Long life
Cooking I find easy and satisfying. Preparing microwave dinners, on the other hand...
When some years ago I stopped having to go to an office, mainly because nobody wanted me to go to…
Evan Davies is SO not Jeremy Paxman (thank God)
It’s unusual for somebody promoting his own television programme to tell you not to watch it, but that’s what Evan…
Winslow Hall shows you don’t need fancy sets to make opera enjoyable
Winslow Hall is a large and handsome country house in Buckinghamshire, built in 1700 by Sir Christopher Wren, which Tony…
Reasons for feeling Scottish
Sometimes I say I’m Scottish, a claim often greeted with understandable derision. I was born in England, in Hertfordshire, went…
What my chickens need is a dog
Of the nine chickens I used to keep here in Northamptonshire only one survived the summer, and it was the…
The war on e-cigarettes is enough to make me give up giving up
I have been, on and off, a lifelong smoker; but I gave up in January 2009 on the day of…
Wedding receptions make me wonder about the point of marriage
Back from holiday in Italy, I look out of my kitchen window in Northamptonshire to find the country view blocked…
The Italians are disgusted with our holidaymakers
As the holidays draw to a close, Italian newspapers have been reporting with perplexity and distaste on the outlandish behaviour…
The word ‘holiday’ has become a political taboo
It’s August in Tuscany, and the market towns are eerily quiet, presumably because most of their inhabitants are off on…
If you want real stress, move to the country
It’s much more stressful to live in the country than in a town. There are always threats of one kind…
You can't spin yourself into authenticity – as Ed Miliband is finding out
For a politician to draw attention to his own deficiencies is a desperate attempt to curry favour with the electorate…
Freedom for my chickens! All it took was a man with a gun
If I haven’t mentioned my poultry for a while, it’s because the subject has been too depressing. I had been…
Assisted suicide is too close to murder to be legal
How amazing to have two former Anglican archbishops, George Carey of Canterbury and Desmond Tutu of South Africa, supporting Lord…
I thought paedophiles were rare – but then I read the newspapers
One problem from which I am confident I don’t suffer is paedophilia. I have always liked picking up babies and…
The profitable delusion shared by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton must be very happy about how they have fared since leaving political office, for each…
Brave, noble, forgotten – the other side of Italy's second world war
At the time of the armistice of September 1943, when the kingdom of Italy formally transferred its allegiance from the…
On being fired – and hired – as an editor
Last week was unusual. At the start of it, I was mooching about in the country in my customary way,…
Young Italians flock to London – for just the same reasons it scares me
Although I live in the country in Northamptonshire, I go to London often — almost once a week — and…
I wouldn't have accepted Lord Rennard's apology – but then he shouldn't have made it
Shirley Williams has a point when she says that Lord Rennard’s alleged harassment of four female Lib Dem colleagues was…
Sorry, Tara Erraught, but the age of the fat lady singing is over
London’s opera critics have been roundly condemned for suggesting that a female singer’s personal appearance could make her unsuitable for…
Why do consultants write such scary, incomprehensible letters?
There is a kind of letter designed to bewilder, upset and possibly terrify its recipient, and this is the standard…
Why Glyndebourne’s George Christie always cut his own hair
One curious fact about Sir George Christie, who died last week, aged 79, was that he always cut his own…
Would the urine of an eight-year-old protect my chickens?
I was predicting in a recent column that the arrival of spring would be bad news for my poultry, and…
The rich have given up their freedom
The appointment of Sajid Javid as the new Secretary of State for Culture has been much criticised on the grounds…
As a nation of voyeurs, we don’t cook but watch TV cookery programmes instead
When I got married 50 years ago, my wife and I had somehow acquired a little cookery book called Cooking…
