Technology

My campaign to bring back real life

21 June 2025 9:00 am

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

14 June 2025 9:00 am

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

14 June 2025 9:00 am

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

14 June 2025 9:00 am

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

31 May 2025 9:00 am

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

10 May 2025 9:00 am

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

10 May 2025 9:00 am

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

10 May 2025 9:00 am

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?

5 April 2025 9:00 am

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?

15 March 2025 9:00 am

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

1 March 2025 9:00 am

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?

1 March 2025 9:00 am

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

22 February 2025 9:00 am

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

8 February 2025 9:00 am

‘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?

8 February 2025 9:00 am

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

8 February 2025 9:00 am

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

8 February 2025 9:00 am

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

8 February 2025 9:00 am

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

1 February 2025 9:00 am

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

1 February 2025 9:00 am

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

1 February 2025 9:00 am

‘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

4 January 2025 9:00 am

‘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

4 January 2025 9:00 am

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

30 November 2024 9:00 am

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

30 November 2024 9:00 am

The empty train seat looked inviting, and all three of us stared at it, then looked away, not daring to…