Father's Day

I've never been a daddy's girl. When I was growing up, it seemed like he was always at work and mum was always at home. She was, and is, funny and clever and can do anything, and my friends love her. My dad's more complicated. He's a classic scientist in that he's obsessive about his work, a little shy and a little bit away with the fairies.

But the older I am, the more I 'get' my dad. His focus, the stiff-upper-lip way he dealt with my mother's decades-long struggle with agoraphobia (which I'm pretty close to wanting to write about), his loyalty, his practicality and his kindness (the most underrated virtue in these selfish times): all in all, I think he's pretty great.

I love this picture of us; he looks so vulnerable and young (dad's probably twenty-four here, seven years younger than I am now). And what a fox, eh?