March 2022

In which I finally fold and buy a Brompton I am 16 stones and 13 pounds in old money. Call it 107 kilogrammes. Oh, all right, 107 and a half kilogrammes. Yes, I am loosely (very casually) trying to lose weight, in imitation of my wife who has managed to shed three stones just by…

From Nevil Shute’s post-apocalypse novel to Alex Salmond on Russia Today There are childhood books that leave a mark, and books that scar you forever. Wolf Mankowitz’s novella Make me An Offer, encountered at the age of 12, left me obsessed with the Portland Vase and the seamier side of the antiques trade. Alistair MacLean’s…