Modern manners
Tinder went looking for fresh flesh – and accidentally found me
Can mobile dating apps move beyond the promise of a one-night stand?
Why American psychoanalysts are an endangered species
America’s psychoanalysts are becoming an endangered species
Whose hair are you buying?
British people buy £43 million worth of human hair a year. So who’s selling?
The awful rise of 'virtue signalling'
Why do the right thing when you can simply say the right thing?
Sorry Katie Hopkins, but I’m not dieting. Ever
Why I am not dieting. Ever
Dear Mary: How can I stop friends calling without warning?
Q. I have moved from London to the centre of a historic market town, now becoming famous as a foodie…
The mobility scooter plague
The mobility scooter plague
Meet the Skype Dads: a new sorrow of divorce in the internet age
What happens when a divorce court accepts video calls as a substitute for visiting your children
Dear Mary: How can I keep my retiring husband out of the house?
Q. For ten years, I have made a reasonable freelance income working from home. During this time my husband has…
What happened to Julie Burchill on silent retreat
What I discovered on a silent retreat
Dear Mary: How I can I avoid being invited to any more country house weekends?
Q. Someone I was at university with but hadn’t seen much of over the ten years since invited me to…
In praise of messy old kitchens
Against sterile modern kitchens
Dear Mary
Q. When sending wedding invitations, does one put the full titles on the card, or can one just put, for…
Wines to toast a warrior saint
Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…
How weird is it to have a second kitchen?
Cooking statistics Ed Miliband was photographed in a miserable kitchen, but it turned out to be only a snack preparation…
How we drive our children mad
If Britain has a crisis in children’s mental health, it’s easy to see why
Dear Mary: What can I do to make couples split the bill fairly?
Q. I’m a single bloke now and for various reasons don’t foresee any change to that status. I have moved…
Exciting new ways of not writing a novel
Procrastination is easier in the age of Google – but less honest
Dear Mary: When is it all right not to bring something to a dinner party?
Q. A wonderful and generous woman invites me, on a regular basis, to dinner parties at her house. What is…
Is the Dorchester the designated grand hotel for fat people? The portions at its new grill say so
The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, is a cake floating in space. All grand hotels create a parallel universe in which…
Two shops. Two philosophies. Which side are you on?
Are you Lush or are you Aldi? Me, I’m Aldi all the way. So much so that when someone —…
My wood-burning stove is expensive, trendy – and miserable
My trendy wood-burning stove is leaving me cold, wheezy, red-eyed and exhausted
Of course you can choose to get up early (and maybe you can choose to be gay)
‘Oh, I’m an owl,’ said my friend Nick. ‘You’re probably a lark.’ I raised an eyebrow. He explained. Apparently all…
It takes a village (or six): the battle for rural churches
Can England’s 10,000 rural churches survive?
Dear Mary: How can I stop my elderly host making the bed?
Q. I have regularly stayed with a hospitable friend in London but now hesitate to invite myself. She is seventy-something…
