The art of socialising and new narratives

Virginia Blackburn said there is one particular pleasure we have been denied over the past year - that of hotels.

“There is something about staying in one that nothing else can match,” she said. “It’s the sense that you could be anyone in a hotel, they still can’t be totally sure you are who you say you are.”

She said some hotels such as the Gritti Palace in Venice are destinations in their own right.

“The actor Richard Harris lived in one of the most glamorous hotels in the world,” she added. “The Savoy in London, and it was there that he, too, began his last journey and had to be taken out through the foyer on a stretcher. Fellow guests goggled and Harris managed one last carouse. He hoisted himself up. “It’s the food!” he cried.

The Guardian

Eleanor Margolis said as lockdown eases, the idea of having to hold a conversation with someone other than her partner or the select few people I regularly video call, fills her with both excitement and dread.

“Even before my year without a social life, I was prone to social anxiety,” she said. “Now, I feel like I need to take a nap after exchanging small talk with a delivery person.

“To varying degrees, we’ve all forgotten how to exist in a world where it’s OK to kiss our relatives, or rub the corner of your eye without first washing your hands for the duration of the birthday song.”

The Independent

Tom Peck said Boris Johnson needs to ‘hurry along’ the public inquiry into the handling of coronavirus.

“Now is the perfect time for a new narrative, for new angles to focus on,” he said. “Maybe then, just maybe, “there is a new story,” as Tony Sewell might say, about the Barnard Castle experience. About how it was an opportunity for one man to transform himself through the power of gazing at some bluebells, not to mention remodelling himself as a more courageous motorist.

“There are, if you’re just prepared to open your mind a bit, new narratives everywhere. New stories to tell.”