Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I am at the stage of my life where I am often sending presents to newborn babies. These presents…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As a novice user of Instagram I was flattered at how quickly I gathered followers – 200 already. Many…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I shall be spending more time in the company of newer acquaintances in the West Country and would appreciate…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. We have been invited to a small but formal dinner in the presence of someone who has been a…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. The Queen had the knack of making you feel that you were the only person in the room. At…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. We have made available our mews cottage – 30 yards from our main house – to a woman with…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have had an email inviting me to an old girls’ reunion, class of 1976. The organiser suggested we…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. How can I find out, without making things awkward, whether one of my close male friends fancies one of…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Some older American friends take me and my husband out to dinner once a year when they are over…
Don’t grass
A neighbourly feud is worse than a hosepipe ban
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My 74-year-old husband was having drinks in the garden of some young clients when he bit down on an…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My parents are abroad for two months and as my flatmates in London are all, like me, working from…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Everyone was divine at a very jolly lunch I attended in the Cotswolds with the exception of one person,…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I was billeted for a party in Norfolk with a couple previously unknown to me. They were more than…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have found parties frustrating this month because they have been too crowded. Is there a polite way to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. This year once again my company took a small group of clients to lunch at Royal Ascot. Our guests…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have heard news of a forthcoming party which I would really love to attend. The problem is that…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My girlfriend and I have started using a personal trainer for some joint sessions at our local gym; the…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. A close friend, who has lost most of her income in recent years, has done something disfiguring to a…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As a mildly famous professional cook, I agreed to judge a children’s cake-baking competition at the summer fête of…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. In order to raise money for a worthwhile cause, I have agreed to open my garden for the first…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My wife’s father, who she adored, has died and she is to be his sole beneficiary. She intends to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I’m 28 and lucky enough to own a four-bed house in Notting Hill. I let three of the rooms…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Some years ago, much to the surprise of our many friends in London, my husband and I moved to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. We went for lunch over the bank holiday with the parents of one of my son’s schoolfriends. We had…
