Life
Drama on the London Underground
The girl lay slumped against a wall in front of me and someone ran to push the emergency button. I…
Politicians have to be gamblers
Politicians pretty well have to be gamblers. You give up a promising career in, say, dentistry, teaching or accountancy for…
How to make perfect scones
I am evangelical about scones as a gateway bake – they are the perfect entry point for the nervous baker.…
What Labour could learn from Australia and New Zealand
I’m just coming to the end of a four-week speaking tour Down Under and have spotted some worrying signs of…
Aussie life
For most of China’s 1.4 billion population, 2024 has been the Year of the Dragon, which makes it, according to…
Language
I’ve been searching through the language used to describe the train wreck of a presidential debate between Joe Biden and…
Can a home really be forever?
Graham Norton’s latest novel ‘blends dark humour and emotional weight with ease’, says the Radio Times. That may well be,…
Dear Mary: can you leave a party without saying goodbye?
Q. Often at parties strangers bear down on me looking excited and are then offended when I don’t recognise them.…
The key to dealing with this election? Wine
An old friend phoned. Normally cheerful, he was fed up. One of his business partners was being more than usually…
How Elon Musk could solve the housing crisis
People sometimes ask me why I don’t go into politics. Why on earth would I do that? No, if you…
My nights with the eagle owls
Provence Summer has arrived. The evenings are warm enough to sit out on the balcony terrace and watch the lights…
The funny side of being cancelled
Douglas Is Cancelled, the new drama series on ITV, should come with a trigger warning – for me, anyway. Watching…
Nairobi’s streets are fizzing with violence – and I’m glad to be home
Nairobi, Kenya Parliament and City Hall were burning under great columns of smoke and clouds of tear gas hung over…
We’re serviceless, stateless – and still off grid
You need a personal public service number to get married in Ireland, but in order to get one, you need…
