Marta, our PA, just caught me out. I had just come in from a walk and we were snacking on some bread and cheese, when she asked me ”Are you staying here or going home this christmas?” Before I could think, I replied that I was staying here. A second or so later, my mind went into gear, and I added ”But this is my home!” I felt slightly bad about it – part of me must still think of our family home in cheshire as home; as a northerner living in Londoner, I still feel a bit of an outsider. Yet that was her point: as somebody from Poland, Marta added, people ask her that very question all the time, yet she is now as much a Londoner as they are. It’s odd, when you think about it: what exactly is home, and why should London be more of a home to one person than to another? Why would one group of people get asked questions like that, ad not another, in this great maelstrom of the world’s peoples. London is my home, now, as it is Marta’s. We are both home for christmas.