Culture is not unique to humans, even though they use this notion to mark themselves out as superior to us, their ape cousins. Culture is the stamp of humanity, they proclaim, animals do not possess it – they have the unfortunate habit of forgetting that they too are animals – and there is no tribe …
It is late summer, the sun shines its light on him, his face reflected on the water’s surface, the yellow lilies dwindling, as Luca, my youngest son, sits on the top wooden step leading into the pond, and marvels at the large green dragonfly, which circles and surveys its domain, this great insect, the apex …
How I love this young man, perhaps my greatest teacher. He can quash my anger with his smile, melt any resentment, as he holds my gaze. What he gives me when I hold his stare, to let him witness me, not as his father, but as another human being, full of wonder. There’s a great …
I lie on the decking by the pond, a hot English summer’s afternoon. My brow sweats, my mind churns with dread. A persistent feeling the last few hours… lost, sad, broken. Theodor is away, on summer travels and adventures with his mummy. But I think of him, as I often do, my first born. His …
It is as if I, and a few others, inhabit an alternate universe, when the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, despite being in possession of the most recent reports from the IPCC and United Nations, both of which point to a devastating future should we not immediately curb and cease fossil fuel usage, proclaims …
The most effective and moving film on climate change to date, from someone who has witnessed it firsthand over the past ninety-three years. We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, the anthropocene extinction, which we, human beings, are responsible for. Things are dire. I am terrified for future generations. If we carry …
A seemingly magical thing happened in late 2016. I received a phone call, out of the blue, from a dear old friend, Sara Caplan, who said, quite simply, “Nick, I think I can help.” Over two years earlier, in June 2014, my young sons Theo and Oskar had been diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a …
I am not as I was. I am a changed man. Life has changed me. Duchenne has changed me. I, we, will beat the fucker, that is the fatal disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which Theo, Oskar and thousands of other boys worldwide have, and which will kill them. The diagnosis gives us parents, of Duchenne boys, …
I did not think it would be this soon, just after his fifth birthday, that his legs would finally fail him. Bocketts Farm in Fetcham, Surrey, Saturday morning, and Theo stumbles over to me from the softplay on his toes, legs quivering below the knees. “I cannot walk, daddy! My legs hurt.” With these words, …
The majority of parents with children suffering from rare fatal genetic diseases looked on aghast at last week’s political events, as a bunch of nasty, and frankly pathetic, politicians sought little more than power and personal advancement. Though some, zealots such as Gove, Farrage and Duncan Smith, actually believe in their infantile vision of an …