THE SMALL THINGS

Today, I had to do a lot of very, very ordinary things. I did all those horrid jobs that I had been putting off, like getting all th...

On Tuesday this week, the death was announced of Richard Woollacott. He was forty years old. The Racing world went into shock....

This week has been a tough week. I got bruised and wounded and suddenly missed my mother so much that I found myself one night in the...

This year, somehow, the poppy got complicated. I heard a few pious people rather ostentatiously saying they were not going to wear one...

I ring the Oldest and Dearest Friend. ‘This menopause,’ I say, as the dogs gambol in the meadow and drink from the burn, ‘how big do y...

Not that long ago, I wrote a book called Seventy-Seven Ways to Make Your Life Very Slightly Better. Nobody read it, not even my agent. I ...

This is cheap as chips because I’ve been working my arse off all day and my brain has gone into its traditional fugue state. But I’ve ...

Today, I go to a meeting with a brilliant internet expert. I have on my special technology hat and I’ve got my special organised noteb...

A huge day. An epic day. Everything was vast. I had a huge conversation with The Oldest Friend. As if we had not covered enough yest...

I had one of those conversations today with an old friend, one of the ones which makes everything better. We ranged over every subject ...

I have a friend who is an expert in worldly things. She has seen more worldly things with her actual eyes than I can shake a stick at. ...

This evening, I exist in a state of extreme mortification. I have done something which has upset and worried someone I love and admire. W...

One of the great things in my life is Radio Four randomness. This is when I turn on the wireless at a time I don’t usually listen to i...

I am heroically, catastrophically hopeless at getting things done. I can write a book in three months, which I have just done, but can...

I love the word thing. I use it all the time, far too much, because I am so fond of it. I especially like the expression ‘I did not ev...