BY PETER BROOK More than just a cooker, our Aga—known in the family as ‘Aggie’—is a cast-iron monument to the reliable comforts of home. It is the 90-year-old engine room of our kitchen, and the undisputed heavyweight champion of multi-tasking, often combining cooking with warming up young, wet lambs; drying anything from washing to damp hounds; keeping those same hounds warm and cosy at night; … Continue reading The Aga Can
BY ROGER WATSON The waiter suggested that I might want to try another restaurant as they had a sixteenth birthday party taking place that evening. He indicated a long table set for about twenty people but, as I had already been seated and had a panoramic view of the Boccadasse harbour in Genoa, I was reluctant to move. Then my heart sank. In walked twenty … Continue reading Eataly*
BY FRANK WRIGHT The Enlightenment values which have given us the idea of individual liberty as freedom from constraint have partnered with technological advancement to result in a mass society of atoms. The digital age is not merely a lonely one, but one in which people are increasingly patterned on visual media. The life examples they internalise are not the lectures of online grifters, but … Continue reading War on the Family
BY JOE NUTT Like many people who read an essay by Honor Jones published a few weeks ago in The Atlantic magazine, entitled How I Demolished my Life, I reacted badly. For anyone who missed it, the essay began with the author detailing her dissatisfaction with her current kitchen, before rapidly moving onto a description of the unending mess created by her three children, then … Continue reading A Family is for Life
BY JAMES MELVILLE “We respect our elders. There is wisdom that comes from experience, and I am not going to stop learning from wise counsel.” ― Marcia Fudge One of the many collateral damages of the Covid crisis has been the profoundly negative impact of well-being and mental health on our elderly people. The elderly haven’t been asked what they want to do. … Continue reading What Do the Elderly Want?
BY NIGEL BEAN On my return home from work one day the good lady remarked that Hunter – our Labrador American bulldog cross – just hadn’t been the same since his Dad was sent over the rainbow bridge. I had noticed this as well, he appeared uninterested even in his food and his zest for life was missing. The solution we both agreed was to get … Continue reading It’s a Terrier
