Carla Carlisle’s Slow Life

I was running over in my mind who are my favourite columnists. They are: for politics Matthew Parris; for business Luke Johnson; for venom Rod Liddle; for films Deborah Ross; for TV James Delingpole; for campaigns Christopher Booker; for restaurants Giles Coren; for gardening Robin Lane Fox. They’ve all got one thing in common which is that they don’t take themselves too seriously (except, sometimes Giles Coren) and they write, as all columnists should, with the main purpose of entertaining the reader. ​

But my favourite columnist is Carla Carlisle, who writes about nothing in particular in her ‘Spectator’ column on the final page of Country Life. I like her, even though, when she expresses an opinion, I rarely agree with what she has to say. But we are definitely on the same wave length in her piece entitled ‘Take Your Time’ when she reveals that she has joined Slow Food UK. She says:

“The philosophy (of Slow Food) is that everything is seasonal, local, fresh, made to order. In short, the opposite of fast food. It’s hardly a revolutionary idea, but I like the ethos. It’s in my DNA, a gift from a Southern grandmother whose philosophy in life was “Take your time and get it right”.

If I believe in anything, it’s the need to slow down. In fact my dream now is for a sister organisation to Slow Food UK. Called the Real Slow movement, it will take in all aspects of life. The logo will be a hammock, and membership will be relaxed and free”.
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For once, we agree, and hey, we already have a logo – it’s a tortoise riding a Penny Farthing, backwards.