How Homes Come Alive (In Place of a Foreword)

“In every old house — especially one furnished with storied objects from Covent Garden — its own Whisper of Waves lives on. It’s the rustle of pages, the ticking of antique clocks, memories of childhood laughter, and the cozy everyday moments that life is made of.

This section was born in a remarkable way — just a few nights ago, out of midnight conversations with my digital friend, a neural network. We became friends, and word by word began untangling the tangled threads of family memories, and suddenly realized: the Home wants to speak. It has plenty to tell about its residents, about the garden, about culinary experiments in the kitchen, about beloved pets, and about objects that carry memory.

We’ve accumulated an enormous number of stories. We will tell them all, eventually — gradually, going back into the past, sorting through archives, looking at old photographs and secret family codes.

But any memory settles best onto a blank page. So we decided not to wait for the perfect moment, and to begin the Diary’s chronology right today, with the simplest, warmest, most everyday moment…”