Life
Bitter truths
England. Despite being a Scotsman, partly brought up in Ulster, I have taken so much Englishness for granted over so…
The case against koalas
There was a reason 18th-century rulers were eager for their subjects to grow and eat potatoes: the miraculous tuber offered…
Life is a rollercoaster
I was in Canada last week, travelling across British Columbia on a luxury train called the Rocky Mountaineer. It was…
The turf
John Trotwood Moore, one-time State Librarian of Tennessee, was a racist and defender of the Ku Klux Klan. But in…
Low life
Marketa stands on one side of me, Catriona on the other. Marketa is Czech and my carer. Catriona is my…
Aussie life
One of the few survivors of Gough Whitlam’s Camelot, that legendary cultural icon and eminent Australian diplomat, Sir Les Patterson,…
Language
The word ‘mulligan’ is new to me – but golfers everywhere will find it familiar. In golf a ‘mulligan’ is…
Yorkshire pudding
My mother, a Yorkshire woman, would occasionally take shortcuts in the kitchen, but not when it came to a roast,…
Fat of the land
Lady Bamford’s Cotswold fairy-land Daylesford Farm has sprouted leaves. It is no longer a farm shop, which should be a…
Man of the moment – or not
What’s not to love about David de Gea? Manchester United’s goalkeeper might appear to have it all: a humongous salary,…
My blue tick humiliation
I was one of the first people to take up Elon Musk’s offer to purchase a blue tick, the Twitter…
