He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But how I empathise with poor Piers Morgan, tied up in intellectual knots by the conflict between his professed beliefs and his affection for his son. As the high priest of lockdown and scourge of those ‘Covidiots’ who break social distancing rules, Piers had no hesitation last week in … Read more
The spine-chilling omens have been evident for many months now: a tendency to study the property pages with far more attention than she has displayed in the past; a heightened interest in TV shows such as Escape To The Country and Location, Location, Location. Plus, the odd, casual observation thrown out over supper — ‘Isn’t … Read more
As a fellow scribbler remarked elsewhere this week, wild animals seem to possess ‘some atavistic sixth sense that humans are in disarray or on the retreat’. His theory is certainly borne out by my own observations of the behaviour of the local fauna in our South London suburb. For many years now, we’ve been plagued … Read more
As my mother lay on her deathbed, visitors who asked her how she was feeling would get one of three answers: ‘I’m very well, thank you’; ‘I’m blooming’; or, ‘I’m in the pink’. You didn’t have to be a consultant oncologist to realise this wasn’t strictly true. For one thing, she was so ill towards … Read more