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 …
When I was a little boy, every time I went to a birthday party, my parents would say the same two things to me: “Remember what your name is and remember who you belong to.” I found this very confusing. How could I forget my name? And who did I belong to? I thought it …
I’ve been thinking about remembering. I flatter myself to think that I have a good memory, for the useless as well as the useful. Sometimes they’re the same thing. For instance, I once won £20 from a quiz machine at Heston services on the M4 for knowing which sport is associated with the Drysdale Cup. …
When I was small, I didn’t like the dark. It wasn’t that I thought there were monsters lurking; it was a physical thing. I didn’t like the darkness of it, the thickness, the feeling of it closing around me. I didn’t like the unknown silence of it, the quietness into which my own heartbeat might …