India Knight



Profile:
Full name: India Knight

Area of interest: Women, family life and issues

Journals/Organisation: The Sunday Times | The Times

Email: [mailto:india.knight@sunday-times.co.uk india.knight@sunday-times.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/columns/indiaknight

Blog: Weblog

Representation:

Networks: http://twitter.com/#!/indiaknight



Biography:
About:

Education: Lycée Charles de Gaulle school, London; Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire; Trinity College, Cambridge: Modern Languages

Career:

Current position/role:


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles/Main role:

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

Controversy/Criticism:

Broadcast media: Regular guest on radio and TV

Video:

Awards/Honours:

Scoops:

Other: Her stepfather is Andrew Knight, journalist, former editor of The Economist, and now News Corporation Director; her former partner is Andrew O'Hagan



Books & Debate:

 * My Life on a Plate, 2000 (ISBN 0140281878); Don't You Want Me, 2002 (ISBN 0140297405); The Shops, 2004 (ISBN 0141011483); (Editor) The Dirty Bits - For Girls, 2006 (ISBN 1844081699); Neris and India's Idiot-proof Diet (with Neris Thomas), 2007 (ISBN 067091648X)

Latest work: The thrift book : live well and spend less OCLC 241052566, 2008

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Sunday Times:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Women, family life and issues

Section: Features

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:india.knight@sunday-times.co.uk india.knight@sunday-times.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/columns/indiaknight

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Sunday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 1050



Articles: 2014

 * The perfect wedding: naff disco, iffy food and a 60-quid bridal gown - The average wedding costs £18,000, which is just plain nuts considering the average annual wage is... - 16th March
 * Ignore the warring food police and trust your gut instinct - A baffling and alarming week of headlines for people who eat food — which is to say, er, everyone.... - 9th March
 * If you want to protect children, let them have sex at 15 - Never mind the conclusions people might draw about Harriet Harman - 2nd March
 * Oh do try to be more feminine, you sporting goddesses - Most of the medals that have gone to Team GB at Sochi have been won by women, so what better... - 23rd February
 * One slip-up in Hollywood and our true attitude to race slips out - In my more fanciful moments I like to imagine that, having elected a black president, America is... - 16th February
 * Jumbled, yes, but there are no ‘half’ measures in my family - Families are changing fast. A new report has found that nearly a third of all couples bringing up.. - 9th February
 * When women shout down good advice on rape, no one is safe - I sometimes wonder whether common sense has actually slunk off and died - 2nd February
 * Online love is a many splendoured thing — click send - 26th January
 * Ha! Not only have we still got it at 40, boys, we’ve got more of it - Kate Moss turned 40 last week, which is nice. What is not so nice is the astonished-sounding line... - 19th January
 * After years of being a slave to cultural duty I’m going Awol - I am supposed to be going to see 12 Years a Slave tonight - 12th January



