Here is my 'Endpaper' piece for the summer edition of The Author, the magazine published for professional writers by the Society of Authors. Is it just me, or has everything suddenly gone rather quiet? Authors are used to hearing that...
Read moreHalf-close your eyes, apply a bit of imagination, and you will see a startling resemblance between Harriet Harman, acting leader of the Labour Party, and Mary Portas, the TV bossyboots who likes to be known as "Mary Queen of Shops"....
Read moreDid Anne Frank have sex? The unlikely and, some might say, impertinent question has been raised in the publicity surrounding the publication in the autumn of a novel for teenagers called Annexed. The book's author, Sharon Dogar, is said to...
Read moreFrom the moment that Sebastian Horsley entered the church, his coffin draped in red glittering material like a large Christmas present, it was clear that this was going to be an unusual funeral. The sound of Marc Bolan’s Cosmic Dancer,...
Read moreLast Friday, my Independent column was about our great age of nannying - in politics, on TV, in life - and how it seemed to be drawing to a close. I opened the piece by drawing a comparison between Mary...
Read moreThe sickly scent of marital smugness is in the air. Helen Mirren has said the secret of her marriage is loyalty rather than romance. BBC Women's Hour has been solemnly discussing Michelle Obama's idea of "date nights" as a matrimonial...
Read moreThere has almost certainly been an authoritative survey, conducted by some obscure, PR-minded university, proving beyond doubt that women's brain's are better than men's at accommodating two apparently conflicting ideas and achieving a balance between the two. Women, for example,...
Read moreA Jeremiah in cavalry twills, the Prince of Wales has been warning us all about the state of our souls. Western society has become materialist and secular, he told the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Science has objectified nature. The...
Read moreInsanely, absurdly. Sebastian Horsley has been found dead, having apparently taken an overdose of heroin. Although he lived life on the edge – over the edge sometimes – he always seemed to be a survivor. Because he was never...
Read moreWhen Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, recently expressed a worry that his country was becoming a nation of bloggers, he found himself in trouble with those sensitive souls who write about, and for, the new media. Jobs had...
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