Zunächst liest man das auch ganz gerne, aber dann verliert es doch sehr schnell seinen Reiz, weil es zu trivial ist. Frankly, if I’d known that was [round the corner] I wouldn’t have moved in,” he says through a mouthful of Mexican wrap. Ben finds himself cooking a lot for Winnie and she rates each meal which is another great part about the book.

It’s also a look at lockdown and the effect it had on people’s lives, a journal of domesticity and the small things we came to rely on when the big things (friends, family, social lives, travel, culture) were taken away by Covid.

Charting both their time together, and the details of Winnie's life that are shared with Ben in fragments, The Marmalade Diaries , from the author of The Gran Tour , is a very human exploration of home, of the passage time, of the growing relationship between an odd couple, told with warmth, wit and candour. Winnie’s memory issues and her love for her family, particularly her disabled son is clear but you can’t help think as the diary entries unfold that time is not on Winnie or Ben’s side. Donor incentives included promising to get a tattoo saying ‘I love Bill’ (he did, left arm), and reading to people in the bath. The caveat turned out to be Winnie, a recently widowed 84 year-old who “doesn’t suffer fools” and never throws anything away (mulchy vegetables and decrepit spices feature heavily. Aitken was matched with Winnie by Share and Care Homeshare, an organisation that pairs people who need a room with people who need some help around the house.

I think it helped for me that the book begins in October 2020, just ahead of the 2nd Lockdown, and not in the Spring of 2020. The entries are both serious and with some levity, as there were times when Winnie so set in her ways was not about to waver. She uses everything, no matter how old (this is mentioned loads and gets funnier every time) and gets easily distracted whilst doing the simplest of tasks.

Banana on curry, ten year old salad dressing and a spice rack that contained spices older than probably their combined ages. There’s a little more meaning-making as we go along, more introspection and big-picture themes, but it’s coming too late for me to care, unfortunately. I was actually listening to the Audible audio book rather than reading it and I wanted Ben Aitken to read me another excerpt from his diary every day.

Ben Aitkens Tagebuch seiner generationsübergreifenden Wohngemeinschaft umfasst den Lauf eines Jahres und besteht aus Dialogen und eingeschobenen datierten Erinnerungen Winnies. With the lockdown in place and their travels outside the house limited, television became a close friend, as often there was debate over what to watch. Underneath it all is the wonderful story of two people born half a century apart, learning lessons from each other. This is a charming and funny book about an unusual friendship forged over shared breakfasts – Winnie is absolutely proprietorial over the good marmalade!Winnie did love her marmalade, which is where the title obviously originated, and she knew what she liked to eat, preferring it cooked to her liking.