It’s awards season in the film industry and companies with an eye to a bit of free publicity will be offering gifts to the actors, executives and celebrities attending the ceremonies. If you think a goody bag is something with a balloon, a party popper and a lolly at the end of an afternoon of …
I read somewhere that the mirrors in some shop changing rooms are designed to make us look slimmer. It may be an urban myth, but it’s a smart plan anyway. Clearly, if the answer to the question, ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ is 'yes', or if, in my case, if I miraculously look …
Community is a tricky idea these days. Surveys tell us we no longer know our neighbours and TV tells us that, when we do, they are very often ‘from Hell’. Online communities are elusive and shifting. The Guardian reported recently that ‘Facebook is now dead and buried to teenagers’. But politicians like the word ‘community’. …
I’ve been doing a lot of tidying up lately. If you were to ask the rest of my family they would say that this is because I am a strangely obsessive and troubled little man; if you ask me, it’s just that I think it’s important to live in an ordered environment. An obsessively tidy, …