Category: Lifestyle

It was the year, we said, when ‘the North/South divide became an abyss’ as junior health minister Edwina Currie badgered northerners about their drinking and smoking, saying they would die of ‘ignorance and chips’. The Jeffrey Archer book she’s brandishing on the cover, First Among Equals, was made into a TV series in 1986, and […]

So long festive period. We are now looking forward to, well, real life. So let’s think of things to lift our spirits. Things that make us look, feel and smell nice. Shallow yes, but a mood booster. Gucci’s primer balances skin that (like mine) has the capacity toproduce an oilfield. You’ll be matte but not […]

How does Sunday start? The same as every morning, just a little later. Most mornings we’re up at 7am for school runs and all that nonsense. You can tell we’re middle-aged: sleeping to half eight feels indulgent. A slow start? If the boys have a football match we’re up and out. If the game is […]

I have an Auld Lang Syne earworm, a hangover from a New Year I didn’t even celebrate. I usually eschew the Hootenanny and head to bed at 10.30, shove in earplugs and wait for the firework-loathing dog to slink in, poke his bony elbows into my kidneys and breathe his foul kipper breath over my […]

There are a few cultural conundrums out there in gardening which I wonder if I will ever get to the bottom of. As someone who has recently gotten into dabbling in a little home-breeding with rare begonia species, here is one that perpetually fascinates me, even if merely mentioning is likely to get me cancelled: […]

‘They grow up fast’ is a thing people say to parents of toddlers and we generally nod in agreement because, I mean, I guess – but do they, really? Sure, we have to buy him new clothes more frequently than we do ourselves, but it’s not exactly blink and you’ll miss it stuff. They grow […]

I had an uncle who, intermittently and not necessarily simultaneously, wore a kilt and played the violin. Each to me was exotic – twin roads to freedom from the dullness of a prosaic, southern English childhood. For a short time I took up highland dancing, with real swords and modest skill. I was seven when […]