Work
What has become of the Wellcome Collection?
In 2022 the Wellcome Collection caused a stir by closing its Medicine Man exhibition on the grounds that it was…
Why China’s nostalgia industry is booming
Nostalgia is a thriving industry in China. I first noticed this while walking around Nanjing last summer. There were shops…
Trade like a tradwife
I love to complain about my phone. It has ruined everything, from friendships to childhood to my memory. But if…
Be more tiger mum!
‘What’s it to do with me if your boyfriend wants to break up with you? Or if you cried, or…
A podcast that listens to what anti-vaxxers think rather than lecturing them
Work is our new religion. There are people whose primary job is writing listicles of celebrity gossip, illustrated with gifs…
Britain’s jobs miracle proves there is no reason to fear technology
Another week, another set of economic figures that suggest the country is showing remarkable resilience while politics implodes. Rather than…
It doesn’t matter how hard you work – just how busy you look
The behavioural scientist Dan Ariely once found himself chatting to a locksmith with a curious problem. The better he became…
Dear Mary: My new boyfriend is too short. Can I make him wear shoe lifts?
Q. An acquaintance, whom I admire but don’t know well, sent me a ‘begging’ letter to donate to a charity…
Let’s redo lunch
As a young sub-editor on the Times in 1926, Graham Greene, future author of The Quiet American and Brighton Rock,…
Why it makes sense to buy your banker lunch
We recently moved -offices from Canary Wharf to Blackfriars bridge. When you move after a long time in one place,…
It’s not work that’s stressful. It’s offices
It’s not work that’s killing us. It’s the irritation and confusion of modern office life
James Runcie’s diary: A Willie’s shock at the SNP
I am writing a play about Dr Johnson and his Dictionary. It will be performed in Scotland later this year.…
Dear Mary: How to cope with London Library overcrowding
Q. As a writer I find working at home too distracting. I am a longstanding member of the London Library…
Could you afford to take a job with the royal family?
Royally paid Staff at Windsor Castle were balloted in strike action over pay. What can you earn in the royal…
The Stonewall dinner left me with one question: why are volunteers so horrible to one another?
I watched the video with some trepidation. Stonewall (the campaigning gay and lesbian equality organisation) had just sent me the…
Why tomorrow’s parents won’t want their children to go to university
Why being a graduate is about to lose its prestige
You can still book your flight to Mars
Space to dream Richard Branson’s dream of commercial space flights has suffered a setback after a prototype craft crashed. But…
Dear Mary: Can I run out on an apprenticeship for my dream interview?
Q. I have been trying to get an apprenticeship in fashion for over a year without success. I just had…
How Plato and Aristotle would have tackled unemployment
Labour is up in arms because many of the new jobs currently being created are among the self-employed. This seems…
Unpaid internships turned me into a banker – but I still think they’re a good thing
My thanks to ‘AndyB’, the only reader who posted an online comment on my column last week. It was ‘Don’t…