Articles: 2013

 * Hard luck, smoothies – we’ve all been caught by the fuzz - Never mind selfies or twerking or Miley Cyrus or Cara Delevingne, or indeed Miley and Cara twerking... - 29th December
 * So, we can’t call anyone fat but we can still stuff them with junk food - The actress Jennifer Lawrence is a one-size-fits-all heroine in almost all respects - 22nd December
 * Sing it with Beyoncé and me, girls: we’re crazy in control - I’m giving out prizes at a secondary school this week - 15th December
 * Nigella, the domestic tigress, wakes and roars - I am still at a slight loss to understand how Nigella Lawson’s drug-taking, real or imagined, has anything to do with the fraud case involving her ingrate former assistants - 8th December
 * The butcher, the baker, the community maker will save the high street - I was thinking the other day about how super-localised my life has become - 1st December
 * Everyone has been stirring the poison that makes a champion cry - I went to my all-girls boarding school at a funny time of year - 24th November
 * OK, hold the sprouts for now, but get that joy simmering - I start thinking about Christmas the moment the summer holidays are over - 17th November
 * Sven can’t stop scoring and it’s not because of his size 6 boots - Sven-Goran Eriksson has written an autobiography - 10th November
 * Hallowe’en magic: the NHS team that fixed my little girl’s heart - Hallowe’en is a big thing in my corner of north London - 3rd November
 * Topless Gloria, the MP who's lived a little - If you start typing ‘Gloria De Piero’ into Google, it comes up with the following auto-suggestions:... - 20th October
 * The scoffing, starving kids are trying to tell us something - The Germans have an excellent word for stuffing your face when you feel unhappy — Kummerspeck - 13th October
 * Bridget, love, fiftysomething women just aren’t broken any more - Poor old fiftysomething Bridget Jones, all widowed and broken - 6th October
 * Sorry, Cheekypants, the adoring wife has to go - Every conference season, I am agog at the adoring wives of the leaders - 29th September
 * France has said ‘non’ to those creepy child beauty pageants – why don’t we? - In a triumph for sanity, France is on the verge of banning child beauty pageants - 22nd September
 * The right honourably dull MP gets my vote – if I wake up - The new editor of the BBC’s Newsnight programme got into hot water last week for calling a guest “boring snoring” - 15th September
 * Thanks, OK! magazine, for making marriage unaffordable - What is the act of getting married actually for? - 18th August
 * I love every bit of you, Six Bellies, but my desire stretches to only two - I’m looking at a survey — commissioned by a diet site, naturally — that shows what we all already know, namely that happily ensconced couples fatten up like those poor foie gras geese. And that’s nice. It’s cosy - 11th August
 * Boycott – my one-word message to shame Twitter over the trolls - Last week Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully campaigned for Jane Austen to appear on banknotes, called the police after receiving roughly 50 rape threats an hour on Twitter - 4th August
 * We’ve added a vanload of shame to the silence on immigration - It’s not often that you find yourself nodding along in agreement with Nigel Farage - 28th July
 * Stand tall, stay-at-home dads, wave your dish mops with pride - Four out of 10 women are now the main breadwinner for their family, a survey has found - 21st July
 * Lovely prom dress, angel. Your carriage to absurdity awaits - As a teenager I used to be obsessed with American proms, for which I blame the film Grease - 14th July
 * Rudely ignoring the human race – there’s an app for that - As I never tire of saying, manners are everything - 7th July
 * We’re the new puritans – and our biggest hate is ourselves - It’s the “bikini body” time again, when all the women’s magazines make you feel bad about the summer holiday you have looked forward to all year - 30th June
 * I’ll just fetch some slippers while you rage against ageing - I’ve been assiduously checking my ears over the past few days - 23rd June
 * For better, for worse, for richer, for ... remind me, Daddy, what’s poorer? - The Ancient Romans had a law called lex sumptuaria, which regulated the use of luxury items and... - 16th June
