LEARNING THE ART OF LIVING WELL
As an entirely inevitable conversation unfolds about death, loss and grief this week, I wanted to share a children’s story I wrote some years ago. Many adults feel unsure about how to discuss death with children, and as a result the subject can be avoided entirely or made oblique to somehow soften the blow. I […]
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There’s a tone some people have taken on when talking to me throughout both Lockdown season one and two. It’s subtle and I never expect it, but when it comes it really makes me question how the person sees me. ‘But anyway, how are you?’ they’ll ask, after we’ve discussed how they having been dealing […]
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I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie A Single Man. Directed by Tom Ford, it’s an incredibly stylish, well-acted film, which is quite deliberately thin of content, allowing the viewer to really concentrate on the characters. I watched it less than a year after my wife died, and it wasn’t until then – four years on […]
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We’re getting a puppy. I told my son, in no uncertain terms, that it was never going to happen and now it is. This tale began in lockdown. I’d taken Jackson for a walk one day – when he had started schooling from home and I had started living at work – and he asked […]
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Lost for Words: Advice for Children About How to Cope with Grief. You can read this piece in English at the end of the post, too. My sincerest thanks go out to Luca for the translation (sei il migliore, Luca). Oggi e’ la Giornata Mondiale dell’emoji, e per celebrare l’occasione, ho dato il permesso a […]
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I’m doing a radio interview for Father’s Day this Sunday, and so earlier this week a producer got in touch to clarify a few points about who I am.
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Anyone out there with a pulse and a LinkedIn profile will know that now is a tough time to run a business. The economic uncertainty; the physical distance from your clients and colleagues; and the relentless Zoom calls, when you’re unknowingly on mute as you deliver your finest ever TED-worthy monologue. The challenges are real […]
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I find it pretty awful when people try to reassure me that I’m a good parent right now. Instead of revelling in the words of praise, I recoil as I recall all the recent times I’ve nearly exploded, pushed by a child to the edge of quarantined sanity. Go ahead and #sourdough your way through […]
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Yesterday was horrendous. While, strictly speaking, it was the first day back at (home) school after the Easter holidays, I suppose parents across the country made a decision about how stressful they were going to make it for themselves. I – perhaps predictably – went full-force. I could have eased my son back in, but […]
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Lots of parents and guardians across the UK picked their children up from school for the last time in who-knows-how-long on Friday this week. The abruptness, shock, fear and confusion of it all reminded me of something else: grief. And grief, at least as I experienced it, can feel a lot like pressure. What will […]
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Three things have been been fighting for my attention this week: The Morning Show (Apple TV’s compelling drama about the #MeToo movement), a diagnosis of superior limbic keratoconjunctivitis (a longstanding eye issue that has made me look like I’ve just been dug up) and Coronavirus. Yesterday, all three of these things, incongruously, came together. Before […]
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I used to love reading the poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas when I was child. The idea that ‘not a creature was stirring’ in my house made the idea of Father Christmas’s arrival even more exciting. I would stare out of my bedroom window and convince myself that he had magically turned the sky […]
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MAN ALIVE 