Melissa Kite

Melissa Kite writes The Spectator's Real life column.

Melissa Kite: No more Cinderella complex; no more males rescuers needed

13 January 2018 9:00 am

‘Not being rude, but I don’t think you should do any DIY,’ said the gamekeeper. He had just witnessed me…

Melissa Kite: Could I live without an MRI scan of my head?

6 January 2018 9:00 am

Reluctantly, I decided I would have to throw away the MRI scan of my head. I’ve hung on to it…

Melissa Kite: Hell is a porcelain kitchen tile

16 December 2017 9:00 am

If only I knew whether I would have a kitchen, I could order a turkey. But despite having an almost…

Why is China sending aid money to Surrey?

9 December 2017 9:00 am

When I first hear that my well-heeled Surrey neighbourhood is receiving aid from China, I assume it must be a…

My horse is a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Reggie Kray

9 December 2017 9:00 am

While the vet was checking Gracie, I asked him to take a look at Tara, the old chestnut hunter. Just…

I’ve seen the new face of veterinary medicine – and I don’t like it

2 December 2017 9:00 am

After a week of cold hosing, I decided I would have to get the vet to the small swelling on…

Dr Google’s verdict? Anthrax poisoning

25 November 2017 9:00 am

Six months into the renovations and I have so much dust in my lungs I have had to give Stefano…

Life is tough at the bottom of the equality heap

18 November 2017 9:00 am

The incident I am about to recount I make no judgment about, other than that I believe it tells us…

Sorry for touching your knee Michael Fallon – I exploited you to get ahead

11 November 2017 9:00 am

This one goes out to all the male MPs I’ve taken to lunch. I want to apologise to each and…

Are my horses conspiring against me?

11 November 2017 9:00 am

When it comes to horses, troubles come in multitudes. Multitudes of lame legs. Gracie, the hunter pony, kicked things off…

The poetry of kitchens

4 November 2017 9:00 am

‘The colour of this kitchen is inspired by a blend of heather, bracken and the mountains of the Isle of…

Real life

28 October 2017 9:00 am

The Albanian builders have started a turf war in my kitchen. The hostilities broke out suddenly. One minute the builders…

Real life

14 October 2017 9:00 am

They are building the bonfire already. In the dip where winter flooding sometimes creates a small lake, the wood and…

Real life

7 October 2017 9:00 am

How reassuringly like old times it is, going to a God-forsaken retail park with Stefano. We mooch about the DIY…

Real Life

30 September 2017 9:00 am

Assuming someone had moved house before, and put a new boiler in their new house, while remaining a customer of…

Real life

23 September 2017 9:00 am

BT have just put the phone down on me for asking them to stop sending me junk mail, which is…

Real life

16 September 2017 9:00 am

Stefano and his boys got to work with gusto and within a few days the upstairs of my house started…

Real life

9 September 2017 9:00 am

Stefano the Albanian turned up in a brand new Audi off-roader, cutting quite the dash. He looked older, with some…

Real life

2 September 2017 9:00 am

My friendly neighbourhood Lib Dems have put some campaign literature through my door. In a covering note, they intimate that…

Real life

26 August 2017 9:00 am

Darcy is high-maintenance, so I decided to leave her in the posh livery yard, with its luxuriant shavings beds and…

Real life

19 August 2017 9:00 am

Easier by far to load up my horses and move them to the next village than try to fight the…

Real life

12 August 2017 9:00 am

Like Steve McQueen gone slightly to seed, the builder boyfriend strode off into the sunset. Nothing becomes him so much…

Real life

5 August 2017 9:00 am

‘This situation is Rorke’s Drift,’ said the builder boyfriend, after our proposed renovations were objected to at the parish council’s…

The grass may have been tasty but it landed me in A&E

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Turns out you can’t eat grass. A horse does something clever to it in its mouth that humans can’t. Fine,…

What on earth was the girl from Taiwan doing in my bedroom?

28 May 2016 9:00 am

After a tense two week stand-off, the Balham Airbnb Crisis has been resolved. My upstairs neighbour and I have drawn…