My Dad was a Coventry man. So was his dad, and his dad, my great-grandfather, the gloriously named Herbert Harry Harris. There are fewer Coventry Harrises now (hello, Uncle Mike) but when I was a boy there were plenty and we went there often. My memories of early childhood visits to Coventry, are mostly like …
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 …
The Census for England and Wales on Sunday was the first to record that my children are now all technically adults. This was the third time they’ve appeared in the census (and my sixth), each one a momentary snapshot of our individual and collective lives: who we are, what we are, where we are, where …
I like to think I know my friends, and what to expect from them: not much from Jack, who lives a mile away, but extreme affection from Steve, who lives in Australia. But occasionally, they surprise me. Last week, a friend of mine found an old piece of broken pottery in a rabbit hole and, …
I woke up tired this morning. On Friday, I went to see my Dad in hospital, where he’s stuck with a bout of pneumonia, and then had supper with my Mum. On Saturday I saw some very old friends, sat around, sang, laughed a lot and went busking. My children showed up as if by …
I’ve been back from my holiday less than 24 hours and, weirdly, I’m already having trouble remembering exactly what happened. I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s really hard to get an overall sense of the thing. We stayed with our friend Isa and her family in Laramie, Wyoming, but instead of a sweeping cinematic …
January is awful. It’s cold. It’s miserable. And above all it’s dark. It’s a month when I don’t see daylight at home between Sunday afternoon and Saturday morning. It’s a month when my students get ill and don’t come to class. It’s a month when the next month is February, which, to be perfectly frank, …
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 …
I went to the pub on Tuesday with my daughter Esther, known in the family as Eddie. She's back from university for about 45 seconds before she heads off again for the summer. Eddie is excellent company. She’s smart. She knows about maths and physics. And she’s at least as argumentative as I am, which …