Although it was a very long time ago, the fact remains that I was once a child, and a child with all the boundless weirdness that only children possess. But even I am puzzled by the child I once was. My eating habits in particular marked me out as an odd little boy. Fancy foods …
I have not been sleeping well lately. This is not a problem with actually going to sleep. I am excellent at going to sleep. Along with ‘having warm hands’, going to sleep is one of my superpowers. I can go to sleep anywhere, any time; on a bus, on a train, sitting down, standing up. …
A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk. And then, last Friday, I took a long ride on a bus. These were wildly divergent experiences. The walk was on Dartmoor, and was as bleak and magical and terrifying as a walk in South West England can be. Starting in the north of the …
I am not a young man and so it’s a relief, midway along the journey of my life, to find I am mostly not lost in the dark forest. I can do my job. I have helped raise children I am proud of. I know how to hold a knife and fork. I am, at …
It used to be the case that our house was full of unaccountable noise. In the night, there were bangings and crashings. Doors opening and closing with tremendous force. Whispering voices in the small hours, then howls and sudden bursts of cackling laughter. It was like living in a horror movie and it was, frankly, …
I bought a pot last week, while I was on holiday in Cornwall. It’s a simple pot: six inches of heavy stoneware, with a muted, speckled, grey-green glaze and faceted sides. There’s something ancient about it, something almost Japanese. But that’s enough Antiques Roadshow. Point is, it’s on my desk now, giving me enormous pleasure …
Last December 8th, on a chilly, damp evening in South London, I experienced a sporting epiphany. It wasn’t the moment I finally realised I was never destined for Olympic glory. No. That had already come, many years earlier, when, in every sport I attempted, it quickly became clear that I would always be commended principally …
I had to go into the Ashmolean Museum Reserve Collections yesterday, to choose some objects to teach with next term. Now this is mostly very good. First of all, without giving away any crucial security secrets, the reserves are in a deep, dark basement, so it was relatively cool. And second, museum reserves are fundamentally …
I came to the sea this week and I swam in it and was remade. It’s breathtaking, the sea: the scale and unspoken threat of it, the sheer blank, power of it. And this is no ordinary sea. This is the deep, grey North Sea of Northumberland. And these are no ordinary swimming places. These …
There are many things I am not good at. I am a terrible guitarist. I cannot draw. I am barely numerate. But of all the things I do badly, the one at which I suck the most is undoubtedly cricket. Now, I grew up watching my Dad play cricket and I longed to be good …