LIFE in a quarantine hotel, signs of hope and the insensitive timing of the Sussexes interview with Oprah Winfrey were the issues raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Independent

Maria Eugênia Oliveira has just spent 10 days in a quarantine hotel in Heathrow after a trip to her home country of Brazil. She had no choice but to pay £1,750 for the hotel after being unable to change her return date, she said.

“For me, the hardest part was arriving in London – I remember having the feeling of, “thank God I’m coming back home, finally” – but then I remembered that I still needed to isolate for 10 more days, far from my family,” she said. “I spent 29 days away from my little boy.”

Meals were delivered to her door and she tried to develop a routine, albeit in a tiny space.

“After being apart from a lot of things for 10 days, it makes you see things from another perspective,” she said. “You come out stronger, in a way – and after a year of seeing so many people suffering due to this virus, you realise things could be much worse than being locked in a hotel for 10 days.”

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is seeing signs of spring and hope in her garden.

“ All over the garden, bulbs that I thought had been snaffled by the resident squirrel – who I once caught swinging upside down from the bird feeder – are shooting green arms towards the sky,” she said. “This crisis has been a lesson in looking, and all around there are signs of new life, whether it’s the buds that are appearing on the lilac tree or the two new babies among my acquaintance.”

She said anyone who is ‘sick with sadness’ could benefit from planting something.

“Planting a few carrots won’t cure your depression; to suggest it could is trite and insulting – but it can help,” she said. “ I snipped a branch, but inside was all brown decay. I snipped another: the same. But I persisted, snipping again. And there it was: green.”

The Daily Mail

Away from Covid, Richard Kay said the timing of the trailer for Prince Harry’s [and Meghan’s] upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey couldn’t have been worse.

“His comments about an ‘unbelievably tough’ time are not new, but the implied criticism of the Royal Family in the melodramatic trailer — at a time when the focus is on Philip [ill in hopsital] — looks both insensitive and thoughtless,” he said.

“When Oprah Winfrey came to see Diana at Kensington Palace, the Princess saw through her flattery. She gave her tea and sent her away empty-handed.

“It’s too late for Harry now, the interview is in the can. But maybe there is still time for some nobility. Out of respect to his grandfather, might Harry see if Oprah will reschedule?”