Dear Mary
Dear Mary: How can I make sure I get frisked at airports?
Q. An architect is overseeing some builders at my house. She is a perfectly nice woman but has a maddening…
Dear Mary: How can I spike a gossip-pedlar’s guns?
Q. On arrival at a top level dinner, I was surprised to see at the table a woman who, I…
Dear Mary: Help! Wet wipes keep blocking the drains at our caravan park
Q. My sister and I own a popular caravan park which, for 30 years, has given happiness to around a…
Dear Mary: Do I grass on my son’s schoolfriend?
Q. My son was invited, both verbally and via Facebook, to a schoolfriend’s 16th birthday party. However, when I met…
Dear Mary: How can we pin down our neighbours' rogue apostrophes?
Q. We have just moved into a charming little hamlet in Warwickshire and were delighted to find a bottle of…
Dear Mary: My teenager insists on an NHS operation. What can I do?
Q. Our son, aged l6, has a medical condition which, although not life-threatening, requires surgery by a specialist to pre-empt…
Dear Mary: How can I escape the tyranny of teacher presents?
Q. It’s only April and yet I am being emailed by parents who have already taken charge and are drumming…
Dear Mary: What can I do about guests who don’t know how to wash up properly?
Q. I have three spare bedrooms in London and I welcome friends to come and stay. Unfortunately, some of these…
Dear Mary: How long must I wait to tuck in?
Q. I am always making or receiving phone calls which get cut off. When I ring the person back their…
Dear Mary: Is there any way to wriggle out of a phone invitation?
Q. Is there a tactful way to keep one social offer on hold while waiting to see if you have…
Dear Mary: How can I check if my dentist uncle really meant to charge me?
Q. My uncle, who is a brilliant dentist, has looked after my teeth since I was little. He also sees…
The question that Dear Mary refuses to answer
Q. One of my best friends, who knows I don’t have a great social life at university, has a brother…
Dear Mary: How do you escape from a stranger's childhood trauma story?
Q. Recently a cousin and I gave a small drinks party in the USA. She had invited a very elegant…
Dear Mary: What do I do now I haven’t sent a thank-you letter?
Q. Over New Year I stayed with a man who combines being a generous and exciting host with a punctilious…
Dear Mary: How can I make my friends read the book I gave them?
Q. I gave a copy of Dan Russel the Fox by Somerville and Ross to a couple I know to be…
Dear Mary: How to stop cinema iPhone pests
Q. At a private screening of a documentary about the artist David Bomberg, a woman sitting near me in the…
Dear Mary: How can I hide my tattoo from the in-laws?
Q. I have a tattoo the length of my forearm and am worried it will alienate my new boyfriend’s parents…
Dear Mary: How can I escape my neighbour’s spy cameras?
Q. I have a problem with what might be called location blindness. I live in Balham, but when I arrange…
Dear Mary: What should I do when my dinner guests dive for their iPads?
Q. We had our son’s fiancée and her family to stay recently. After dinner, expecting conversation, we were shocked to…
Dear Mary: Lunch vs the novel
Q. I travel internationally two or three times per month for work, often with one or two colleagues. While the…
Dear Mary solves problems for Sir Les Patterson, Rachel Johnson, Rory Stewart and more
Once again Mary has invited some of her favourite figures in the public eye to submit personal queries for her…
Dear Mary: How appropriate is it to send a Christmas card with the word 'merry' to a widow?
Q. Six years ago a rather glamorous man bought the house opposite me. Although he always responds to requests for…
Dear Mary: How can I tell my mother-in-law she's being mean?
Q. My egregious mother-in-law turns 80 this December. She is not short of a bob but for one of my…
Dear Mary: How to enlist people with field marshal experience to deal with bossy party hostesses
Q. A friend generously hosts an annual Christmas party in London where we see many old friends we have been…
Dear Mary: How can I be ready when Cupid strikes?
Q. Walking at a local beauty spot the other day, I passed a handsome young man. We exchanged a few…
