Modern manners
Diary
Killing time in a Heathrow first-class lounge, I notice how many men adopt an unmistakable ‘first-class lounge’ persona. They stand…
Why we need migrants
It’s not about economics. It’s about our snobbish, slobbish culture
Bored of the dance
At 19, I dropped out of university to pursue a career as a rave promoter. I went into business with…
Why ‘my’?
There’s a plague of first-person advertising
Seneca on bouncers
The papers are full of top stories about important people who cannot get into important parties because the doorman does…
Whatever happened to ‘Snog first, talk later’?
Sometimes I sit my nieces down and treat them to tales of dating in the dark ages, before iPhones arrived…
Creaky voice
My husband, not surprisingly, finds it extremely annoying. It, in this instance, is the use by women of creaky voice.…
Your problems solved
Q. My husband-to-be and I both work full time. We are getting married from his family HQ and his kind…
Your problems solved
Q. For the past two New Year’s Eves we have ducked an annual party given by some acquaintances, who are…
Christmas Notebook
As I strolled through the aisles in a large department store, I almost choked when I read a large display…
The year of the cad
From Lord Sewel to – let’s not be sexist – Sally Bercow, there’s life in the old rogue yet
Dear Mary solves problems for Nicky Haslam, Nigel Slater, Professor Mary Beard and others
From Nicky Haslam Q. Being considered something of a guru on the subject of things common, can you advise me…
The secret brilliance of Prince Philip’s ‘gaffes’
I’ve just been on the receiving end of a Prince Philip gaffe, of sorts, and I loved it. It was…
Women’s issues are for everyone now, not just feminists
‘Women’s issues’ are for everyone. So feminism is obsolete
Dear Mary: Another way to deal with a maddening blackhead
Q. Might I suggest an alternative solution to E.B. of London’s problem (3 October) about the person sporting a ‘maddening’…
I invented ‘virtue signalling’. Now it’s taking over the world
I invented the term ‘virtue signalling’ in The Spectator. Now it seems to be taking over the world
Dear Mary: How can girls avoid freezing in cold marquees?
Q. What do you do when you are so cold at a party that you cannot enjoy it? At a…
Baby steps
Why women are seeking alternatives to NCT antenatal classes
Is my only choice to be a cynic or a sucker?
It’s all the rage to mistrust the powerful these days, to say politicians are scum, or all bankers are selfish.…
Twitter speak
‘Tweeting’s like text messaging, isn’t it?’ said my husband confidently, though not, as usual, from any knowledge of the matter.…
The perfect pub
Whenever one of those news stories appears about how many pubs have been forced to close in the last year,…
Death watch
If you don’t think legalising ‘assisted dying’ is a slippery slope, you haven’t been paying attention
Last orders
The fight to save the Gladstone Arms is the fight to save London
The breast test
New mothers who can’t keep to the breast-feeding orthodoxy face needless misery and shame
Names
We reached peak Charlie in 2012, when 5,571 baby boys were given the name. There were only 4,642 last year.…
