mostly david ephgrave

If there's one thing that brings me joy, it's watching my dog shoot around the garden. It's simple, uncluttered enjoyment for him and me. As a breed with poor recall, I never let him off the lead on a walk, but in the garden, he's free. He zips about like a nutter while I chase him, and by the time he's reached his limit, if you stand by him, you can literally hear his heart beating; it can't be healthy. The fact my dad loved seeing it too adds to the moment. The first time I brought Elwood over, he demonstrated his version of warp speed to my dad's delight. "You couldn't have a better dog" was how he put it, and Elwood's long since proved him right; he's a shaft of pure sunlight bursting past the bad bits. I'm writing this in the garden as we speak, watching Elwood sniff the air on a windswept day. Behind him, the only daffodil to break through the earth yawns open like a tiny, floral firework. The fact there's just one is appr...

I just wanted to write a little addendum to last night’s piece on Ken Dodd's death. This morning, I listened to the 2013 documentary celebrating Dodd's life, titled ‘How Tickled I Am’ and found it both interesting and amusing in equal parts, but there was something he said right at the end of the programme that touched me enough to note down. It was while discussing with clear joy what he did for a living that he exclaimed, “All the rotten jobs people have to do, and here's me, I have this wonderful job where I only see people happy; I only see them smiling. How wonderful is that?" What a lovely way to put it; I’d never thought of a comedian’s job that way. For someone like Dodd who was a notorious workaholic who’d do five-hour-long shows as a matter of course, his level of commitment suddenly makes sense when framed like that; why would you want to stop, when you’re playing to a room filled with such delight? It r...