...greeted me on the doorstep this morning. Hardly surprising - many suburban roads have small rivers gushing down the sides, and along the main road near us there are tide-marks where great puddles that result from each night's giant downpour ha slowly drained away to await the next...
To Mass at Westminster Cathedral...the 9am, packed, adorned with the cries of many small children, (and the irritating whispered chitchat of elderly ladies behind me: if what they want is a pious gossip, can't it at least wait until after Mass?). Then on to Paddington, and a train to the West Country - the countryside, washed by rain, offering scenes of occasionally heart-breaking beauty - for a family gathering to mark a nephew/godson's birthday. Great fun, again numbers of small children, plus lots of 20-somethings, plus some teens, plus oldies like Auntie, plus party food, fizz, cake, hearty singing of "For he's a jolly good fellow"...
Home late, but the whole journey enlivened by the latest Standpoint magazine, a good read, bought at Paddington to enjoy over some coffee, and I was still reading it on the late train after the party...definitely value for money. But will magazines like this survive? Do people read any more? Few on trains or Tubes are reading: they play with mobile phones, listen to (? music one assumes) with plug-in things to their ears. Some have kindles, but disproportionately few...it used to be normal for people to be deep in newspapers, magazines, books...
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Regarding your point about people reading, a lot of the people you see "playing with mobiles" will be reading newspapers or magazines on their phones/tablets.
I usually read the Guardian and various magazines on my phone whilst travelling on trains. So even though I look like I'm doing something horrid and modern, I'm actually doing something you approve of.
There will always be a role for newspapers and magazines, it just won't be necessary in the future to cut down forests to facilitate them.
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