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Men have two friendship problems, says Max Dickins.  One, we may have lots of mates, but tend to lack intimacy with the friends we have.  Two, with the friends we do have, we grow further apart as we get older.

Some thoughts on peace.   Every day at the moment I feel like the world is creaking more and more. Globally. Nationally. Locally. Personally.   As a Christian I know the end from the beginning. I know everything will be ok in the end. I’ve read the last page of the Bible.   And yet […]

So I was trawling through the endless news feeds on my phone the other day and I saw an article that surprised me.  59% of couples feel their relationships are stronger because of Covid.  Then I saw another article in quick succession telling me that divorce enquiries are up 95%.  Surely those two articles can’t […]

365 days ago I was making some of the worst phone calls I have ever made. ‘I’m ringing with some sad news I’m afraid. I’m so sorry to tell you that mum died in the night.’ Looking back now on both the moment and the agonising aftermath, I wince at the excruciating pain of those […]

I love football.  Recently a video began to autoplay on my social media feed. It featured the 20th minute of the 1996 League Cup Final. As it did, goosebumps appeared on my arms and my heart quickened. The ball breaks to Aston Villa’s number nine, a much-maligned Serbian by the name of Savo Milosevic.  He […]

We are hurtling towards peak Christmas.  In the strangest of years, we are reaching the reassuringly familiar saturation point of jingling bell riven songs, mince pie consumption passed double figures a long time ago and that unmistakable feeling of festive cheer is warming nicely alongside the pan of mulled wine.  And the annual debate has started […]

Stay alert while we isolate the unprecedented, non-essential cliché that is the new normal while we flatten the curve. All of us are getting used to new ways of doing things, new habits and new ways of seeing the world. Let’s begin with the superficial changes. Before Covid (BC), I had never elbow bumped anyone; […]

Of the many dramatic changes to our world in the past few months, our experience and awareness of death seems, sadly, a little closer than it did. As a government spokesperson stands to give us a number and we simultaneously scroll down our social media feed and read of a family in mourning, those dying […]

I don’t know about you, but I keep finding myself wondering if it is all a dream. And two factors in particular make this extraordinary season seem all the more strange. First, the extremity of the change it’s made to my life. My days and weeks used to have tangible, recognisable markers, familiar rhythms and […]

The Contagiousness of Hope There are some things that spread.  That is the problem faced by our world in this moment as Covid-19 infects people across the planet and causes thousands to become ill and tragically some to die.  The conversation in coffee shops, colleges, corner shops and the corridors of power is how to […]