O what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive When he was about four, Lucas kept a kiwi fruit as a pet. He had made a kind of crib for it out of a tin which had contained Marks & Spencers Curiously Strong Mints, and he had lined it with some…

I am looking back on our brief holiday in New York with amazement. Hard to believe that just a few weeks later much of the world would be in lockdown owing to the coronavirus. It seems we made our visit just in time. I’m so glad we did. Best to remember that this thing is…

Cherries ‘Do you have cherries?’ asked Bridget. ‘Oui, Madame,’ said the woman serving, ‘but they are still very dear at this time of the year.’ ‘Of course. How much?’ ‘Come, Madame, let me show you,’ and she directed Bridget around a corner of the stall, which was piled high with gorgeous things like round courgettes,…

Cardigan I was bullied at school. You wouldn’t think so to look at me now, would you? But it’s true. I was small for my age, you see – what they call a late developer. Mrs Bond dubbed me ‘The Mighty Atom’ when I was about nine and the tag stuck with me right through…

By the next morning the rain had been chased away and we set off in chilly sunshine. This was a fortunate because Helen had set aside today for iconic things and Grand Central Station is a very grand iconic thing, so we set off with me trotting alongside my guide like a faithful hound. Good…

Not long back from New York and the trip of a lifetime. I need to get back into my writing routine but it has taken a few days to shake off a beguiling feeling of unreality. I left A Dish of Apricots in the middle of an important discourse on different coloured jelly babies. I…

Avignon, France This was a difficult choice. My adopted home town of Lincoln has, arguably, the finest cathedral in England. The majesty of London and Rome, and the romance of Paris are well-documented. Venice is uniquely astounding. Walking down the steps to catch the water bus on the Grand Canal and first walking into St…

The Crown [Series 3] ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I was saving this one up for the dank days between Christmas and New Year when the schedulers have given up and padded out the listings with pap, dreck, drivel, twaddle and rot – and repeats of the aforesaid pap, dreck, drivel, twaddle and rot. As soon as this series…

The King [Netflix – released 2019] ⭐️⭐️ The King is as sludgy a mess as the mud-wrestling Battle of Agincourt it portrays. Its attemt to force contemporary political ishoos into a fifteenth-century chronicle leads to embarrassing plot and language clangs. At one moment we have high rhetoric and moments after references to ‘regime change’. I…