Talk about the weather?  It’s one of those things novelists are told never to do.  Not ever.  It’s boring, the writing teachers and the literary cognoscenti tell us.

But here in Britain, we talk about the weather constantly. 

This week, we’re talking about the incessant rain which has been chucking it down, tigers and elephants-style, for the past ten plus days.  We’re talking about how it’s driving us mad. 

We’re talking about how it took more than 24 hours to dry out the clothes we wore for riding last week–our waterproofs, that is.  We’re talking about the fact that yesterday the cottage of some friends was flooded.  And with more rain forecast, it’s likely they’ll be flooded again.

We’re talking about how fast and how high the river is that runs alongside our house…

And we’re all cynically laughing at the Met Office and the government who only weeks ago were telling…