I had never felt more relaxed while watching England play football. Born just two days after its one and only global triumph, 55 years have taught me to expect the worst. It has become a kind of self-preservation technique. However great the anticipation, there was always a Polish goalkeeper, a divine hand, or any number…
A ferocious blizzard was pummeling the car, threatening to send us tumbling into unknown peril. Aside from a few yards on each side, our surroundings were rendered invisible by a forbidding wall of relentless snow. Only a series of regularly-spaced poles marking the sides of the road served to guide our tentative advance. White knuckles…
Yesterday’s battle against the elements seemed as if it were months ago. The sun was struggling into the clear morning sky of an Icelandic winter, as if straining against the horizon’s short leash. Our car, essentially alone, was weaving in and out of the splayed fingers of the spectacular eastern fjords, stopping frequently as each…
Slowly, as she made her way around the room, the expression on our daughter’s face began to change. It had started as a picture of feigned interest; that uniquely teenage ability to simultaneously show just enough enthusiasm to avoid a parent’s ire while also leaving the observer in no doubt that this is not what…
I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but I was definitely younger than ten years old when I realised that England is not a big country. At least some of my early childhood misconceptions on the subject can be traced back to the military style planning with which my father would prepare for each family…
Every journey is a quest of sorts but, as we leave the familiar behind, what are we looking for? Perhaps it is the enticing prospect of the unknown. Perhaps we are in search of the simple pleasures of immersing ourselves, however briefly, in another way of life. Perhaps we just want a break from the monotony…
What follows is a transcript of the President’s planned remarks for the 2017 Presidents’ Day celebrations. I am merely the messenger; the “facts” are all the President’s … Welcome everyone. Thanks for coming. We had an amazing victory. A truly great victory. More like an annihilation, really. We had great crowds, I mean, spectacular crowds…
The obituary for 2016 will be full of obituaries. However, contrary to popular belief, we won’t only be mourning the year’s incongruously large loss of people we made famous. We shall also be grieving for things more fundamental; the loss of our decency; the loss of our humanity. It was a year when we lost…
It has been a few years since we decided not to have a real Christmas tree. Our decision was not a comment on the bizarre ritual of placing a dead tree in the middle of your home, but rather on the practicalities of the exercise. However much you may enjoy your first days in the…
I am high above you right now, looking down. I see one world. Its raging oceans are sheets of glass, erratically molded around the globe. Its highest mountain ranges but crumpled pieces of paper, imprecisely flattened. Its most hostile deserts are as forbidding as a pristine beach on a late summer evening. Its dark, impenetrable…
Journeys And 