'I'm gonna go get the papers. Get the papers.'

I seem to be mutating into a Guardian reader. My earliest newspaper habit was the Times - basically I had the inbuilt knowledge that it was the top paper, sort of the Platonic ideal of a newspaper. But Murdoch put paid to that. Subsequently, the Telegraph has for years provided me with a doable crossword and largely enjoyable read.

Although not an explicitly political person, I would have preferred to read something a bit more left/liberal, but at the time (80s/90s)the quality of writing seemed to me to be superior towards the right (New Statesman: like chewing soap bubbles; Spectator: a banquet served after a weekend shooting party; some strange offal in there but largely more enjoyable.)

Recently I've started hiking a mile in the dark to a Post Office most mornings as a gut-diminishing exercise process. Buying a paper gives me a goal and something to read when I get back. I've found myself buying the Guardian, partly because it fits into my pocket (therefore not impairing my manly stride.) And the paper is good. Seems that lefties can write now, perhaps through some process of natural selection (eg the right-wing writers have died of gout.)

So it's away with my tweed suit and monocle, hello socks and sandals...