CYP Now - Back Page: Social - Boy with the thorn in his side - Claire enrages a six-year-old and is mistaken for Christopher Biggins

I spend a lot of time on public transport. You see all life before you, from the self-important businessman on the train to small children on buses. I think the latter is one of my favourite ways of gauging how the world is getting on.

I remember a few years ago sitting down in a bus. A little boy opposite stared openly for a few minutes and then burst into uncontrollable sobs.

"He thinks you're Christopher Biggins," said his mum apologetically. I nearly cried too, and binned those big pink specs immediately (I was attempting the Morrissey look, incidentally).

Recently I caught a little boy's eye for no more than a split second. He glared at me and angrily said: "What?" I was puzzled and he hissed more vitriolically: "WHAT?" He must have been six. Embarrassed, I looked away, but could feel his anger across the bus and wondered what was going on in his life to make him so defensive.

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