Laura

Laura Stanley is only 15 and has already produced an impressive collection of poems and short stories. But she also used to enjoy singing and was a great artist and dancer. For a long time she thought she might follow one of those paths as a career, as at the time she didn't really know whether she was good enough at writing. But in the end she has decided that writing is what she loves.

Haruki

Haruki Kato is a highly enthusiastic young sculptor (刻师).At the age of 16, he has already had his work shown in galleries and won several competitions. He says he is encouraged not by successful artists, but by anyone who is driven and determined to get where they want. I have a lot of people around me who have helped me and made sure I improve and grow as an artist. In the future, I’d like to do the same for children like me who have a talent but need.

Elena

Elena Mancini is 17-year-old make-up artist with plans for the future. She’s already working in local theatres and has even helped on a film set. "People in our village have always put on plays and my mom does all the make-up. I used to ask her to let me help her. If she had stopped me from helping, I wouldn’t have found out how much I enjoy doing make-up. "

Joel

Joel Bailey, who is 15, wants to be a music journalist and he has already had some interviews published in music magazines. "I’m a big fan of rock music. I enjoy writing as well, and one day I just came up with the idea that I could be a journalist and specialise in music. So I started writing articles and sending them off to magazines. Some I didn't even get paid for, but I didn't mind, because if you want to succeed in any business, you have to get recognized and learn your skills. "

I write this on a spring morning, in the van I have called home for two years now.

From one small window, I have a view of joggers pounding the sunny path by the Oxford Canal, and the other looks onto the busy railway line along which trains travel from Southampton Docks to Birmingham.

The woods where I’ve parked my van have grown up between them. This ancient van, a vehicle designed for freedom and the open road, has proved a stable solution for surviving the current housing crisis.

I became a travel writer after my studies ended, committing to brief “residencies” with museums and art centres—where temporary accommodation is often provided in exchange for producing new work about a community. Over the years that followed, living and working on location in the polar regions or Scandinavia or the Alps, not settling down for very long, meant wherever I landed was always “home”.

It was necessary to adopt a more permanent engagement with locality. Oxford had often drawn me back. It’s a crossroads of reality and the imagination, the perfect city for a writer.

It takes a surprising amount of work to keep a tiny home in order: buying a used van online; ensuring the smooth running of a gas cooker and car batteries; fetching water and emptying the mobile toilet. I began to enjoy taking care of my immediate surroundings. Over the summer, I worked to turn waste-ground into a wild garden, replacing weeds with wild plants.

I made friends with the self-sufficient boaters living nearby, always ready to share knowledge on the low-carbon simplicity of life without electricity. I’ve learnt that comfort can be found away from the bright infrastructure of urban life: in watching the birds that nest in the tree and the foxes playing in the woods at dawn, in making a cup of coffee on a spring morning.

My step away from conventional housing has been a necessary act of personal economy, but the benefits include taking nothing for granted, and unexpected delight.

A family’s cat has finally been recovered after three weeks of being on the run in Boston’s Logan International Airport. The cat -named Rowdy-had been successfully avoiding airport workers, airline employees, and animal experts since escaping from a pet container. Rowdy was finally caught Wednesday.

“Whether out of exhaustion or hunger we’ll never know, but this morning she finally let herself be caught,”an airport spokesperson said.

Rowdy is to be given a health examination and then returned to her family. “I’m kind of in disbelief,”said her owner, Patty Sahli. “I thought, ‘What are the odds we’re actually going to get her back?’ But I got a call this morning and I am just so shocked. ”

Rowdy’s time on the run began June 24. Sahli and her husband, Rich, returned to the United States from 15 years in Germany with the Army. When their Lufthansa airlines flight landed, the 4-year-old black cat with green eyes escaped her cage. She was chasing some birds in the area.

Soon Rowdy herself was on the object of a chase. Her escape set off a big search involving airport and Lufthansa workers. Construction workers, and animal welfare experts got involved as well. They used wildlife cameras and safe-release traps in an attempt to catch Rowdy. Many people saw Rowdy during her extended airport visit. However, the cat always escaped those who chased her.

Now, with Rowdy safely contained, a little calm has been returned to the airport. “It was such a community effort,” said Sahli, adding, “we’re just so grateful to everyone who helped look for her. ”