The chef ...

It’s fascinating to realise what enthuses your grandchildren - the more so, I think, because we’re not with them all the time. James has just returned from a holiday in Italy where he - and his parents - spent some of the time learning to make ice cream and authentic pizza. This evening we ate huge pieces of chocolate cake which he and his mum made last night, then watched a couple of extraordinary programmes on Netflix entirely devoted to competitive cake-creation, programmes which made Bake-off look utterly tame. He was clearly fascinated, and far more savvy than I am.

Now, of course, I’m smitten with guilt. Should I have been teaching James’s dad to bake, all these years ago?