 * Welcome to the ordinary happy family: 2.4 children, 2.4 fathers - Kate Winslet is pregnant, which is lovely news - 9th June
 * The merest buttering-up and stale men think they’re sexy wolves - There’s a certain comfort in predictability — kettles boil, Question Time makes you gibber at the telly, the weather makes you want to hibernate, middle-aged men who are plucked from relative obscurity to become famous often go bananas - 26th May
 * My finger’s on the pulse, but I’ve put my brain on hold - Mobile phones are such an integral part of people’s lives that asking, “Aren’t they strange?” is like questioning the existence of trousers, or teapots - 19th May
 * Just shrug at gropers of the past – and your child could be next - I’ve had an unexpectedly high number of heated conversations about the recent arrests of elderly men on suspicion of historical sexual abuse - 12th May
 * No giddy dreams, no fiery magic — no wonder second marriages last - When you’re young, there are two or three consecutive summers that consist mostly of going to weddings, to the point where it becomes borderline comical: weekend after weekend, up and down the country, column dresses and meringues, village halls and marquees, pubs and smart hotels - 5th May
 * Look, Louise, a facelift is very different from repainting the shed - I’m not really fussed about cosmetic surgery - 28th April
 * But please, Mr Gove, Sir – children are dead beat by 3.30pm - I was just learning to come to terms with my disturbing love of many of Michael Gove’s education reforms — learning by rote, knowing times tables and so on — but now he’s gone and blown it - 21st April
 * Don’t just wallow: if you want to get a life, get a crisis - I put my shoulder out last week. It is ridiculously painful - 14th April
 * Pippa, you’re genius – yummy food and great buns too - Pippa Middleton’s first column appeared in Waitrose Kitchen magazine last week - 30th March
 * The three Rs: reading, writing and rubbing out the leftie ideas holding children back - I find myself in the disconcerting position of agreeing with Michael Gove - 24th March
 * It was nice and cosy in the middle class – until the deniers moved in - The use of the term “middle class” as an insult has always completely baffled me - 17th March
 * Facebook, vampires, dating: oh the games children play - A friend’s daughter has been reading one of those awful sub-Twilight series of vampire novels - 10th March
 * At 17 years and 364 days, she is a sick child. At 18, the NHS can watch her die - What is the right way of dealing with anorexia, when the illness is so entrenched that the person is going to die? It seems to me to be a question of whether you value free will over life, or whether life must always come first - 24th February
 * Members of the water cooler jury, shed a tear for Pistorius - “The man in the dock was evidently inconsolable, a broken man,” one report said last week of the appearance in court of Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria, where prosecutors said they would pursue a charge of premeditated murder - 17th February
 * It’s the clever middle class that makes the messiest divorces - I signed my divorce papers last week, which sounds pleasingly dramatic and in fact isn’t at all - 10th February
 * Oh, give me strength – women don’t pine for Cif Man - So many things are confusing, and high on the list is the yawning chasm between what women say they want in public and what they actually do want in private - 3rd February
 * It’s not so much the poor are fat; the rich just can’t stop starving - I wonder what social class Anna Soubry would put me in. I am a size 16, with bosoms and a bottom - 27th January
 * Stop swearing at the sky and join me for a snow snuggle - I should probably prefix this column by extending my sympathies to anyone who is stranded - 20th January
 * Britain’s dark attitude to women is on the prowl in Ripper Street - I tried watching the first episode but I had to turn it off halfway through, because it was making me feel sick - 13th January
 * Lovely stuff from Sir David, but the zoo animals need him more - Like 6.5m other people I watched David Attenborough’s new television series on Africa - 6th January



