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The Long TableFamily life across two homes

Written this month

The Notebook

Short dated notes on the British family year, month by month.

An open notebook and a pencil on a windowsill, with rain on the glass and a garden fence beyond.
The notebook is where the month gets written down before it is forgotten. Most entries start as three lines on a windowsill.

On this page

  1. What The Notebook covers
  2. How the pieces fit together
  3. Every piece in this section

4 pieces in this section.

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01 What The Notebook covers

The Notebook is the part of the magazine that keeps time. It is where we write down what a particular month asks of a family: the reset that September imposes on every household in Britain, the half term that has to be negotiated twice, the long quiet January evenings, the summer that runs out of structure by the third week.

Entries are short by design and dated so that they can be read in season. They are observations about the family year rather than reports about individual families.

02 How the pieces fit together

Two entries anchor the current run. The September reset looks at why the first fortnight of term rearranges a household more than New Year ever does. Half term across two homes deals with the week that is too short to be a holiday and too long to improvise.

The Notebook also holds two longer pieces on writing and reading about family life: keeping a family journal and reading family news carefully. Both belong here because both are about the habit of paying attention over time rather than reacting to a single week.

New entries appear through the year. The rhythm is deliberately unhurried: a magazine about family life should not sound as though it is out of breath.

03 Every piece in this section