OK, I am not as on track with the Slacker’s Guide than I’d hoped to be. In the same way that only getting half-way up a hill twice does not equal having bagged a Munro, half of Moby Dick plus half of Anna Karenina don’t equal two properly ticked off classics. Ho hum. Maybe […]
Change, Change, Change… Change of Life
What happens when you trap almost 500 middle-aged women into a confined space for a couple of hours? Wherever you are on the oestrogen spectrum, you’d be inclined to think that the outcome would be, to say the least, tetchy. Especially if some of the women had had their gin confiscated. But you’d be wrong. […]
How do we talk to children about Trump?
“Donald Trump scares me,” said Boy Three, tousled from his bed and clutching a toy penguin. The statement was more alarming than the news that something as preposterous as Trump becoming the president of the United States had happened. Boy Three is seven. If he’s going to be scared of anything, it should be bogie […]
A slacker’s guide to classic novels
OK. You know those lists that have all the books you should have read? The ones, in my case, that I feel quite smug about To Kill A Mockingbird and Brave New World, but pretty inadequate about almost everything else. Those. My powers of bluster and google had in the most part got me through. […]
Christmas: the most merciless time of the year
The lights have started twinkling, little children are getting excited, and up and down the land we are being urged to “feed the world” and that “Santa Clause is coming to town”. Can you feel it yet? That sneaky snaky feeling of dread and inadequacy. Yup, that’s the one. It’s the idea that the decorations […]