The cruelest cut of all: even though this is a bank holiday, four days of frolics and fun, Felix, my seven-year old son, had class today. The day after he cheered his future monarch up the aisle and munched a buffet fit for kings, his church summoned him in for a little tutoring. In about … Continue reading »
It’s in our DNA, that shape where one line crosses another at right angles. And the cruciform shape is, it seems, quite critical: for it makes it possible for DNA to effect repair within a cell. Do we, somewhere in our subconscious make up, know this? Is that why it is used so often to … Continue reading »
If you’ve been through the ritual of the wedding, you’ll know this moment well. The announcement was made long ago and the six or so months since have made you vehemently wish you had decided to elope or simply cohabit. You have endured invitation lists, wedding places, menus, fittings, endless debates about dress and etiquette. … Continue reading »
It is a heady mix, a member of the professional ruling classes, with a criminal tendency. And it necessitates a bit of a double life. Are they the forbears of our superheroes, these uber-villains dressed in dove grey and silk cravats? Always in need of a respectable cover, they cultivate two personalities, one in the light, … Continue reading »
Spring has brought a stolid sentry to our back gate. The gate has an enviable vantage point to he who posts himself by its bars. Every dog walker must pass our back gate on the way to the forest. During this warm spring, the door is flung wide open from dawn until dusk. This means the … Continue reading »
Early in the morning is another country: because the world has not yet begun to turn. Here, when we are on the flight path for Heathrow, it is signalled by a huge, asthmatic jumbo jet which we hypothesise is a freight carrier. How it stays up in the air as it hauls its great metal … Continue reading »
Running shoes have become quite de rigeur on the streets of London. And I can quite see why. When my father was ill in a London hospital, I would travel with running shoes on feet. The moment I stepped out of the tube station onto the London pavements I would begin to run. It was … Continue reading »
England has gone all Merchant Ivory. It actually resembles all those films which pretend to represent us: Howard’s End, and Room With a View and suchlike. England, when it is all dappled shade and aquatint, sells. It is warm and open and the trees are just about in limey leaf, and we’re all unpacking our … Continue reading »
On certain weekday evenings, the UK National Grid has a sudden demand for power which is peculiar to this little group of islands. As one of our top soap operas, Eastenders, draws to a close, the grid takes the strain as 1.75 million kettles are switched on for a post-drama cup of tea. It is … Continue reading »
When is a tricorn not a tricorn? Why, when it’s a bicorn, of course, silly. I have just stumbled upon a rather wonderful page in a battle re-enactment blog. A genuinely puzzled inquirer from a French and Indian unit begs for enlightenment: could his tricorn hat, a staple of his F&I dress, possibly be masquerading … Continue reading »
