Colin is my friend, he arrived at my wedding in 2007, as a present from my school friend Selina. He has become a close friend to both me, and my husband. I am not alone in having a stuffed toy as a friend; British artist Grayson Perry has Alan Measles, the ‘father’ of AI, Alan Turing had Porgy, and Renate Müller, the German designer made stuffed animals to comfort children in hospital. I had ‘Horse’ as a child, he met a sorry end when my brother unraveled his knitted body in a revenge attack for me burying his bear in the garden. I don’t know who started it, and I assume, as brother and sister, it was an ongoing feud. Should you give up toys as adults? No, I don’t think so, we all have alter-egos, the voice in our heads that tells us what to do, how to be, I just wanted a fun voice, a playful influence, one that didn’t always do the sensible thing. We have other friends too, but that’s a story for another day :*)
