It’s a beautiful summers day and I’m looking out of a vast window of the eighth floor of a building. The Thames meanders into the distance past the Palace of Westminster. The London Eye turns slowly on the South Bank and people look like ants crossing the bridge each way, north and south. I imagine […]

On the decking the nasturtiums have all but given up the ghost, bowing their heads in submission. Even the water in the hose comes out like it’s been mainlined from the kettle. It’s only been two or three days but it’s debilitating. Daisy is lying on the wooden floor breathing fast and heavy. Logically I […]

I’m in Tuscany this week being given a timely reminder of reasons to be grateful. At breakfast yesterday the talk, which had previously been dominated by my daughter’s misguided childhood belief that a small door into a garage next to the newsagent was, in fact, a nightclub for people with dwarfism, turned to death, as […]