BEING a misanthrope by nature, 'lockdown' has not proved for me the crushing hardship it has for others, particularly the more gregarious among us.

Since as long as I can remember I have always been perfectly content in my own company, more so than in a crowd, and have never felt the need to be entertained by other people or any desire, in turn, to entertain them.In short, 'social-isolation' is a state to which I am eminently suited. The Government has done little more than compel me to obey my own anti-social inclinations.

There must be many other people out there like me - call them misfits or loners or weirdos if you want to - for whom the 'new normal' is suspiciously like the old. They just aren't being lambasted as crusty old curmudgeons by well-meaning socialites who would seek to draw them into their circle or offer the usual patronising rebukes - 'cheer up mate, it may never happen'.

My shelves are full of books and I've heard it said that anyone who has a large enough library is never alone. It's like having a veritable army of wise and venerable friends I can call on whenever I like.

How is it possible to be bored in such scintillating company?

That said, I do miss people watching in the pub. It's cheaper than the price of admission to the zoo and the behaviour on show is sometimes far more bizarre.

During the daily, rationed walks Worcester looks less like some post-apocalyptic wilderness than a prelapsarian paradise. The natural world seems both resurgent and resplendent. The skies are crystal clear and full of birdsong with no car engines to drown out the sound.

With fewer cars on the road and planes in the sky, carbon emissions have plummeted. I don't want to sound like some greasy-haired tree-hugger but it seems like the planet. much like some wheezing ancient with emphysema, has had a chance to breathe for the first time in a very long time, to draw in a last laboured, rattling breath.

Of course it won't last. The virus isn't anywhere near virulent enough for that. That's not a cause of celebration. Even I don't hate people that much. No, this is just the briefest interlude in the hegemony of human beings.

Even that will end eventually, most likely at our own hands.