Articles: 2012

 * Slow down, everyone – now is the season to be nesting - I am writing this from the sofa. I live on the sofa now. It is my home - 30th December
 * At least wrap up the little lady’s de-icer, lads - I love Christmas so much that if it were a person I’d be done for stalking - 23rd December
 * Non-lechers, stand up and reclaim the Seventies - News cycles are strange things. Some stories are discussed for weeks or months until they suddenly vanish into thin air, almost as though they had never happened - 9th December
 * Buck up, Britain — regrets are mere whinges - Regrets? I’ve had a few. Actually, no. I’m racking my brain and I haven’t had a single one, with the possible exception of never growing my hair past my shoulders, owing to tangling - 25th November
 * Medieval, barbaric — a woman’s death to shame even the Pope - Most Catholics are not intransigent, swivel-eyed fanatics — but for reasons that are beyond me they are bafflingly silent when it comes to voicing objections to the loonier groups that would speak in their name. And so the groups keep talking until governments listen - 18th November
 * Ambushed in the Old Sentimentality Shop - What do we want from our shops? - 11th November
 * No sharing, no compromises – oh, the suffering of the singleton - It really irritates me when normal things are taken as indicators of misery, especially when those things are commonplace decisions, or to do with adapting gracefully to the circumstances that life lobs at you - 4th November
 * Hell hath no fury like a pupil abandoned - I have a sneaking admiration for Fiona Phillips, the former GMTV presenter, who last week was asked to say a few words at her former secondary school - 27th October
 * The more toffs conquer, the weirder our prejudice grows - Unless you live on a tiny island, population one person, you will have seen and heard and been driven insane by the unbelievably catchy Gangnam Style, a song released in July by the South Korean rapper Psy - 21st October
 * Slaps and slurs — guess which gets the tougher punishment - When I’m not writing columns, I write books. The books are fiction, which means everything is made up, which means I can write whatever I like - 14th October
 * Just when you thought misery lit had crawled back into its dark cellar ... - Are there people left standing who still believe that depression is “taboo”, and that by speaking about their own they are bravely shining a light — “just a little beam, but I do what I can” — into the darkness? - 7th October
 * The picture’s gone wobbly, Dave — do adjust your mindset - Remember the televised debates before the 2010 general election when everybody suddenly decided Nick Clegg was really great? (We will draw a discreet veil over this moment of collective madness. He’s sorry, you know. He’s so, so sorry.) - 30th September
 * Troll away, vile trolls, you’re doing us a service - ‘The time has come for an informed debate about the boundaries of free speech in an age of social media,” Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said last week - 23rd September
 * A short, sharp lawsuit will help Kate avoid Diana’s fate - When you think about it properly, a man standing on a ladder trying to get a picture of a young woman’s breasts is deeply weird - 16th September
 * Frolic away, Carol, and all you other muttonkins - The television presenter Carol Vorderman — you know, the maths one with the amazingly un-Caucasian bottom — has a new hairdo - 9th September
 * Britain has found a smiley face — don’t let it slip away - The Paralympics are on and the nice feeling has come back, thank God - 2nd September
 * In a flash, Harry has exposed our sins of the smartphone - The idea of the royals being like normal people is clearly divisive — at least, according to some newspapers - 26th August
 * When an apology becomes a cheap thrill for millions - I was at the hairdresser’s the other day and it occurred to me that I no longer recognise anyone in trashy celebrity magazines - 29th July
 * Here we go again, a holiday full of f-words – fun, freedom and family - You forget tons of things you did or felt as a child, but that particular feeling has always stayed with me, as has a quasi-hysterical sense of excitement about the summer holidays - 22nd July
 * Some bright spark has led M&S way off the mark - Last week Marks & Spencer reported its worst non-food sales in more than three years. Its head of fashion stepped down - 15th July
 * Back off, all you wolves drooling as Cruise bleeds - I feel sorry for Tom Cruise. There’s a weird sentence to write - 8th July
 * An open goal and still Britain fluffs the Beckham Olympics - I obviously have to make the usual “I am but a woman and I know nothing” disclaimers before writing about this week’s topic:... - 1st July 2012
 * Smile all you like, mummies – it’s still porn - As I may have mentioned before, I have a violent allergy to the use of “mummy” or “mum” as a prefix. I have only to see the ... - 24th June
 * Cameron mislays a child and gigglers lose the plot - Astonishing confession time: unlike everybody I’ve heard on the radio, watched on television or read in the papers in the past week, I’ve never left any of my children behind anywhere - 17th June
 * Our hideous rush for a seat at the Twitter witch trials - Social media are marvellous tools for anyone in the public eye - 10th June
 * You can weep over Peppa Pig, ladies, but not PowerPoint - Sheryl Sandberg, 42, is the chief operating officer of Facebook, one of the few women to have made it big in the techy nerdlands of Silicon Valley - 3rd June
 * Ha ha, boys – nature wants you to chase the short, dopy ones - You learn something new every day. In my case this morning’s glad tidings are that a single testicle produces about 85m sperm cells a day - 27th May
 * Every new parent needs a Mary Poppins — and now they have one - In 1999 a three-month-old baby called Leroy Elders died of what was in effect a salt overdose... - 20th May
 * When the going gets tough, the tough let themselves go a little - It’s amazing how much consternation a bare face can create, especially if the face in question belongs to a high- profile woman over 50 - 13th May
 * Buck up, bitter Britain, and break out the bunting - I hate people who hate everything. This is a feeling that has crept up on me over the years: I used to rather like them, or at least find them amusing and even impressive - 6th May



