Cosmo Landesman

The joy of drinking alone

24 October 2020 9:00 am

Thanks to a combination of night-time curfews, social-distancing rules, pubs closing, restaurants failing, the ‘rule of six’ and compulsory mask-wearing,…

I spent Christmas Day helping the homeless – and I was bored out of my mind

18 January 2020 9:00 am

When I told friends that I would be spending Christmas Day helping the homeless at a Crisis at Christmas centre…

OK zoomer, is that really the best you’ve got?

16 November 2019 9:00 am

Every generation and teen subculture likes to put the boot into baby boomers like me. I’ve been physically attacked by…

In praise of cultural elitism

28 September 2019 9:00 am

At present we have a series of ‘culture wars’ over a wide range of issues — race, gender, sexuality, power…

The dad revolution hasn’t helped our children – or us

15 June 2019 9:00 am

When I was growing up in the late 1960s, boys like me craved the admiration and approval of our dads;…

Hands free: I’ve joined a new kind of abstinence movement

8 June 2019 9:00 am

Eight years ago, I had an erotic epiphany. It was around midnight: I had sex on the brain and porn…

Charity muggers are no longer on the streets — they’re your friends

6 April 2019 9:00 am

There was a time when you couldn’t walk down your local high street and not be set upon by a…

How Eddie Davenport rebranded middle-class swingers parties as ‘posh’ orgies

12 January 2019 9:00 am

The English love a story of posh people behaving badly, especially one that involves sex, drugs or drink — preferably…

Are you a politically correct pervert?

20 October 2018 9:00 am

It hasn’t always been easy being a progressive-minded man who prides himself on his sensitivity to issues of race, gender,…

Stop calling me ‘a privileged white man’ – I’m more than that

25 August 2018 9:00 am

I got some bad news this week. I discovered that I’m a ‘privileged, white male’. It was my agent who…

‘I don’t need you any more, dear, you clash with the furniture!’

What do women really want? A man with a beautiful house

11 August 2018 9:00 am

Freud famously asked: what do women want? And I think that after two marriages, a dozen long-term relationships and a…

Children are everywhere – and they’re spoiling everything

28 July 2018 9:00 am

There was a time when middle-class liberals used to complain that the English were a nation of child haters. They…

The #MeToo movement could be the saviour of sex

23 June 2018 9:00 am

Sexual intercourse, Philip Larkin famously wrote, began in 1963. And listening to contemporary commentators, you’d think that it came to…

Let’s get real. Kindness is not going to save you – or the world

9 June 2018 9:00 am

I originally thought of calling this piece: ‘Kindness is the New Rock ’n’ Roll’ — but only as a joke.…

The Spice Girls sang about empowerment – better than the #MeToo whinging

14 April 2018 9:00 am

The recent news of a Spice Girls reunion will, I suspect, be greeted by some former fans with nostalgic longing…

Can I be taught how to become a #MeToo Man?

3 February 2018 9:00 am

These are tough times for what I call the #MeToo Men — those white, liberal, high-minded men who pride themselves…

Riot chic

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Last weekend, I got into a conversation with the son of an old friend. He’s a nice middle-class boy, mid-twenties,…

Do you know a flake fatale?

15 April 2017 9:00 am

It was the third time in a row that she had cancelled our date for drinks. The first time she’d…

Toff luck

11 February 2017 9:00 am

F. Scott Fitzgerald got it wrong; it’s not the rich who are different from you and me — it’s the…

Class act

26 November 2016 9:00 am

I wish I could say that some of my best friends are working-class, but it’s not true. I do have…

Like Uber, but for hippies

12 November 2016 9:00 am

On the same day I put my spare room on Airbnb I also had my first cabshare experience, courtesy of…

My public trans sport with a flirty stranger on the bus

9 January 2016 9:00 am

My top-deck encounter with a flamboyant stranger

Women’s issues are for everyone now, not just feminists

24 October 2015 9:00 am

‘Women’s issues’ are for everyone. So feminism is obsolete

Sorry, but I don’t think feminists can fight the male gaze by baring their breasts

7 March 2015 9:00 am

Can you really fight the male gaze by exposing your breasts?

Straight white males are the winners in the sexual counter-revolution

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Forget the culture war rhetoric. We straight white males have won