JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK: This house holds so many memories… but why did they have to put a bidet in my brother’s bedroom?
Jonathan Brocklebank reflects on his family home in this personal column, describing the mix of nostalgia and disorientation that comes from returning to a place full of childhood memories that has since been altered by new owners. The piece centres on the discovery that a bidet had been installed in what was once his brother's bedroom, using the incongruous detail as a springboard for musing on how houses change hands and change character once a family moves on.
The article is written in a reflective, personal-essay style rather than reporting hard news, drawing on the writer's own recollections of the property and his reaction to seeing it altered. It touches on broader themes of nostalgia, loss and the strange feeling of revisiting a childhood home that no longer belongs to one's family, using small domestic details, such as the bidet, to illustrate how thoroughly a house can be transformed by its new occupants.
- Columnist revisits childhood family home now owned by others
- Finds a bidet installed in his brother's old bedroom
- Piece reflects on nostalgia and change in a former family house