Life
Language
A report in Perspectives on Psychological Science last April said that people are each speaking about 120,000 fewer words every…
Spectator Competition: All kicking off
Competition 3452 invited you to write an ode to the World Cup. The entries flew in and many of them…
Once we Brexiteers get our Irish passports, we can go anywhere
‘There’s a flat rat under the mat!’ I shrieked, and wondered whether that was the sort of jaunty phrase that…
Variety is the spice of evolutionary life
I would have enjoyed mathematics more at school if I’d known what the real value was. The benefit of studying…
MPs don’t drink enough
The heatwave no sooner ended than it was replaced by the Mandywave. Over the next few days, it may be…
My new job at the Amazon packing factory
What will you do if it all goes wrong? I have a back-up plan. Working for Amazon. Its Luton warehouse…
Know your facepalm from your headslap
‘That’s not a facepalm,’ said my husband. ‘It’s a headslap.’ He proved the point by making contact between the flat…
Dear Mary: how do I stop friends buying me pet-themed presents?
Q. I have been working in a large restaurant alongside a very attractive, although shy, girl. I live near the…
Why does Farage care if he’s on Desert Island Discs?
The big revelation in Lord Ashcroft’s forthcoming biography of Nigel Farage is that he’s been banned from Desert Island Discs.…
Aussie life
The deeper you look at how our civilisation has evolved since the Enlightenment, the brighter the deception shines. The first…
Language
When ‘lie’ was banned by the Speaker of the House as unparliamentary language, I wondered if it was time to…
Beef olives – classic comfort food, without an olive in sight
We all did mad things during the first Covid lockdown. For some it was getting a dog or starting up…
The film producer with eyes on the Derby
I broke into a skip last week as I walked up the steps of Carlton House Terrace towards the Turf…
All good holidays start with a border checkpoint
What a treat it was to escape to Cyprus for some sun and a last-minute mini-break. I left the builder…
Labour is secretly desperate to keep children on social media
I’ve spent the last few days composing a response to the government’s consultation on whether to introduce a statutory minimum…
Dear Mary: how can I get rid of my friends’ wives from our WhatsApp group?
Q. When I left university I set up a WhatsApp group with several male friends to cover our interest in…
Italy’s doomed war on English
‘Italians are not inventing any new words,’ the head of the Italian language academy told the Telegraph. ‘They’re not creating…
‘It feels subversive to eat so much carbohydrate in Mayfair’: Claridge’s ArtSpace Café and Bakery reviewed
Claridge’s grew nine storeys in the last decade: it’s a metaphor. The ornamental 1897 castle on Brook Street has expanded…
