Technology
My campaign to bring back real life
A new book by an American writer, Christine Rosen, details the way in which we are losing touch with the…
A lament for the lads’ mags
Do you remember the lads’ mags? I do because I worked on them for years. FHM, Maxim, all those gloriously…
OnlyFans is giving the taxman what he wants
Fenix International occupies the ninth floor of an innocuous office block on London’s Cheapside. The street’s name comes from the…
The guest who robbed me of my five-star rating
Bolting down the back hallway, I realised I was running away from the guests. I shut the door marked private…
A challenge for the electric car sceptics
I once heard of a couple who were teachers in their mid-fifties. Having pooled the proceeds from selling both their…
My foolproof plan to avoid speeding fines
The online speed awareness course cost £101, or a few pounds less if you didn’t want to book ‘flexible’ so…
How tech ruined theatre
Poor John Dennis. In 1709, the playwright devised a novel technology to simulate thunder to accompany his drama Appius and…
If the numbers add up, Shell should bid for BP
A hangar full of analysts and investment bankers must have spent the long weekend formulating advice for Shell chief executive…
Am I making a mountain out of my mole?
Hypochondriacs are never happy because we know that eventually all of us are vindicated. As Spike Milligan said on his…
Why would anyone drive at 30mph on a dual carriageway?
After running all the errands I could to help my parents, a letter from West Midlands Police arrived. They were…
The day I went missing
The Forcan Ridge off Glen Shiel can be a tricky place this time of year. There wasn’t a huge amount…
Has someone been smuggling drugs in my hay bales?
The hay dealer showed me his latest stock and told me the bright green hay would cost me a staggering…
How to get your husband to do the vacuuming
This column nearly didn’t happen. Just as I sat down to write, disaster! My dishwasher lost its connection to the…
How I took on Microsoft’s AI – and won
‘This is an assault!’ I screamed in my study, oblivious to the fact that my husband had a guest downstairs.…
Has email destroyed decision-making?
The discourse around ‘flexible working’ has degenerated into a narrow debate over whether people come into the office on three…
The nerdy obsessive who became the world’s richest man
Seen by fellow pupils as an obnoxious loner, Bill Gates was a rebellious teenager, challenging his teachers and ‘at war’ with his parents
My memorable ride in a Black Hawk
The pilot of the Black Hawk told me I could recline the seat if I wasn’t comfortable. ‘Oh, great!’ I…
Good portraiture can reveal uncomfortable truths
My eldest daughter and her family are moving from a three-bedroom Art Deco semi with a garden and garage on…
Beware this terrible new AI email feature
A friend of mine got a nasty shock last week after a Google Meet call, thanks to a new AI…
DeepSeek’s cheap information comes at a high price for the West
This week, Chinese technology has shown the West the challenge it faces – ruthless, implacable and impossible to ignore. The…
My turbulent flight with the hen do crew
‘Oggy oggy oggy!’ shouted the Italian flight attendant over his intercom, and all the hen party ladies on the plane…
My run-in with the GP receptionist
‘We don’t have an appointment for you!’ yelled the woman sitting behind the reception hatch. My 87-year-old father stared back…
How French absolutism powered a techno-progressive revolution
The Enlightenment is back. Despite the best efforts of the past decade of handwringing about cultural imperialism and wailing over…
The cinema is the worst place to watch a film
I’ve always loved cinema, but hardly ever cinemas. It’s no surprise to me that movie-going audiences are in decline. Ticket…
The complicated etiquette of the empty train seat
The empty train seat looked inviting, and all three of us stared at it, then looked away, not daring to…
