It’s new book season! And I’m delighted to have Clarissa Ward, chief international correspondent for CNN, back on the Spike. Her last appearance here was hugely popular and Clarissa has now written a book about what led her to report from the front line and her experiences thereafter. I read this a while ago and it was terrific and very… View Post
Where do you start? Where do you begin putting your life back together after it all? Some of you don’t have a choice. You worked and worked and worked throughout, on your laptop until midnight, juggling everything, anaesthetising yourself regularly, with whatever was at hand. Perhaps now that you have some quiet in your house you are punching the air,… View Post
I’m very pleased today to have my old pal and former colleague at The Times Rebecca Ley on The Spike. She has written this absolutely terrific/horrifying book called For When I’m Gone, which is based on the premise of a woman with terminal cancer (scream emoji) writing a manual for her husband on how to take care of the kids…. View Post
All Adults Here by Emma Straub Emma Straub has a hint of Ann Tyler about her – although I always think it’s rude when people compare one creative to another, Emma Straub is a brilliant writer in her own capacity and not some copycat. But, what I’m saying is that if you like Ann Tyler you will love Emma Straub…. View Post
Having spent a week on the beach in Norfolk with children I strongly recommend a few additional pieces of kit, further to my list before. This is if you have been canny enough to secure some UK beach time this year. I now feel so neurotic about UK beach holidays that I have rebooked Norfolk for TWO WEEKS next year… View Post
Look, what can I say – this is the weird life of a woman: one moment I am ranting about the patriarchy and the next I am giving you a recipe for poached pears. But what a recipe! I love poached pears so much but have never managed to re-create them at home until now. This is just wonderful, I… View Post
I met a woman today who has children of 9 and 7 and she described to me how one child will go back to school in September but only until 2pm and the other one until 2.20pm. She laughed when I said that the school needs to consider the mothers’ domestic and professional workload. “Ha! That school is not run… View Post
Alas, it’s not a question of repeating my no-one cares about us rant in a newspaper; a rant from me about what happened to mothers over the last four months isn’t especially newspaper-worthy (thank god for the internet! Sometimes). But what has to happen next, I think, is that if it looks like schools will close their doors again, I… View Post
I read something in The Economist last night that I want to share with you. The Economist has always been very hawkish in its campaign for schools to re-open more promptly than they did and they carry a strongly-worded leader on the subject this week. (I use the term “re-open” relating to schools advisedly, by the way I understand that… View Post