Farewell & thank you!

After six fabulous years, Caroline Quentin has made the sad decision to leave Prima and move on to pastures new. Here, in her final column, she explains why…

Caroline Quentin writes her final Prima column

When I wrote my first piece for Prima in 2013, I’d never written for a magazine and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I could. Yet, six years on, I’m now saying farewell as I write my very last column. I need to free up my time so I can finish a book I’ve been working on for a few years.

I’ve loved telling you about the silly, sad and sometimes ludicrous trials of my daily life and now need to get to grips with a bigger, longer story. But I really mean it when I say I’ve loved every minute of my time with Prima.

When I started my column, I had two school-aged kids. My daughter is now looking for her first job in theatre, and my son, who was a 10-year-old with a passion for Moshi Monsters, is a 6ft 4in rugby player. There have been royal weddings, political chaos, Love Island and Game Of Thrones. Many of us are trying to eat less meat, but falling at the ‘bacon-buttie hurdle’ (me) and trying to drink less alcohol but struggling with the ‘Prosecco craving’ on a Friday night (me again)!

Here in Britain, there have been too many terrorist attacks to name, and we have mourned the people of Grenfell who died in the most hideous, preventable fire in living memory. I am constantly amazed

and grateful for the skill, bravery and selflessness of all the first responders at these shocking events. Hollywood has us marvelling at superheroes, but everyday ‘ordinary’ women and men outshine our movie heroes.

So, as I say a fond farewell, I know that life can be difficult, but equally can offer something so extraordinary it takes your breath away – a pink and orange sunrise; a heavily tattooed young man offering his seat on a crowded Tube train; a buddleia bush, smothered in butterflies, growing out of a crack in the pavement…

I hope, dear reader, that life is full of family, friends, love and laughter. Thank you again for spending a few minutes with me every month over the years – I’ve loved every moment of it.

Yours, with gratitude,

‘I’ve loved telling you about the ludicrous trials of my daily life’