Marriage
The struggle to book my wedding in Ireland
‘How does anyone young and stupid manage to get married?’ I kept shouting at the builder boyfriend as I pummelled…
A mother-daughter love story
In her latest memoir, Leslie Jamison describes her pregnancy, experience of childbirth and devotion to her baby, returning repeatedly to the dilemmas of a working mother
No one could match Tess, to Thomas Hardy’s dismay
Hardy’s 38-year marriage to Emma Gifford was notoriously acrimonious; but even his much younger second wife, Florence, never seemed to measure up to his fictional heroines
A strong whiff of goodbyes: The Pole and Other Stories, by J.M. Coetzee, reviewed
‘The cogs are seizing up, the lights are going out.’ As Elizabeth Costello clears her desk in this collection of stories, we feel that Coetzee may be doing the same
‘We are stuck like chicken feathers to tar’: Elizabeth Taylor’s description of the fabled romance
The Burton-Taylor relationship was either one of the greatest love stories of all time or a suicide pact carried out in relentless slow motion
Never the doctor, always the nurse: the fate of women in post-war Britain
For decades, undereducated girls were thwarted before they even started in the workplace, living in the slipstream of men and drip-fed with a sense of their own uselessness
A born storyteller
Instead of swashbuckling, we get the Parisian art world, trout-fishing, unhappy couples and surrogate parenting – though the 20 stories for children are full of adventure
A whale of a problem
Restoring the painting ‘View of Scheveningen Sands’, an art conservationist uncovers a vital detail, leading her to regret the pact she once made with her husband
The lonely passions of Emily Hale and Mary Trevelyan
Tom Williams describes how two women’s hopes of marrying T.S. Eliot came to nothing
Richard E. Grant’s tribute to his wife leaves us shattered for his loss
Richard E. Grant pulls off a feat here. The title is twee but the content isn’t. With unselfpitying dash the…
Ian McEwan’s capacity for reinvention is astonishing
Ian McEwan’s latest novel is unusually long and autobiographical. It’s surprising in other ways, too, says Claire Lowdon
Momentous decisions: Ruth & Pen, by Emilie Pine, reviewed
Emilie Pine writes about the big things and the little things: friendship, love, fertility, grief; waking, showering, catching the bus.…
Anxiety is killing parenthood
Britain is on a slow descent to oblivion. Scotland is even closer to the abyss, with a birth rate of…
Howard Jacobson superbly captures the terrible cost of becoming a writer
Howard Jacobson, who turns 80 this year, published his first novel aged 40. Since then he has produced roughly a…
Reassess every relationship you’ve ever had before it’s too late
‘Reading is a celebration of the mystery of ourselves,’ according to Elizabeth Strout, who writes to help readers understand themselves…
The life of an ambassador’s wife
‘One day,’ she writes, ‘we had the Minister for Northern Ireland for the night. He arrived wearing a kilt, which…
They weren’t all that pious in the good old days
You need to be wary of being too flattering about English churches. As John Betjeman said: ‘Be careful before you…
The young bride’s tale: China Room, by Sunjeev Sahota, reviewed
Sunjeev Sahota’s novels present an unvarnished image of British Asian lives. Ours Are the Streets chronicles a suicide bomber’s radicalisation,…
How to have an affair
Gstaad After six-and-a-half months apart, I had no trouble recognising my wife. Out she came on to the driveway to…
Forget race or class, marriage is the big social divide
The latest spark to ignite the culture wars is a report from the parliamentary education committee on the underachievement of…
Boris Johnson's refusal to talk about faith
I am struggling to make sense of the Prime Minister’s answer to my question: whether he is a practising Roman…
Marina Warner becomes her mother’s ‘shabti’
There comes a time after the death of parents when grief subsides, the sense of loss eases, and you, the…
Coromance is blossoming
Being stuck at home will make our relationships stronger