Articles: 2011

 * We may bay, but watching TV trials makes us all guilty - Finding yourself getting excited by the ruin or exoneration of a fellow human being's life is just creepy and ghoulish - 9th October 2011
 * Toy boy out, granny pants on – it could be bliss, Demi - Demi Moore ought not to be too sad if her relationship with the much younger actor Ashton Kutcher has ended as reported - 2nd October 2011
 * There, there, Kate. You’ll feel better if you don’t let it all out - Having howled with laughter at the idea of the stiff upper lip, now there is nothing I like more — take note, Ms Winslet - 25th September 2011
 * We whine at desks while forgotten men die underground - The contrast between the necessary hardness of the miners and the gentleness of their response brought tears to my eyes - 18th September 2011
 * Catherines everywhere, take care — Heathcliff is easily broken - It is interesting to see how vociferously people react to the idea that their romantic hero may not be exactly as they imagine him - 11th September 2011
 * Douse the fiery fantasy, go for a semolina marriage - New figures show that boredom in a marriage is worse than infidelity, with more couples breaking up due to ‘falling out of love’ - 4th September 2011
 * I have a pash for you. Please let me carry your bulletproof vest'' - The Sky News correspondent has become the authentic voice of working motherhood, and she should be rewarded with a string of awards - 28th August 2011
 * news, boasters – the geek has inherited the earth'' - The mild-mannered Tom Pellereau heralded a change in direction to the usual The Apprentice winner and, indeed, contestant - 24th July 2011
 * has hit a shrill note in jailing the rock star’s son'' - What Charlie Gilmour did during the student protests was stupid and ugly but his excessive punishment does not fit the crime - 17th July 2011
 * out — and after just four days I’m done in'' - I know 'good' parents are supposed to treasure and cherish every minute they spend with their offspring, but I’ve never claimed to be a paragon - 10th July 2011
 * thank you when being lashed for bad manners'' - Manners are what hold society together. They are very, very important. They’re the one real indicator of class in the truest sense of the word - 3rd July 2011
 * why should you and your bear be at Oxbridge?'' - The proposed ‘objective’ admissions system for Oxbridge would have no place for brilliant eccentrics such as Lord Byron - 26th June 2011
 * celeb-watching makes you dumb, I’m a dunce'' - Celebrity culture is here to stay and you need to engage with it if you inhabit the world as opposed to some lonely ivory tower - 19th June 2011
 * nudging my brood to get an A* in happiness'' - Turning your children into well-rounded, accomplished adults is a laudable aim, but often can often lead to misguided pressure - 12th June 2011
 * – nice and softly – if you’re glad to be beige'' - John Lewis looks to shake off its 'fuddy-duddy' image to catch up with the likes of Tesco, but we love it just the way it is - 5th June 2011
 * in the hutch, bunny girls – you too, Lady Gag'' - Women dressed as rabbits aren’t funny; nor are drunk young girls abusing themselves for the camera in exchange for a T-shirt - 29th May 2011
 * of the hysteria — Ken is trying to help us'' - Ken Clarke's rape classification was cringe-worthy, but his ideas on rape sentencing are actually worthwhile. Let's cut him some slack - 22nd May 2011
 * parents enjoy punishing Kate and Gerry McCann'' - The abuse directed at Madeleine McCann’s parents is obscene after what they’ve been through since their daughter’s disappearence - 15th May 2011
 * we don’t care if Winnie is a sexist Pooh'' - Young children aren’t aware of the crushing fist of the patriarchy as exemplified by Wibbly Pig, unless they have exceptionally tiresome parents - 8th May 2011
 * you’re showing your inner Flashman'' - It is an asset that David Cameron can be funny, but he needs to be careful not to come across as a bully who puts women down - 1st May 2011
 * morning suit is all about good manners'' - Cameron’s wardrobe isn’t a thing I spend hours mulling over — until I realised that my irritation was entirely to do with the lack of manners - 24th April 2011
 * surrendered to the sly seduction of high prices'' - It’s a fascinating subject, the comfort that expense brings. We’ve all stood in the supermarket wine aisle and thought, no, that’s too cheap - 17th April 2011
 * not Best Friend’s Day — don’t be matey, be mother'' - The idea of any mother being her daughter’s 'best friend', and vice versa, strikes me as bonkers and faintly sinister - 3rd April 2011
 * most perfect crimes are committed up Norse'' - The Danish drama on BBC4 has captured my imagination, not only for its thrilling storyline, but for its leading lady unlike any we see today - 27th March 2011
 * still want sex at 60, so get used to it'' - We can't have civil unrest and the streets running with vomit every time a sixtysomething has the temerity to admit that they really enjoy sex - 20th March 2011
 * telling porkies, everyone, and be proud to pootle'' - If you’re going to lie, lie big. But no: 'I went to visit friends' or 'and then we went for a romantic meal' is apparently the summit of our ambitions - 13th March 2011
 * Hollywood — true stars have mystique'' - The death of a genuine Hollywood beauty shows how starkly unglamorous the rich and famous have become, just when we needed a bit of escapism - 6th March 2011
 * Uncle Elton, but please don’t sing'' - The royal wedding and fallen dictators’ cosmetic procedures are taking up a thoroughly shameful amount of my time, I must confess - 27th February 2011
 * the way to a girl’s soul is through her handbag'' - To the foolish male eye, handbags don’t make you look hotter, or boost your cleavage, or add anything concrete to your appearance at all - 20th February 2011
 * away, class — and see your literacy improve'' - Figures show that one in 11 boys leaves primary school unable to read properly — it turns out the solution may lie online - 13th February 2011
 * is futile — you will watch Kate’s wedding'' - By watching the royal wedding — and you will — you will simply be behaving like a human being who thinks love is lovely - 6th February 2011
 * every man will bring us more Andy Grays'' - Unless you spend your day crafting felt animals in an all-woman co-operative, chances are you’ll have heard or overheard far worse remarks - 30th January 2011
 * the loss of girls’ wise big sister'' - Teenage girls’ mags played an important role: that of a knowing older sister — except an sister who would never roll her eyes or make fun of you - 23rd January 2011
 * course you live just like us, Gwyneth'' - I’m tired of the whole 'I’m just like you' thing in general. So many people do it, including newspaper columnists - 16th January 2011
 * listen carefully, you don’t need my advice'' - My theory is that the reason why so many people have difficulty maintaining relationships with the opposite sex is: way too much advice - 9th January 2011
 * Zimmers – my commune for the old'' - Old people communes are the future, and we can start putting money aside now for a fabulous martini-filled old age later - 2nd January 2011



