Dear Mary
Dear Mary
Q. I have a problem with what might be called location blindness. I live in Balham, but when I arrange…
Dear Mary
Q. We had our son’s fiancée and her family to stay recently. After dinner, expecting conversation, we were shocked to…
Dear Mary
Q. I travel internationally two or three times per month for work, often with one or two colleagues. While the…
Dear Mary
Once again Mary has invited some of her favourite figures in the public eye to submit personal queries for her…
Dear Mary
Q. Six years ago a rather glamorous man bought the house opposite me. Although he always responds to requests for…
Dear Mary
Q. My egregious mother-in-law turns 80 this December. She is not short of a bob but for one of my…
Dear Mary
Q. A friend generously hosts an annual Christmas party in London where we see many old friends we have been…
Dear Mary
Q. Walking at a local beauty spot the other day, I passed a handsome young man. We exchanged a few…
Dear Mary
Q. One of our daughter’s godmothers has given very generous presents but never with any regularity. She was unable to…
Dear Mary
Q. I am no interior decorator, but we have a couple of rather subtle paint colours in the house that…
Dear Mary
Q. One of my oldest and best friends, who has lived up north for years, begged me to let her…
Dear Mary
Q. I spent a week in a house party abroad, with an elderly and extremely polite friend of mine and…
Dear Mary
Q. Is it acceptable to deal with time-critical online business while attending church? Some matters just won’t wait — Glastonbury tickets…
Dear Mary
Q. Towards the end of last year, I began three months of treatment for a knee replacement. During one consultation…
Dear Mary
Q. I am working on becoming a member of the Chipping Norton set. Should I be pronouncing the excellent open-air…
Dear Mary
Q. Some years ago, on holiday in Egypt, we found ourselves in the company of a couple who wanted to…
Dear Mary
Q. What to do when you are an unwilling eavesdropper in a train carriage in which people you know assume…
Dear Mary
Q. In response to correspondence re. wedding gifts: there is no need for a couple to have a list at…
Dear Mary
Q. Is there a polite way of halting a wannabe novelist from reading his oeuvre aloud to an unwilling audience?…
Dear Mary
Q. My boyfriend, an artist, is driving himself and others mad by his inability to keep track of his mobile.…
Dear Mary
Q. To ask for money in lieu of a wedding present (Dear Mary, 3 August) is ghastly, but an established…
Dear Mary
Q. My mainly male colleagues and I were happy to learn that an attractive young woman would be joining the…
Dear Mary
Q. I very recently attended my son’s black-tie leavers’ ball at his school on one of the hottest evenings of…
Dear Mary
Q. I know this seems petty but last year, on our villa holiday, my brother-in-law always took the best chair…
Dear Mary
Q. Regarding the writing of ‘no presents’ on an invitation (Dear Mary, 6 July), my own experience is that many…
