3 August 2020
Grandmother did most of her work in bed. She had a special tray with folding legs that served as a desk. She would sit up against a stack of pillows, with a cashmere cardigan over her nightdress, and write longhand on loose sheets of foolscap. Pots of tea were ferried to her by my grandfather, who would have been fully dressed in a tweed jacket and tie and working from his study downstairs. All the men in my family had a study or office, and worked jobs with regular hours; unlike Grandmother, who would break off from her writing to dig in the garden or peel the spuds for dinner.