Oscar
Seeing Nelson in a new light
I picked up my grandson from his mother’s flat and noticed the change in him the second I clapped eyes…
Low life
The temperature gauge needle heeled hard over into the red. ‘Not again,’ I said to Oscar, sitting beside me on…
Low life
On Sunday morning we went, Oscar and I, to a vide grenier in the ancient, picturesque Provençal village. Vide grenier…
A game of chess with my grandson and a dead mouse
The younger grandson, Klynton, four, has got in the habit recently of thrusting his hands in my trouser pockets and…
My six-year-old grandson got Grand Theft Auto, certificate 18, for Christmas
I was at home in Devon for the month of December. My sister was also there and her tyrannical, wildly…
Follow my grandsons on the trail of the last bear in England
I was looking after Oscar, my five-and-a-half-year-old grandson, for the day. We’d played football in the garden, then we’d come…
After the initial shock of my cancer diagnosis, I’ve never been happier
On Sunday morning, I was kicking a football in the back garden with my grandson. I had bought him his…
We could swear and spit, strangle and shoot people
The old fishing town faced the sea psychically as well as architecturally. Dressed as pirates, my grandson and I walked…
My grandson's getting into the rugby: 'Which one's West Ham?'
My grandson and I had a lovely hour-long swim at the leisure centre. We had the learner pool to ourselves…
That’s another year gone and, against the odds, I’m still here
A fruity voice on the train’s announcement system said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you have all your belongings, family…
A game of dominoes turns ugly
I’m round at Amy and Bill’s for Sunday afternoon tea. Amy and Bill are my in-laws, kind of. When I…
My grandson’s Great Leap Forward
‘Oscar!’ cried Miss Herd as I arrived. She was standing at the classroom door releasing her charges one by one…
Two narcissists trapped in one static caravan
I was two days alone in the caravan and no signal or reception of any sort. It was like a…
The joy of showing my grandson how to wield an axe
Until a fortnight ago there was a healthy, graceful, 70ft-specimen of Eucalyptus dalrympleana — or mountain gum — in the…
Jeremy Clarke: If you haven’t read We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, you haven’t lived
Christmas shopping in Waterstones, I came across a memory card game called We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. I snatched…
Jeremy Clarke: Can't we even manage a proper hurricane?
In the Spar shop I overheard someone talking anxiously to the woman on the till about an approaching ‘hurricane’. I…
