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…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As a publisher, I have been fortunate to discover an unpublished writer who is the author of some truly…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Financially successful friends have kindly invited my husband and me to stay for a week in France. Our problem…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. A great friend is in a terrible state regarding a cat foisted on her by a close relation. She…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My brother’s social life has dried up since his divorce (which coincided with the pandemic). So when he received…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I live in the Hampshire countryside, in a lovely apartment where I have the use of an old walled…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My husband has developed an irksome habit whenever he goes abroad without me. We have cameras outside the house…
Dear Mary
Q. These days I am on a tight budget while many of my friends are still able to spend freely.…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Rory Sutherland recently wrote about high-end takeaways (Wiki Man, 19 February). In the last London lockdown, I was fortunate…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Recently I started hanging out with a new friend. We are both in our twenties, single, and usually go…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Three weeks ago I banged my head on the lower branch of our near neighbours’ tree, which I couldn’t…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As if it wasn’t bad enough to overhear one side of a conversation as it’s bellowed into a mobile…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My partner’s work involves him seeing and talking to people all day, every day. I booked us on to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My husband and I have made friends with two distinguished, although fairly eccentric, writers whose company we thoroughly enjoy.…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I treat myself to a manicure every ten days. It’s a 30-minute appointment and the girl I use is…
