Town Mouse Welcome back to Britain

FOREIGN tourists are back in London. Not in huge quantities, admittedly, but enough to swell the crowds. Waiting to buy cheese at a stall in Borough Market, I heard two Americans ahead of me in the queue, both of them evidently first-time visitors to Britain, expressing astonished delight when it was revealed to them by the stallholder that Cheddar was a place. ‘No way!’ one of them exclaimed with a laugh. ‘That’s so cute.’ There was a time when this observation might have met with tight-lipped reserve. On this occasion, however, everyone in the queue smiled. No one spoke, of course (this is Britain), but the message was clear: welcome back, we have missed you.

The cancellation of so many celebrations over lockdown has perhaps made this Halloween seem more important than usual. Whatever the case, it has loomed unexpectedly large in the children’s consciousness. Both have been invited independently to parties (and, in one case, to two different parties, which is causing great heartache). There are elaborate plans for costumes—at present two skeleton outfits—but, as the expectation seems to be that these will be manufactured by their parents, I fear that disappointment looms. Two grim reapers, swathed in black clothes borrowed from the parental wardrobe, may be closer to the mark.