Mental blocks
The madness of the Low Traffic Neighbourhood measures
Falling flat
My hunt for the cheapest property in London
Pulling on the heart strings
Advance ticket sales for My Neighbour Totoro, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s current production running till mid-January, beat all Barbican box-office…
Grudge match
I’ll miss hating the Qatar World Cup
Temples of delight
There are two journeys I’ll need to make after reading Tessa Boase’s heartbreakingly poignant book about London’s lost department stores.…
National cycle routes
Many of us daydream about escaping into an imaginary parallel universe. The good news is that Britain has its own…
Spare us the preaching
It doesn’t help the cause of The Railway Children Return that the original 1970 Railway Children film is currently on…
Road to hell
The blight of the 20mph speed limit
Off the table
Restaurant prices are no longer worth it
The heart bleeds
‘CERTIFICATE IS NOT EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY,’ the freshly issued death certificate read. In the craziness and shock of grief for…
Grapes of wrath
Don’t deny me my communion wine
Marmalade
The spectrum of ‘bestowing homemade gifts on one’s friends’ ranges from giving to foisting. Pure giving is when you make…
Revenge is rarely sweet
‘Who,’ asks Stephen Bayley, in one of the ‘S.B’ chapters of this irresistibly spiky co-written book, ‘could countenance working for…
Time trial
Why do films have to go on for so long?
Capital gains
Don’t pity me for living in London
Let hymn in
The silencing of indoor singing is senseless
Holiday retreats
It was the 13th-century wall of a ruined Cistercian nunnery at the far end of her garden in Norfolk that…
Welby’s gatekeeper
The man behind the Archbishop
The day the music died
Britain’s choirs are facing oblivion. Yet they’re also terrified of returning. One story explains why. Picture this innocent choral-society scene…
Tough-minded and tender-hearted
Nine cups of milky Nescafé Gold Blend a day; a low-tar cigarette smouldering; a hot-water-bottle always on her lap; the…
Coronavirus has started a new age of online snooping
This is proving a rich period for those of us who can’t resist snooping into the interiors of other people’s…
Continental drift
How the word lost its glamour
Duty, devotion and lack of self-pity — Anne Glenconner is an example to us all
Trained from a young age to be self-effacing, never liking to be the centre of attention, having been traumatised for…
