Jonathan Self

Curious Questions: How do you make the perfect slice of toast?

Jonathan Self is toast-mad. His entire family is toast-mad. He's spent his life looking for the ultimate way of making the nation's favourite snack. Here's what he suggests you do.

Jonathan Self: The lost art of hitch-hiking

A first encounter in decades with somebody hitching a ride prompts our columnist to look back on the days when hitch-hiking was entirely normal — and an incomparable way to get from A to Wherever.

Jonathan Self: The crisp sandwiches so good they were delicious even with a light coating of sand

A spell of time with a reduced sense of taste and smell proves a boon to Jonathan Self when it clears, giving him a new appreciation of some of life's joys.

The rat who came to lunch in a fetching shade of Farrow & Ball

Jonathan Self tells the story of a rather friendly rodent who seems happy to ride his luck.

Jonathan Self: After 44 years and seven attempts, I am finally starting to get the hang of this parenting business

Jonathan Self has nailed it, just as his twins leave for university.

Jonathan Self: My 146-year-old timepiece is the antithesis of the smartwatches — and it's all the better for it

How lovely to have a beautiful watch to order your life, says Jonathan Self; but how much better to have no need of one at all.

What I learned from the last garden hermit in Britain

Our columnist's rare time to himself causes him to reflect on his encounter with a man who had nothing but himself for company for years on end.

Jonathan Self: How do mosquitoes know when it's Easter?

The arrival of warmer weather heralds many joys — but also one very specific pain, as Jonathan Self grumbles.

Jonathan Self: 'Everyone deserves to engage with Nature, but enough is enough'

Jonathan Self muses on birds with bad sense of direction, militant ramblers and the plight of a camel-herding nomad.

Jonathan Self: What can you do with dogs? Their yea is yea and their nay, especially in lashing rain, is nay

It's raining, and Jonathan Self is outside waiting patiently for his dogs to do their business.

'Of all the countries in the world, Ireland is the country for ruins'

Jonathan Self muses on the abandoned, forgotten and mislaid objects which dot his surrounds.

'By the time I reached chapter seven I was nauseated by the sheer volume of stuff I owned'

Jonathan Self's chance encounter with a book shifts the way he sees his belongings... but how long will his urge to declutter last?

Jonathan Self: 'Ten yards from shore, I felt completely and utterly alone, the last man on earth'

A wintry dip in the ocean revitalises Jonathan Self.

"Hippocrates's advice — 'if you're in a bad mood, go for a walk' — would have me constantly perambulating"

Jonathan Self on the End of the World, ancient battlegrounds and friendly pigs.

Jonathan Self: 'Nothing manmade — not even the greatest works of art — can match the beauty of the countryside'

After months spent in Florence, a return to Ireland brings a tear to the eye of our columnist.

Jonathan Self: 'To be in a foreign country is thrilling. Everything is new. One is constantly on one’s mettle. It is like being a child again'

Jonathan Self's scuppered plans force him to reflect on how the joy of travel mixes with the delicious ambivalence of wanting to go home.

Jonathan Self: 'In Ireland, summer smells sweet, effervescent and damp. In Tuscany, one almost has to push one’s way through it'

Jonathan Self's recent move to Italy has brought a fresh challenge. Or rather, a hot and heavy one.

Jonathan Self on switching banks after 50 years: 'I was in such a fury that it was fully an hour before I came to my senses'

Oh dear — poor Jonathan has had a bit of a time of it. We'll leave him to explain more.

Jonathan Self: What I found out when I finally read a book I'd been meaning to read for 40 years

The author finally plucked up the courage to read Montaigne — here's what he made of it.

Jonathan Self: 'Shoes are part of what it means to be human — they were invented 4,000 years before the wheel'

Giving away his suits was one thing, but Jonathan Self struggled when it came to his classic brogues.