I don’t really drop names, but only because I have so few to drop. If you only have a couple, you tend to take extra care of them....

This is beyond parody. Every year, between Christmas and New Year, I have a simple ritual, which is to get rid of 50 books from the...

In my sixtieth year, I will understand that ageing is perception, not reality. I will not buy a coffee unless I have brought my own cup...

With its £81 price tag, our Christmas turkey had clearly not just gone to a Russell Group university, but had gone into the Goldman Sachs...

My mind wanders during carol concerts. This year, it wandered into the realms of Cherubim and Seraphim. They get a good puff throughout...

I was run over in Midhurst today. Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine. It’s the second time I’ve been run over in Midhurst in the...

It’s always Boris the Jackdaw who kicks things off on our bird table. Strutting around with his feathers all over the place and thinking...

When we were small, my sister and I were cared for by one of two baby sitters when my parents went out for the evening. One was Rita...

When Edmund Burke said ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’, I like to assume that he was...

It could have happened to anyone. A couple of days ago, I left the office mid-morning to head to the station and then on into London for...

Become an activist again. Yes, you. Fifty years ago or so, moderate people on the left, the right or even the centre started to give up...

I certainly stole it. I know that to be a fact for about four reasons, the first of which is that I have never bought an umbrella in my...

It’s all John Lewis’ fault, of course, and people don’t like that. A decade of those weepy Christmas ads has put a tiresome qualification...

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night. I didn’t really. What I actually dreamed was that I had been selected to bat for England, but that...

If you could think of one dog not to own in a city that floods about a dozen times a year, and consists of steep, stepped bridges and...

In 1983, I was banned for life from Hockley Golf Club south of Winchester. Long story, and I don’t think, on reflection, that any of us...

Bus stop crows. That’s what Passenger called them in a song a few years ago. Those hunched up, dark-quilted, sensibly-shod,...

I used to harbour the ambition of amounting to more than a park bench memory after I am gone. Britain is full of benches, from where the...

Loss cuts many ways. When our lovely friend and club wicket keeper died seven years ago, a small group of us sat in the Queen’s Head in...

If you are having a bad day, I suggest that you keep in mind the events that unfolded on the night of 21stSeptember 1788 near the...