My lockdown, like everybody’s, has been very personal and a mixed blessing.  I evacuated myself to a family farm and spent 10 weeks re-learning how to live in a houseful of 7 adults with strong characters. As my daughter told me firmly, this was after 10 years of ‘having everything my own way’. (Not quite… read more

My central heating has been on the blink for more than two months now. I’ve spent a small fortune, realised again the value of thermal underwear, learned a lot about the impossibility of influencing in certain contexts, and been impressed by a bewildering range of confidently expressed diagnoses.  I wish I had insisted on a… read more