My kidnapping scare

Newly returned from the best ever New Year in Scotland, I walk down Portobello Road and waft through nostalgia. All those felted hats in primary colours and Mongolian knits with floral patterns. The smell of frying falafel, dodgy hash and second-rate coffee. It takes me back to Hull fair, seven decades earlier, with my gloves dangling from elastic on the sleeves of my nap coat and a scarlet face full of vinegary, newspapered chips. I realise it is the first time in a while that I have moved slowly in a crowd without carrying a banner saying ‘Bring them home’ and shouting: ‘Shame on Hamas.’

I read that Rachel Riley has objected to HMV’s advertising of the film One Life, about Sir Nicholas Winton, which described the Kindertransport hero as a ‘British humanitarian who helped save hundreds of central European children from the Nazis’ (my emphasis). It was, it seems, beyond HMV’s remit to use the word ‘Jewish’.