Romance
The smartphone is like having a singles bar in one’s pocket 24/7
An American stand-up comedian Aziz Ansari, who usually performs in Los Angeles and New York, has found time to conduct…
Tinder went looking for fresh flesh – and accidentally found me
Can mobile dating apps move beyond the promise of a one-night stand?
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…
Dear Mary: How can I lie about my age and still use my Senior Railcard?
Q. I was not brought up in England and don’t appear in Who’s Who. This means that there is no…
I wouldn't want to be a girl in the age of Tinder
Romance is being killed off by the brutal marketplace of dating apps such as Tinder
The rise of ‘living apart together’ – and why I’ve stopped doing it
The rise of ‘living apart together’ – and why I’ve stopped doing it
I swam up to a beautiful girl on the beach, and my life changed
I’m writing this from Portugal, where I’m staying with my old friend Sean Langan. His family has owned a farm…
Dear Mary: Learning to love a man who whistles through his nose
Q. What can you do when disorganised friends say they would love to come to a concert with you but…
What’s the point in being married if I can’t feel superior to my single friends?
I’m due to speak at an Intelligence Squared debate on Saturday and I’m worried that I might be on the…
Porn-agains: meet the middle-aged men - and women - warped by internet porn
It’s not just the young whose expectations of sex are warped by dirty videos online
L.P. Hartley’s guide to coping with a heatwave
Those of us who have been struggling to endure the recent heat should turn to L.P. Hartley’s classic coming-of-age novel The…
Right-wing women are sexier
A lust that dare not speak its name
Not quite romantic fiction, or literary fiction, or commercial fiction – but still quite good
Elements of Raffaella Barker’s new novel, her eighth for adults, suggest commercial fiction: a narrative that oscillates between the aftermath…
Why it’s time for a Cad of the Year Award
Why it’s time for a Cad of the Year Award
The summer of love
I spent it skipping about in tights, imagining women wanted me
The joy of less sex
I used to think nothing would ever be more important. I was wrong
I don’t want to rate the restaurant. I want to rate the date
Everyone’s a critic, but that doesn’t mean we want to fill in a survey every time we buy a meal
I’m nearly 60. I’m still interested in sex. Is that a problem?
Have I become a dirty old man?
Dear Mary: How can I hide my tattoo from the in-laws?
Q. I have a tattoo the length of my forearm and am worried it will alienate my new boyfriend’s parents…
Dear Mary: What should I do when my dinner guests dive for their iPads?
Q. We had our son’s fiancée and her family to stay recently. After dinner, expecting conversation, we were shocked to…
Celia Walden's diary: Have I finally caught my husband in an affair?
For a minute I just stood there with my back against the wall, staring at the credit card receipt. Then…
Nancy Dell'Olio: Englishmen can't flirt (except for Russell Brand)
Why can’t British men flirt? This was one of my first thoughts when I arrived in England some years ago.…
Charles Moore: Nelson has lost the battle to a fat, stupid blue cockerel
I do not know whether the Greek gypsy couple accused of abducting a girl called Maria are guilty, but I…
One Night in Winter, by Simon Sebag Montefiore - review
Simon Sebag Montefiore’s One Night in Winter begins in the hours immediately following the solemn victory parade that marked the…
Dear Mary: How can I stop this bore reading his novel aloud?
Q. Is there a polite way of halting a wannabe novelist from reading his oeuvre aloud to an unwilling audience?…
