my notice and began to plan,' she tells me. 'A couple of months later, I flew out of the UK for a solo round-the-world backpacking trip, at the ripe old age of 38. The following two years, I backpacked through Asia and Australia, then visited 30 US states in a beat-up old camper van. I gained a whole new view of the world, met a wonderful girl and emigrated to Germany to start a new life.' Harrison says that in virtually every relationship there are things you might like to do but, 'because of your dynamic, what works in your relationship, they don't happen'. It might be intolerable, because you can't properly express yourself, and it could contribute to a relationship ending. Or it could be something to do after the relationship ends – set off round the world with a pack on your back. A geographical move, a change of scene, is something that cropped up a lot among the people I spoke to. After her breakup, Deepa travelled from the US to Europe and immediately fell in love all over again: with Prague, where she signed up for an English teaching course. Now back in the US, she admits: 'We are sort of back together. But I would leave him for Prague and my own dreams all over again!' Harrison says the urge to go far away is understandable. 'Something possibly humiliating has happened, or you feel betrayed; maybe everything you see is going to remind you of it. It's quite human to wish to have a bit of space to lick your wounds.' She does have a couple of words of warning. 'The feelings will follow you. Going to the other side of the world isn't necessarily going to stop you hurting about the loss of your relationship. You might get there and feel just as awful.' The old problem with any kind of travel is that you tend to bring yourself – and your baggage – along, too. Separation might be an opportunity to get unstuck, says Harrison. 'You can claim some of those things back that you may have let your partner do, learn a new skill or do something intrepid, and discover you're more competent in that area than you realised. It's reclaiming some identity, and that could be quite positive and exciting.' When John in Belfast was, in his words, 'given the old heave-ho' by a girlfriend, he decided to fill the empty space in his life, and in his room, with a synthesiser. 'I learned the notes, a few chords, practised scales – no longer was I going to be pigeonholed as a mere boyfriend. I had recovered from the rejection and was forging ahead with a brilliant new life and future, quickly on the way to becoming the next Jean-Michel Jarre or Dave Greenfield [of the Stranglers] … ' But then John met someone else. 'She swept me off my feet, leaving the instrument to gather dust.' It became a repeated sequence, a loop perhaps, if you were looking for a musical analogy. 'I found myself with another synth to fill the gap, but it, too, found itself in the corner as I hit the dancefloor, new girlfriend in hand … until, inevitably, another black-and-white-keyed friend with lots of buttons and switches joined the growing army of 1980s music technology.' You won't have seen John on Top of the Pops. 'I was never single long enough to program or even play them. But by the time I bought a house and tied the knot, I had an enviable collection of synthesisers and other beats-making hardware. Today, most have gone, but I do occasionally find myself browsing vintage synthesiser listings on eBay, to keep the marriage sharp … ' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Sometimes it's about a change in physical appearance. I heard about lizard tattoos, drastic haircuts and dyes (orange and blue). Han in Korea got breast-enlargement surgery after divorce. 'But I realised they were too big for my lifestyle, so I downsized two years later. Since then, I have promised myself not to make important decisions after a breakup.' Weight loss came up. Significantly, in the case of Christian in California, who dropped 100lb (45kg). 'After 15 years married to a narcissist, I was 315lb and very unhealthy. I wasn't always like that, but people in toxic relationships often end up not taking care of themselves and gaining weight.' Christian joined his healthcare provider's supervised weight-loss programme and was able to lose that weight over about eight months. 'The road is still ongoing, but the divorce was definitely drastically needed, not only for my happiness, but also for my health.' It wasn't the only change Christian made. 'I threw away my wardrobe of mostly black clothing and started wearing colours again. I wish I had done it sooner.' Rhyannon in Gloucestershire transformed her health – physical and mental – through open-water swimming. After ending her unhappy marriage, she realised she desperately needed significant change in her life. As well as getting a new job, she committed to swimming outdoors throughout the winter. 'After years of neglecting my body and succumbing to the demands of work and family obligations, I stumbled upon the pure exhilarating joy of cold-water swimming. It rekindled a long-buried need to indulge in activities that spark joy within me. In my late 40s I confronted my fears, including the intimidating uncertainties of what lay beneath the surface, and discovered I had the ability to swim distances I never thought were possible.' Three years after the end of her marriage, Rhyannon swam the length of Windermere – nearly 11 miles (18km). 'Change can feel daunting, yet it's those moments of stepping into the unknown that can uncover the profound joy we deserve.' Harrison says that separation means 'a shift from thinking about the needs of the relationship and more to protecting yourself. There can be a need to go into survival mode, and that might go alongside trying to take more care of yourself, look after things that maybe you haven't.' She also warns that dealing with a breakup is a long process as well as a stressful one. 'And it isn't necessarily linear – you might feel better, then go back to feeling not so good.' She thinks that people can make big decisions very quickly 'to get away from something really painful. My advice is often to slow things down, because you can't really bypass the mourning that needs to be done at the end of a significant relationship.' Some of the decisions I heard about might have benefited from a bit more time. Lawrence in Manchester had a partner who was obsessed with crystals, which he went along with because she was fun. He even collected some for her while out walking, including one 'which I was admittedly rather taken with myself, as it was almost perfectly shaped like a neolithic hand axe. Obviously, it wasn't really a neolithic hand axe, I told myself, as cavemen weren't making axes out of pretty crystals, were they …' You see where it's going, right? After Lawrence was dumped, he decided to sell his collection of pseudo-mystical rocks, which he did to a 'wizard' who only really seemed interested in the hand axe – £60 for the lot. The folly of his actions began to emerge on a trip to Lisbon where, in the prehistory section of the city museum, Lawrence found a cabinet of crystal hand axes. Then, on another trip, to the Scottish Highlands where he had originally found his, he learned 'it was one of few confirmed sites for hunter gatherers in the UK. And that their favourite material to work with was – you guessed it – crystal.' Lawrence doesn't know for sure that it was the real neolithic deal, but he has seen on the internet cruder versions selling for £4,000-£5,000. 'I think it should be in the National Museum of Scotland.' And remember Chris in Maine? You could say his purchase of two Siberian huskies to replace his one Siberian girlfriend wasn't the wisest of decisions. But this one does at least have a happy(ish) coda. Four years later, clearing out his basement, Chris came across the dog sled he'd forgotten about. With no use for it, he decided to take it to the breeder he had got the dogs from (and to whom he had later returned them). 'There were all these huskies running about, some loose, others in pens with runs attached. I asked her what happened to Loki and Freja. 'They're here, over in that pen,' she said. I stayed where I was, she went and opened the door, and out looked this big blond head with bright blue eyes – Loki! He took one look at me and came charging, followed by his sister. They jumped up, pinned me against the wall with their paws on my shoulders, licking me to pieces.' They had a better life now, Chris says – dog sledding in northern Maine in the winter, then spending summers on the farm. Has he seen them again? Does he visit? 'I think that would be too confusing, definitely for me.' The Russian ex had quickly found – and married – someone else. And what about Chris, what's his current relationship status? 'Single. And wary.'
