85. 'Days Like Those'

Rebecca Tyrrel is a journalist, as is her husband, Matthew Norman. For years Rebecca wrote a column for (I think) the Independent, entitled 'Days Like These', all about her life with Matthew and their son, Louis. I don't read the Independent, because I have enough brain cells to want to read the occasional long word, but some clever person had the idea of combining all Rebecca's columns into a book.

The premise is that Rebecca is scatty, numerically dyslexic and long-suffering, Louis is small and addicted to Doctor Who (long before its renaissance) and Matthew is a neurotic hypochondriac intellectual snob. Sounds awful. Funniest thing I've read in YEARS. Literally hooting with laughter. Dribbling. Carrying the book about with me, reading while I"m walking, waking Herself up in the middle of the night laughing. I think the honest truth is that I see something of myself reflected in Matthew and it reminds me that I must be forever grateful to Herself for putting up with me.

After the book was published, the column morphed into 'Days Like Those', but continued to be funny and beautifully judged and completely mad in the best English tradition.

And every now and again, when I have a day like today during which no sensible, productive cerebral output has been possible, I cheer myself up with a few of Matthew's restaurant columns, and a dose of endorphins thanks to 'Days Like Those'. So I will rise from my chair and leave the eyrie certain that I must try harder tomorrow, but with a smile on my face.


Corrections and Clarifications: 'Days Like These' was first published in the Daily Telegraph. When the column moved to the Independent it became 'Days Like Those'.