It’s Monday and the week stretches before us, unknown and exciting, full of optimism and hope, full of possibility, potential and the thrill of discovery. Or, if you’re anything like me, full of things you’re not quite ready for, things that aren’t properly thought out, things that bring with them the dread horror of failure, …
Later on today I’m going with Jonny Taylor, one of my oldest friends, to watch England beat Wales at rugby. My first visit to Twickenham was for the England final trial in January 1973. My Dad and I sat on a ringside bench at pitch level, almost on the touchline. I was colder than I …
It’s Friday and they think it’s all over. Time to Pause for Thought – except no one wants to Pause. I don’t. I just want to get to the end of the day, the end of the week and have two blessed mornings not riding the bus to Oxford. So spare a thought, ladies and …
Three years ago today I was doing that thing that so many of us do in the aftermath of the festive season. I was looking at my belly. It was not a pretty sight. So I did that other thing that so many of us do at New Year: I resolved to Do Something About …
I was eating a piece of cheese the other night, late on in the kitchen, alone after clearing the Christmas decks. Cheese is the thing that comes out when you know you've had enough but even so your eyes light up and before you know it you're half a pound of stilton to the good …
Christmas makes me feel a little vulnerable: the pressure to get it right; the sheer, spiraling cost of it; the need for everyone to be jolly. What if I fail? It makes me want to run away. I went for a run recently, in the countryside, and found myself in a field where, in the …
I spent Wednesday this week with some of my oldest friends, Nick and Kate, and Kim. These are friends I grew up with, went to school with, friends I still love forty-odd years later. I don’t see them as often as I’d like but sometimes we still need each other. And you all, you lovely …
One of the big questions at this time of year, obviously, is are you a Strictly house or are you a Factor house? We are a Factor house so I’m afraid that last weekend I was moonlighting for the opposition. This week is Faith in the World Week and it struck me as I watched, …
Today, Chris, is not a good day. Immediately after I leave you I am off to the dentist. Now my dentist is very nice but I would rather walk blindfolded the wrong way down the M1 than have to visit him. I am scared of the dentist. So scared that I seldom go, which everyone …
One of the pleasures of returning to work at the museum last week (and there have to be pleasures in returning to work otherwise we’ll all go crazy) was to be surrounded again by its many treasures: pictures, sculptures, textiles shimmering with gold and silver thread, ceramics of miraculous delicacy. It is a daily treat …