My house is devouring me (and my relationship)
The panic of another season bore down on me as the builder boyfriend painted the breakfast room with the green…
The secret life of my friend Evelyn
Provence It’s difficult to believe that Evelyn will be 90 in a few months’ time. I’ve known her for more…
The rise of toxic femininity
At the end of last year, the government announced a programme designed to tackle the radicalisation of young men in…
Heaven is an Airfix Spitfire
Last weekend, I sat in my kitchen to build and paint an Airfix model. I’d experimented before with mindful colouring…
The five Haldanean principles that could reshape Britain
If Reform get into government, there is one man they seem likely to turn to for guidance. He is an…
Only divine intervention can save Labour
A party that can foretell the future stands a very good chance of success. Given Labour’s record of U-turns, they…
A fogey’s guide to cryptocurrency
All innovations seem unseemly to fogeys. When bitcoin, the first of the cryptocurrencies, was launched in 2009, we dismissed it…
No, the internet is not bad for your child
The forces arranged in favour of banning social media for under-16s are powerful and wide-ranging. The unlikely alliance includes the…
Letters: A teacher’s lessons for Rod Liddle
How to kill reading Sir: I am appalled by the response to Andrew Watts’s concerns about the teaching of reading…
Lima’s monument to memory
In the pantheon of South America’s great hotels, the Gran Hotel Bolivar’s place is assured. Stand anywhere in the Plaza…
Under 50? You’re never getting a state pension
Last week the Bank of England was warned to prepare for a financial crisis triggered by the discovery of extraterrestrial…
Want to get rich? Invest like an American
Ramit Sethi wants to make you rich. He is not a household name in Britain, but the Stanford psychology graduate…
Is any other investment as good as gold?
Last year might have proved a good time to own shares in the chip-maker Nvidia, along with the booming American…
Bookshops deserve tax breaks
My Davos spy disguised as an Uber Eats driver sent word that this year’s World Economic Forum was rammed ahead…
The depressed duck detective is back
Grade: B– It’s a duck, except he’s a detective. Or a detective, except he’s a duck. Anyway he wears a…
Why is this low-grade Ayckbourn play in the West End?
Woman in Mind is a dyspeptic sitcom set in 1986 starring Sheridan Smith as Susan, a moaning Home Counties housewife…
The worst Agatha Christie adaptation I can remember
When it comes to Agatha Christie adaptations, there are normally two possible responses to the denouement. One is a deep…
Three cheers for Poems on the Underground
The idea for Poems on the Underground was thought up by a New Yorker 40 years ago this month. This…
Why I will always have time for Bernard Butler
Bernard Butler has popped up a couple of times in this column, but not alone – once, with two fellow…
