I’m a very possessive person. Not that I don’t like to share my stuff. Come round to mine for a barbecue or a cup of tea and it’s ‘mi casa es su casa’. You want to borrow a book? Fine. Drive my car? Go ahead. No. I’m possessive of my space. I have my spot …
We watch movies in our house, and they enter our language. Crying, for example, is known as ‘Going a bit Sound of Music’ after my habit of weeping uncontrollably whenever Captain Von Trapp sings Edelweiss. The key Christmas movie, though, is It’s A Wonderful Life, which was released seventy years ago this week. Jimmy Stewart …
Community is a tricky idea these days. Surveys tell us we no longer know our neighbours and TV tells us that, when we do, they are very often ‘from Hell’. Online communities are elusive and shifting. The Guardian reported recently that ‘Facebook is now dead and buried to teenagers’. But politicians like the word ‘community’. …