Tinged with familiarity

A ‘second home’ makes one think of a villa abroad or a tumbledown cottage on the coast. It suggests something additional – a surplus property or space. But although I’ve always thought of my grandma’s flat as a second home, it does not fit those criteria. Instead it has been a well known and appreciated ‘home from home’ visited since childhood; tinged with familiarity. I’ve always known on entering exactly how the bubble lamp would peer over the table, how the paintings were arranged on the stairs, which shelves to turn to if I wanted to read a Penguin classic bound up in orange. My dad and his late brother grew up there, and it has changed little since...