Dear Mary
Dear Mary: How can I stop my husband from interrupting?
Q. My husband worked in an office for 25 years and now works from home. As well as the interaction…
Dear Mary: how can I prevent my daughter from getting ‘tweakments’?
Q. My husband has been appointed to a post in Wales and we as a family have moved here for…
Dear Mary: should guests offer to reimburse me for charging their electric car at my house?
Q. I’m an artist and work from home painting people’s pets from photographs. While working I take a lot of…
Dear Mary: how can I interrupt a gossipy friend who won’t shut up?
Q. I went to a party last weekend and my father asked me to go and introduce myself if I…
Dear Mary: how can I tell a friend she has Mounjaro face?
Q. Like many women of a certain age, I’m ‘on the pen’. I’ve lost about 20lb on Mounjaro, which I…
Dear Mary: how can I stop rich friends splitting the bill?
Q. I have the sort of job that means I am regularly recruiting new young talent. Now when I go…
Dear Mary: Is my dentist profiting from my gold filling?
Q. I went to stay in the new house of a close, but not very close, friend. She put me…
Dear Mary: how can I get my snobby mother to accept a live-in carer?
Q. I have a meeting scheduled with a possible business associate who asked me to buy a certain book on…
Dear Mary: how do I seat lesbians at a dinner party?
Q. We have recently moved out of London and have met charming, married lesbians who are living locally. They are…
Dear Mary: do I have to give my cleaner a payrise?
Q. A new neighbour (a weekender from London) asked me if I’d be prepared to pass on the contact details…
Dear Mary: How can I stop people pitying me for being made redundant?
Q. I have just got off a nine-hour overnight flight from Miami to Heathrow. I was in premium economy in…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my friend from ruining books I love?
Q. Our daughter is very keen on a young man from her office whom she has brought home to stay…
Dear Mary: how can I shut down my husband’s screaming yawns?
Q. I run a busy company with a workforce of 150, where I need to have short, to-the-point discussions with…
Dear Mary: How can I persuade a friend to stop allowing her dog to lick her plate?
Q. My grandson has just failed his driving test for the fifth time and yet I know, from his chauffeuring…
Dear Mary: How do we get more men to our singles’ events?
Q. Last year I decided to share a flat with an old, but not very close, friend from school. It…
Dear Mary: How do I get guests to help with the washing up?
Q. My daughter is temporarily living abroad and we communicate daily on WhatsApp. She’s always desperate for any local news/gossip…
Dear Mary: How do you swerve a dinner party bore?
Dear Mary: How do you swerve a dinner party bore?
Dear Mary: How do I get my friend to clean up after her dog?
Q. Every so often we’re invited to our friends’ house for lunch or dinner. It’s close by and the house…
Dear Mary: How do we stop our generous host putting us in the worst room?
Q. Around this time of year a successful friend likes to rent an expensive ski chalet with cook and fill…
Dear Mary, from Bernard Cornwell: Should I stop a nightmare couple from coming to a wedding?
From Emma Barnett Q. What do I do about the fact that my friends are all scared of the telephone…
Dear Mary: How do I avoid getting shown up by a more chivalrous bachelor?
Q. My godfather, who has managed to get me a valuable internship in the Far East, has also sent me…
Dear Mary: Can I remain friends with someone who has a frozen face?
Q. A close friend of my own age, 52, has had various things done to her face and now looks…
Dear Mary: How can I catch a ‘re-gifter’ out?
Q. I live in a small house in Hampstead and have taken in a friend of a friend as a…
Dear Mary: Can I retract a party invitation without causing offence?
Q. A very likeable woman has joined the company I work for and also just moved to my village. I…
Dear Mary: Do we turn up at a party even though no written invitation arrived?
Q. An extremely old friend is a successful purveyor of high-end goods. Last time we saw him he invited us…
