Life
Leave our Lords alone
Within a few months, the constitution that has served this country so well for hundreds of years will yet again…
Aussie life
It’s hard to imagine climate fanatics smashing roof-loads of solar panels, gluing themselves to wind turbines or scrawling offensive semi-literate…
Language
Are you a ‘pejorist’? I wouldn’t blame you if you were. I am currently reading Melanie Phillips’ brilliant book The…
Am I making a mountain out of my mole?
Hypochondriacs are never happy because we know that eventually all of us are vindicated. As Spike Milligan said on his…
Is it time to clean up my act?
I was having a drink in the Bishops’ Bar in the House of Lords last month when I was introduced…
Dear Mary: What is the etiquette of unfollowing someone on Instagram?
Q. When hosting a dinner party, should one circulate the biographies/Wikipedia entries of your guests beforehand so that everyone arrives…
Why the restaurant world hates beer drinkers
I’ve always thought working in hospitality is like getting a free MBA – but one rooted in the real world…
What is ‘misogynoir’?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been troubled by two verbal peculiarities in a week. The Duchess corrected a…
Golden syrup dumplings: the perfect comfort food
The Italians have a phrase: ‘brutti ma buoni’. It means ‘ugly but beautiful’, and it’s the name they give to…
The farms that I’ve loved and lost
Laikipia, Kenya I am grateful to David, a reader of this column, who kindly sent me a packet of old…
The Lady vanishes
The moment I stepped out of the Covent Garden sunshine and into the regal offices of the Lady magazine, it…
Aussie life
A sad legacy of Dark Emu, or rather of the embarrassing embrace of its ludicrous central thesis by our education…
Language
It’s easy to picture the situation: a politician who has been an outspoken supporter of China (insisting their government is…
Why do we diminish ‘compendious’?
My husband has been telling me, at some length, about the Gamages Christmas catalogue that fired his childhood imagination and…
