I am just finishing off my truffle omelette (like you do) when I get a call from a charming young journalism student. As part of her final year project she is publishing a Swedish newspaper. She has read my articles in the Mail, knows I am half-Swedish …

Yesterday I spent the day in Toulouse with Denise Epstein, the daughter of Irene Nemirovsky (see ‘We’ve never had it so good’ blog below). Ever since I heard about Irene being carted off Auschwitz in front of her two daughters and read her brilliant bo …

I am at Stansted Airport, a strange place to be at 4.30 am but my flight leaves at 6 am. Yesterday I had one of those days that make me wonder why we ever left England. I went for a long walk first thing in the morning, watched the mist rise over the s …

I receive an unusual text message today. “Your chauffeur, Michael, has arrived,” it reads. “Silver Mercedes E Class.” Thank God it’s an E Class, I wouldn’t be seen dead in anything else. I swan out of the Lagham Hotel accompanied by a little man carryi …

….you can’t take the flu away from the girl. So here I am in London. Yesterday was a great day and further to my report (see blog below on Blighty) I can safely say that at least viewed from central London Britain is a very nice place to be. The sun …

Olivia is at home ill and watching Grey’s Anatomy. There is a girl in the episode she’s watching who suffers from spontaneous orgasms (sounds better than flu). Olivia has just asked me what’s wrong with her. “She keeps having sort of, well, fits,” I te …

Two days ago Olivia said to me; “Mummy, you’re never ill.” Well, now I am. I feel like death. My head hurts, my throat hurts, in fact my whole body hurts. I am constantly coughing and sneezing. My husband has had the same thing and now two of the three …

A survey out today by a US magazine called International Living places Britain at number 37 in the world of best countries to live. We share this dubious honour with Greece, Ecuador, Cyprus, Iceland and Lithuania. Apart from Greece I have never been to …

I have just been to collect the children at school and see that something called a Mammobile is parked in the main square. This is, I assume, a travelling mammogram that will test women for breast cancer. Personally I would rather be run over by it tha …

I am reading Suite Francaise at the moment, as good a book as I have ever read. It is about France during the second-world war, written by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian-Jew who lived in France and was carted off to Auschwitz in front of her two daughters …