On Saturday, I went to visit my friend Julian at his allotment. It’s an unpromising scrap of South London tucked in behind a pub; a chaotic patchwork of plots nestling alongside the waterworks in the shadow of the prison. We sat for a couple of hours by Julian’s shed, hemmed in by peonies and ranunculus, …
This is a sermon preached at St Olave Hart Street. Jesus said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” …
I gave a lecture on Tuesday. “So what”, I hear you cry. Well, it is my job; but this one was actually fun, because I got to talk for an hour about my favourite artist, the dazzling star of the Florentine Renaissance, the one, the only Donatello. Thing is, it was a terrible lecture. It …
My house is full of boys and I have nowhere to go. There are only three of them, but they are an uncontainable, terrifyingly extensive physical presence. My stepsons, Sam and Linus are 6’2” and 6’4”. My boy Silas, all wiry climber’s limbs and freakishly long fingers, is no bigger than me, but no less …
Morning, Chris. Let me start by saying that I’m very happy to be here. Happy to be out of the house, glad it’s Monday. Part of this, obviously, is that I love my work, my colleagues, my students. But it’s also something else. You see, it has emerged, over the past couple of days, that …
I have a friend, Jem, who is a juggler. He’s very good at it. I’m not. I’m a rubbish juggler. I’ve tried it. I’ve even tried quite hard, so I’m aware of how difficult it is to tell jokes while juggling, juggle fruit of amusingly different shapes and sizes, juggle on stilts. It’s very hard …
I’ve been thinking about football. This has been a great season for the underdog and we've reveled in the exploits of Sutton United and Lincoln City, but at Champion Hill, the home of Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday afternoon I witnessed a feat to match any of them. Picture the scene. It's the quarter final of …
There is a recurring dream I’ve been having for 34 years. It is the last term before my A levels and I am trying to revise Geography but, horrifyingly, I have done none of the course work. Not a single essay. I move from classroom to classroom, fearful of what and who will be behind …