Modern manners
Why it’s time for a Cad of the Year Award
Why it’s time for a Cad of the Year Award
Dear Mary: How can I make my polite English husband interrupt like a German?
Q. My dear English husband has never mastered the knack of timing his interventions in conversation. He hesitates politely, and…
Some consumer advice: do not sell your daughter for a bottle of 90-year-old port
Port, or Hermitage? This does not refer to personal consumption. I was trying to remember Meredith’s Egoist, in which one…
The rudest restaurants in London
Wong Kei is a mad Chinese restaurant on Wardour Street, Chinatown. Until recently it was considered the rudest restaurant in…
When did it become OK to be boring?
Being boring was once the worst of all social sins. Now it’s practically compulsory
Why I no longer want to live in America
A few years ago I would have quite liked to live in America. I’m not sure now. For one thing,…
Dear Mary: How can I spike a gossip-pedlar’s guns?
Q. On arrival at a top level dinner, I was surprised to see at the table a woman who, I…
Dear Mary: My teenager insists on an NHS operation. What can I do?
Q. Our son, aged l6, has a medical condition which, although not life-threatening, requires surgery by a specialist to pre-empt…
Dear Mary: How can I escape the tyranny of teacher presents?
Q. It’s only April and yet I am being emailed by parents who have already taken charge and are drumming…
Spectator letters: Bereaved parents against press regulation, and a defence of Tony Benn
Why we need a free press Sir: As bereaved parents and (to borrow from some signatories of last week’s advertisement)…
The engagement-ring theory of property bubbles
Google ‘the bread market’ and you get 135,000 hits, mostly from specialist food industry websites. Google ‘the property market’, however,…
When did we stop ‘tossing’ coins?
What kind of scientists do school inspectors not need to be? ‘Inspectors don’t need to be rocket scientists.’ For what…
We have to tell the truth about Tony Benn now. Who will hear it later?
I could start by remarking that we should not speak ill of the dead, quoting the pertinent Latin phrase: de…
Six months as a TV critic, and I’ve seen enough corpses to last a lifetime
It was Shetland that tipped me over the edge. Not the place, but the TV series. Although that’s set in…
The joy of less sex
I used to think nothing would ever be more important. I was wrong
I don’t want to rate the restaurant. I want to rate the date
Everyone’s a critic, but that doesn’t mean we want to fill in a survey every time we buy a meal
Why working class grandparents are better than middle class ones
When I told a friend that my nine-year-old son was staying with his grandparents for the whole week of the…
Dyslexia is meaningless. But don't worry – so is ADHD
There is a beautiful symmetry to all things, I think, and probably related somehow to the concept of karma. Only…
Dear Mary: Is there any way to wriggle out of a phone invitation?
Q. Is there a tactful way to keep one social offer on hold while waiting to see if you have…
Would you let parents destroy ‘gay’ embryos?
Because I’d like to have a child, and I’m getting on a bit, my husband and I have spent time…
The question that Dear Mary refuses to answer
Q. One of my best friends, who knows I don’t have a great social life at university, has a brother…
It’s time that Scotland’s timid posh folk spoke out
I took part in a documentary about Scottishness a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t bad at all. I mused,…
The church of self-worship: Sunday morning with the atheists
Sunday morning among the atheists
Dear Mary: How do you escape from a stranger's childhood trauma story?
Q. Recently a cousin and I gave a small drinks party in the USA. She had invited a very elegant…
The Fable would do better as an American Psycho theme bar
The Fable is three floors high and two days old, a monster newly hatched on the Holborn Viaduct; deep below…
