For his genius, for his ravishment — I’m used to adversity: I’m a vegan. The standards I uphold can be heavy to bear—sorely tested in a restaurant when faced with the prospect of no dessert. You try watching others sink their spoons into Panna cotta and tiramisu while you sip a mint tea. It’s not pleasant. Beyond…

Life’s impossibility — O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! Robert Burns You know my feelings about hair, and its importance. You know my reverence for hairdressers — second only to plumbers in being one of life’s Most Important People. You know I consider only…

And respect your body — I say to my husband, ‘You’re half the man you could have been if you hadn’t met me.’ Sometimes I vary it: ‘You could have been twice the man you are today if you hadn’t met me.’ I mean literally, not metaphorically. Although American, he’s of Italian descent and therefore…

Reading it, and writing it — I met my husband on a dance floor. An unlikely place to find your future partner. He invited me to the bar for a drink. We chatted. He was lovely, charming, handsome. We got to talking about our families. Amidst all the usual stuff—brothers, sisters, hometown, pets, work—he said something…

Just don’t ask me to write one — I don’t want to wrong anybody, so I won’t go so far as to say that she actually wrote poetry. P G Wodehouse Only once have I penned a poem. In my defence it was January and our boiler broke and plumbers were as rare as a vegan cat. So…

Where does love fit in the schema of life? — I was reading Alain Badiou’s In Praise of Love. A few evenings later, I was cleaning my teeth when a thought — no, a voice, my voice — clear as can be, came to me: What about love? I wasn’t thinking of Badiou’s book or of love. I was simply…

July is our zenith — Is it me, or do Americans lust over autumn, or fall, as they call it? I suppose that’s what happens when you get an actual summer, when you get actual heat from the actual sun; you crave the cool. It’s particularly difficult to take such an attitude this summer. For…

An unlikely source — I had an urge to read something ‘light,’ something entertaining, something humorous. I reached for P. G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves. Not having read Plum for several years, I was struck in the first chapter by the brilliance of his writing. …

A motorway service station — When I was a child, my family went camping every year. We did not have money for holidays abroad to sunny Spain or sophisticated France. We did not have money for hotels or even a B&B. Pitching a tent in England or Wales — once in Scotland — was our…