This Lent, I cannot forsake wine gums – life is too grim without them

Having watched his children eat all the pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, Will Gore gives in to his weakness for sweets, and begs forgiveness

This year I’m making more time for quiet reflection (Getty/iStock)

It is hard to know how many pancakes is too many. I don’t recall any occasion when I felt I couldn’t have squeezed one more in, had it been available.

As to how many is not enough, that is a rather different question. Eight or nine could hardly be deemed insufficient. Six or seven? Quite satisfactory. Even three or four would be adequate. But just two? It’s barely enough to touch the sides.

And yet by the time my children had rolled and folded, and scoffed and slurped their fill last Tuesday evening, there was only enough batter left in the bowl for me and my wife to enjoy a couple of pancakes each. They were, it must be said, quite large. But their deliciousness was all too fleeting, and we despaired at our failure to foresee our offspring’s gluttony – and the restriction it would cause to our own.