After eight happy years of column writing, I think I’ll take that sabbatical
During lockdown writing this column was a refuge. Coming out the other end, it's time to try to make something new.
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Tracey Thorn
Tracey Thorn writes the fortnightly “Off the Record” column for the New Statesman.
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Humans think they own the world but, outnumbered by birds, I am dumbfounded
A lot of birdwatching seems to be quite disappointing, but as I stare through my binoculars at the sky…
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Do we need a multi-sensory “experience” to make this Christmas perfect?
It makes me feel 100 years old to be complaining about the season’s over-commercialisation, but isn’t it really about…
By I’ve been shut off for too long. It’s time for some little ordinary adventures
At last, I’m shaking my post-Covid state of mind.
By How one recording studio embodies everything that went wrong in the Eighties
In a documentary on the Air studio, there is an absence of that ineffable vibe that turns some into…
By At my son’s damp student house in Brighton, I’m reminded of the winter of discontent
Though the house seems to me, at my age and level of sensitivity, utterly repugnant, I can see that…
By How I wish my old diary held more detail of the night I met my husband
My first meeting with Ben is mentioned only fleetingly. We went back to his room and listened to the…
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Covid has aged us, but a seaside sundae makes me feel ten years old again
On a trip to Kent, I discover plenty of literary references – and a new zest for life.
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Onstage for the first time since the pandemic, my public and private selves are in conflict
Halfway through my interview at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, I have an awful moment when I seem to…
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