England's gifts

The cold fog of yesterday has morphed into a miserable thin drizzle today, and there's no way I'm going out into that unless I absolutely have to.

Here we are, then, in my improvised studio, which doubles as a kitchen the rest of the time. I was musing on England's contribution to civilization - specifically England, not Britain - and after much thought I came up with cricket and the Cornish cream tea as our greatest contribution to human happiness, with mild, crumbly cheese a close third.

I discovered Cornish clotted cream relatively late in life. Cricket I have loved since birth, part of my Yorkshire heritage, I suppose. I spent most of last night watching a brilliant Test Match from Sydney, utterly gripped by the drama and the players' skills and courage.

[A small confession. The strawberry jam on the scone is MacKay's - Scottish! - but I won't tell anyone if you don't.]