Fall Down, Get Up Again
— John Connor

At the start of all of this, when I was laid low in the hospital by what turned out to be sclerosis, I was visited by my mate Nigel. He is the king of sclerosis (I’ve written…

Last Wednesday morning didn’t go according to plan. I’m lackluster every Wednesday morn because Tuesday nights are my regular work gig at London’s Comedy Store. I laugh too much, drink too much, and don’t get home till about…

Second in a series. Read part one. Last week, I wrote about solving my back problems by purchasing a mattress topper for my bed. It was a good thing, too, as I was going into the hospital for a…

First in a series. So this is what an earthquake feels like? Well, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it was the middle of the night, and I’d been abruptly awakened to find myself lying at a 45-degree angle. This took…

Now, I’m all for complimentary comments on my columns, and in the combative world the internet has engendered, the stroppy ones, too. But it’s when you lot start writing to each other that I know I’ve hit something.

Well, it’s not a cure, but working hard sure takes my mind off MS. In fact, I’m so rushed off my feet (irony intended!) I’m not sure I have time to write this. But if I stop and…

I knew I had MS nine years ago when I went back to see my neurologist. I’d had the lumbar puncture to prove it definitively, and I displayed all the requisite symptoms. The only question I had…

Everything takes so much damn time! I’m strangely working — or at least doing things I purport as work, such as this column. That’s no different than before MS; I still have the inclination to prevaricate or find…

Well, this is going to be a niche market: A picture of a toilet should grab the attention of any plumber who’s now got MS and reads Multiple Sclerosis News Today. Victories need to be celebrated no…

Most weeks with MS are downbeat. That’s hardly a way to capture a reader’s attention — all of us struggle. What we need is light to blow away the shade. Last night as I climbed the stairs to…

The queue to get into Canterbury Cathedral in bright sunshine seems endless. The quandary of being Dracula strikes me — I’ll either fry in the sun or fry in a church set up during the Roman occupation…

Phew, what a scorcher. The summer of 1976 was the last time it was this hot in the United Kingdom. My lasting memory of that summer was not lazing on a beach, but sweltering as a relief manager…

The U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) turned 70 last week. In England, yes, we are mourning our semi-final defeat by Croatia in the World Cup, but to most of us, the NHS is the U.K.’s crowning glory.

Hi, everyone. I’m absolutely exhausted. And it’s all the fault of the World Cup. Not from any sort of secondary exercise while watching games, but because it’s given me the week off work. England lost their last…

I started out in my professional life as a journalist. This only lasted about eight years and feels like a lifetime ago — which it was. Though I was not a news hound, I learned to smell a…

For those reading this in the U.S., part of what I’m going to write will likely be incomprehensible, as it involves the World Cup. That’s football, not soccer. The rest of the world is in thrall to…

A family wedding in the gardens of a grand country house some 30 minutes from Oxford sounds idyllic. And indeed it was. Not, though, for anyone in a wheelchair. A deep pebble driveway at the front was impassable. It…

  I’ve just dived into the misty world of the allergy medication clemastine. My, there’s a lot already written about it on this site. I was prompted by an article I’d saved on Facebook last year.

I never kept a diary. I did sometimes muse about it but reckoned I’d never become famous enough for one to be useful. Well, at least in that I was right. Until the rise of the smartphone, anniversaries and…

Arguments over nothing and everything are, in my experience, induced by extreme stress. When my wife and I were at full bore working together, this often happened. Not at work — there wasn’t time — and we were…