I was going for a walk the other day – I’m supposed to walk for at least twenty minutes a day to keep my lymph system going and I’m getting to really like it – when I saw this little shoe perched up aloft on a fence post. It seemed so poignant and so lost. …
I don’t love theatre nearly as much as I feel I should – huge ticket prices, uncomfortable seats, the awkwardness if things on stage aren’t working – but I do adore Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare. They seem such bullet proof writers – their plays make sense to me no matter what silliness the directors/set designers/actors …
I’m so glad I live in England. I have a very funny friend who lives abroad – no prizes for guessing where – who tells me the only correct answer to the question ‘how are you?’ is to say, ‘FANTASTIC’. At that volume. He explains, “If you answer, ‘Well, I mustn’t grumble’, what you are …
I felt so sorry to hear that the MP Simon Danczuk is suffering from depression after all his work to expose historic child sexual abuse. It is hardly surprising, but very sad nonetheless. I feel that everyone is tainted by this awful abuse, apart from the abusers themselves, who seem to have no souls, so …
I’ve long been a fan of the Mapp and Lucia books by EF Benson, so I was really happy to make the most of a child-free weekend to pop down to Rye. Rye is the model for Benson’s wonderful, fictional seaside town of Tilling, where his characters, Miss Mapp and Mrs Lucas, are locked in …
There are so many tales of everyday heroism coming out of the horrific attack on holidaymakers in Tunisia. Bystanders who leapt into action with tablecloths and napkins to bandage the wounded, hotel staff who ran towards the shooting instead of away from it, in a vain bid to protect the sunbathers, ambulance staff who arrived …
I’ve always loved sewing. My grandmother had a tremendously stately Singer sewing machine, which sat proudly on its own sturdy table with swirly metalwork legs. It was a very important and splendid thing, a bit like the Queen Mother, seldom wheeled out but always treated with a lot of reverence. My mother, very good at …
There’s nothing that says summer to me more clearly and more beautifully than a nice set of shiny, freshly-varnished toes. My poor pinkies have spent the winter months stuffed into socks, ferociously neglected, I’m afraid, until last week, when a friend suddenly suggested a pedicure. It’s such a lovely indulgence to get it done for …
I’ve noticed something really strange. I now enjoy taking things back to the shops more than I like buying stuff in the first place. Bizarre, isn’t it? For years, hunting down the perfect dress, getting it wrapped by a polite stranger and taking it home in triumph was rather a thrill. Now I get genuine …
I was so excited when a PR for the Globe Theatre invited me to a special bloggers’ theatre event. I’ve absolutely loved the Globe ever since returning to the UK, partly because it’s such a brilliant way to introduce children to Shakespeare. Ok, not teeny tiny tots – but my daughters have been going since …