Sex and sycophancy at Rolling Stone
Many moons ago, I worked at the New Musical Express magazine, which transformed me from virgin schoolgirl to the fabulous…
The return of Lady Muck
My sainted mum was of untarnished working-class blood — she worked, variously, as a cleaner, factory hand and shop assistant…
Kill your friendships
Pals are a luxury, not a necessity
The joy of sex
Your typical Trollope-loving, Brahms-bothering Spectator reader probably won’t be aware that the most recent winner of Big Brother was a…
Diana the diva
Twenty years in August since Diana died. The anniversary is sad for me on many levels — she was definitely…
A cacophony of complaint
What sort of monster gives a bad review to a book by someone who was gang raped as a 12-year-old…
Amsterdam Notebook
When my husband and I arrived in our adored Amsterdam on a sun-drenched schoolday afternoon — less than an hour…
Alt-hate
At the start of the year, a Facebook friend messaged me, telling me that she and a chum had been…
Fallen idols
David Hepworth is such a clever writer — not just clever in the things he writes, but in the way…
The plight of women in Labour
We’re told not to judge books by their covers, but faced with these two it’s hard not to. Harman’s is…
Diary
More than 20 years ago, I left my fast life in London for a rather more relaxed one in Brighton…
Diary
More than 20 years ago, I left my fast life in London for a rather more relaxed one in Brighton…
The plight of women in Labour
We’re told not to judge books by their covers, but faced with these two it’s hard not to. Harman’s is…
Falling out with Love
Volcanic fallings out within bands are an ever-recurring motif in the history of rock music. There’s an obvious reason for…
Get over it!
As someone who managed to move from enfant terrible to grande dame without ever being a proper grown-up, I must…
So much for education, education, education
‘Your old man’s barking!’ I remember hissing indignantly at my then best friend Toby Young way back in the 1980s…
The EU is a feminist issue. I’m voting to leave
Britain is trapped in a bad marriage with the EU. It’s time to leave
My Brighton’s gone all Brideshead
My town is overrun with drunken Mileses and Gileses and Violets these days. Cross these oafish students at your peril
Paris: go while it’s still friendly
Julie Burchill hymns the joys of post-attack Paris
Chrissie Hynde writes like an angel on angel dust
‘The day I found out that Suzi Quatro wasn’t a dyke was the worst day of my life!’ a teenage…
Julie Burchill vs celebrity memoirs
I learned from this little lot that if one has read The Diary of a Nobody, then one can derive…
Losing my son and the end of my life’s summer
Hedonism, tragedy and me
The uglier the man, the uglier the attitude
The uglier the man, the more he demeans women
The rock novel that makes Mötley Crüe dull
Novels set in the music business (from blockbuster to coming-of-age) are few and far between — far less than in…
Tel Aviv
Just so you don’t get it confused with the City That Never Sleeps, Tel Aviv — my favovurite place on…
