I started writing this on the 29th of September 2026, the anniversary of the day my dad died. I think about him a lot anyway, but around this time of year I find myself remembering things I haven’t thought about for ages. I’ve written about losing him before. Today, I’ve been thinking about what he was like when he was here, and how a man who spent years grounding me eventually became the person who kept me grounded. See what I did there. My dad had two rules when we were gro

I have been thinking a lot lately about loneliness and what it actually does to you, particularly as a man, because I think we are quite good at hiding it from everyone, including ourselves. The problem is that loneliness doesn't always look like somebody sitting at home with nobody to speak to. Sometimes it looks like somebody going to work every day, training, taking the kids to football, answering emails, laughing, making plans and generally getting on with life. You can b