for young ladies who will grow old We would like it if you would come out from under the covers to see the stars. We would like it if you would take the long route and drive just slightly unsafely. We would like it if you would stay for dinner…

a thank you by way of highlights for Ponsonby Senior In 1934 a woman called, I believe, Deborah Senior published the fictional diary of Elizabeth Pepys, née St Michael. The author has recalled writing the diary ‘purely for self-amusement.’ I came across it in the stacks of the London Library…

Three years after I moved to the country house, I hired a gardener. Before that, I pushed a dinky mower through the near reaches of the grounds and left the perimeters to themselves. I planted an azalea bush or two out front and lopped the hedges in the back into…

Someone traveling alone … will see, within the context of his own capacity for observation … everything upon which he focuses his attention. If there are two travelers, each one will be able to see no more than half of these things; a quarter of them if there are four…

Or, Grimnir’s origins revealed Six months ago, I knew nothing about Alan Garner. Today, five of his books are stacked on my desk. Only one of them is mine to keep. I’ve renewed one of the remaining three seven times now from the library. I’m at that place where I…

or, if you prefer, a whole flight Read this… with this

It was less than a year ago that I sat in this same armchair and, watching Steve McQueen’s house-party, felt so very grateful to him. For giving us this ‘drama’ with no drama. For filming joy in real time. …

Because it had been ages since she had visited and because she hated revising in the dorm, Lucy rang up Gilly on a February evening and said, “Gilly, might I come down for the weekend?” Gilly, who lived alone in a bungalow on the southern bank of the Avon, said…

The 6:12 was ready to depart. The last passenger, harried and hurried, climbed on board and, hoisting his wheeled case behind him awkwardly, queried the guard. “Yes. You will find a toilet at the end of each car,” he was assured. The platform was now empty. The handful of people…