Family
A dog is not just for lockdown
The Dogs Trust charity received 114 calls on 27 and 28 December from people wanting to offload their puppies. No,…
Ghosts of Christmas past
Seances, trikes and the miracle of tinfoil
Chance of a lifetime
As I gaze at my four children on Christmas morning, clambering on to the bed with their stockings, I will…
Diary
I’m often asked when I’ll write a pandemic novel. I’m not sure I’d ever be tempted, though the backdrop of…
A shed of one’s own
I’ve moved out of my home. No, Caroline and I haven’t broken up. It’s just that we’re having the house…
Dear Mary
Q. My son has moved his girlfriend into our fairly small house for the second lockdown. I am grateful for…
No respite
What lockdown means for families with disabled children
Wild life
Bexhill-on-Sea My Aunt Beryl taught me to love books and paintings. When I’m at a loose end in London, lonely,…
Oxford circus
If you’re looking for a sign of the academic times, you could do worse than consider the image, published in…
She was just a damn cat – and I loved her
I’ve never dug a grave before. But that was how I spent my Sunday afternoon. Three feet is awfully deep…
The joy of proving my wife wrong
Back in April, The Spectator ran a feature in which the partners of regular contributors wrote about what it was…
The puppy has won
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
For now, age isn’t just a number
When I told my seven-year-old granddaughter, over Zoom, how much I missed being with her, I added: ‘Maybe it won’t…
Lullabies and lockdown
I laughed when my Spanish midwife mentioned in passing that in Latin American countries they have a custom for new…
Stranger than fiction
Salman Rushdie on writing in the Age of Anything-Can-Happen
Stinky Malinky is growing on me
Since the beginning of the lockdown, Caroline has been congratulating herself for having bought a puppy ‘just in time’. She…
The world of make-believe is stranger than we realise
Last summer, in the bc era, I took my then three-year-old to a new group play session: ‘Lottie’s Magic Box.’…
My grandfather, the hero
In tough times, people often discover their dauntlessness
Quarantine with our new puppy will send me barking
When the news leaked at the weekend that the government was considering telling those aged 70 and over to self-quarantine…
Life in lockdown
Italy is being consumed by panic
Can we have a pet instead?
When you’re not a mother it’s hard to imagine what motherhood is like. Anyone you know who becomes one assures…
Dear Mary
Q. I see a lot of two of our grandchildren because they live in our London house. We are centrally…
Deborah Orr rages against her small-town upbringing
Unlike a lot of people in the media, I didn’t personally know Deborah Orr, but I know many who did,…
Christmas with my brother
Ever since I was a child, I’ve associated Christmas with my mentally disabled brother Chris. Technically, he’s my half-brother —…
Tame family dramas: Christmas in Austin, by Benjamin Markovits, reviewed
My partner’s brother once found himself accidentally locked into his flat on Christmas Day, which meant having to spend it…
