With Talk Radio’s Mark Dolan, 7 July 2021.

The British weather has a well-known impact on the national mood. Unusually long spells of sunshine made the first 2020 lockdown more bearable for many. By contrast, this year’s perishing spring made Step 2 of the UK government’s ‘Roadmap out of lockdown’ a sobering experience, during which a trip to the pub required determination, detailed […]

The Corona Generation, Coming of Age in a Crisis, which I wrote with my eldest daughter during the UK’s first lockdown, explores the impact on those coming-of-age under pandemic-related restrictions. In this video, Emma, Class of 2020, candidly describes how teenagers have been affected by school closures and restrictions on normal social activity while I […]

I wrote the article ‘Covid-19 is not a generation war’ the week before the UK’s formal lockdown announcement. As major political pressure for lockdown grew inside the country and internationally, disease spread rapidly. National school closures and the cancellation of public examinations had already been announced. Nonetheless, there remained a possibility that the UK might […]

Now was supposed to be the era of the “new normal”: a brave new world that had learnt the lessons of a horrifying pandemic, that was epitomised by the death of the city, remote working and a new-found love affair with the “great outdoors”. And yet, I fear, we are entering a completely different chapter in our sociological […]