I have finally entered the age of the nap

Contentedly full of Christmas leftovers and ready for 40 winks, Will Gore has been looking forward to his Boxing Day snooze for months

Will has finally come to share the Gore tendency to nap – one of life’s simplest pleasures (Getty/iStock)

My grandfather was an inveterate napper. Even when I was very small and he was in his early seventies, it seemed almost impossible for him to sit in an armchair in the afternoon without eventually falling asleep. By the time he was in his eighties, daytime slumber was just a way of life. On the occasions that he came to our house for lunch, he would spend most of the afternoon gently snoring, given half a chance.

Sometimes, my father – his son – would follow suit. On winter days, with the fire lit, the pair of them would sit on comfortable sofas, talk perhaps for a few minutes, then fall into companionable silence as sleep overtook. My grandmother and my mother might occasionally give their respective husbands a shove, but there was little point really because they would only dose off again.