Normally, they would have been alive with children clutching fresh daffodils and a box of chocs for a beloved mother or grandmother. Yesterday, however, churches up and down the land stood empty on what should have been one of the busier days of the year – Mothering Sunday – as ministers went through the devotional … Read more
Last week, I started closing emails with the sign-off: ‘Hope you’re staying sane and sanitised.’ It was deliberately light-hearted (because, goodness knows, we all need humour right now) but it carried a serious message, too. I really did hope people were taking Government advice to wash their hands and distance themselves socially. I really did hope … Read more
Last week, I started closing emails with the sign-off: ‘Hope you’re staying sane and sanitised.’ It was deliberately light-hearted (because, goodness knows, we all need humour right now) but it carried a serious message, too. I really did hope people were taking Government advice to wash their hands and distance themselves socially. I really did hope … Read more
Mum sparks a furious debate online after revealing she bought gluten-free flour for her banana bread recipe – but who is in the right? A mum sparked a furious debate online after saying she used gluten-free flour She said she did this because she couldn’t find regular flour in the supermarkets The post triggered a … Read more
Mum sparks a furious debate online after revealing she bought gluten-free flour for her banana bread recipe – but who is in the right? A mum sparked a furious debate online after saying she used gluten-free flour She said she did this because she couldn’t find regular flour in the supermarkets The post triggered a … Read more
Historians still quibble over whether Napoleon Bonaparte actually said it or not. Yet it has stuck. And it was certainly not meant as a compliment. ‘England,’ scoffed the former French Emperor in his twilight years, ‘is a nation of shopkeepers.’ To which, right now, one can only respond: ‘Amen to that.’ For as we confront … Read more
Tennis aficionados used to insist that Bjorn Borg had ice in his blood. The bigger the challenge, it was said, the better the Swede used to play. Judging by his appearances over the past week, we must therefore assume that through Rishi Sunak’s bulging veins flows nothing but pure liquid nitrogen. For the third time … Read more
Tennis aficionados used to insist that Bjorn Borg had ice in his blood. The bigger the challenge, it was said, the better the Swede used to play. Judging by his appearances over the past week, we must therefore assume that through Rishi Sunak’s bulging veins flows nothing but pure liquid nitrogen. For the third time … Read more
Hard to believe, but next month sees the 50th anniversary of the day The Beatles broke up. The four of them had been together for under eight years, Ringo having joined John, Paul and George in the summer of 1962. Yet as President Obama noted when presenting Sir Paul McCartney with an award at the … Read more
For mums across the land tomorrow, Mothering Sunday will be perhaps the most poignant — and unnerving — they’ve ever experienced. So many elderly parents will be kept away, in self-isolation, from those they care for most. There will be no parties for them, no flowers hand-delivered to mother by those who once depended on … Read more