Articles: 2010

 * your queasiness and children stop dying'' - The universal truth behind 'designer babies' and the like is that any parent would do anything to save their stricken child’s life - 26th December 2010
 * Blyton and you will be in a jolly tight spot'' - Reading is so age-limited nowadays that only an enterprising 12-year-old would have a look at the adult books on offer in their local bookshop - 19th December 2010
 * of desire keeps Oxbridge middle class'' - Schools and people should 'clever up'. Upping education funding and keeping tuition fees low would have been a start - 12th December 2010
 * is nature's way of telling us to chill out'' - Snow forces you to pare things down to the bare essentials and in doing so makes you realise how much time you normally waste - 4th December 2010
 * Mumsnet kids are awake and marching'' - Usually, the children of the Mumsnet generation don’t protest. They are the ones for whom the term ‘Little Emperor’ was coined - 28th November 2010
 * rancour is a dish best served in private, chef'' - Open letters are usually cringe-making or delusional-seeming, so why has Gordon Ramsay sent one to his mother-in-law? - 14th November 2010
 * mistake was to be hurt and not admit it'' - Fry’s distress at people turning against him made him feel sad and hurt, but as a celebrity that’s the one thing you’re not allowed to say - 7th November 2010
 * do’ in a shed is better than ‘you swine’ in paradise'' - The couple’s horrible Maldivian experience serves as a timely reminder of what matters — and of what really doesn’t - 31st October 2010
 * bunny girl, run — you’re not sexy any more'' - I see that sexuality is elastic, but I can’t say I’ve ever found myself turned on by a random woman removing her clothes for money - 24th October 2010
 * putting the man first makes a family'' - Where else is he supposed to go on the list? Kids first, work second, husband third — how does that work in terms of a happy ending? - 17th October 2010
 * the illegal immigrant we have learnt to love'' - Nothing unites the nation so much as pop culture injustice, because despite evidence to the contrary we all demand happy endings - 10th October 2010
 * the day, my sibling — just don’t seize mine'' - As the Milibands discovered, pecking orders are established in early childhood and, try as you might, it’s quite hard to get away from them - 3rd October 2010
 * people are too stupid to be allowed a divorce'' - 'There is an argument for banning certain people from divorcing on the grounds that they’re too thick to cope with the aftermath' - 26th September 2010
 * yes, that feels better — no wrinkles, no guilt'' - I can’t bear the disingenuousness around this subject: if you’ve had Botox, say so. If you’re 65 and have better skin than you did at 20, fess up - 19th September 2010
 * Pope may appal but try to be welcoming'' - Religion appears to have become dangerously exempt from the concepts of respect and courtesy which are extended to other beliefs - 11th September 2010
 * online casting couch — one good quip and you're a star'' - The internet has turned into a repository of talent and an amazing springboard - a triumph for ordinary people with ordinary resources - 29th August 2010
 * riddance to the cougar myth'' - The 60-year-old man who’s always trying to cop off with 25-year-old girls isn't appetising. Why should it be any different the other way around? - 22nd August 2010
 * clunking climb down the social ladder'' - David Cameron can’t tone down his poshness and so he shouldn’t bother trying. There are worse things than sounding like a Hooray - 15th August 2010
 * Moat’s rampage is another crime'' - Raoul Moat appreciation is about more than just the disenfranchised working-class, it's also about domestic violence - 18th July 2010
 * you see, Cheryl, keeping busy is no way to cope'' - I have never met a man who, in a position of emotional distress, decides to clear out the attic or descale all the kettles in the house - 11th July 2010
 * your pasty bits away — they leave me cold'' - The sun shining over Britain is not an excuse for us all to run about wearing hardly any clothes and show off our inferior physiques - 4th July 2010
 * — that white thing in the kitchen is a cooker'' - The chronic sexism of the domestic sphere is all too apparent amongst teenage boys, who are willfully uncooperative with household chores - 27th June 2010
 * think it's all over for the WAGs'' - Wives and Girlfriends are not in South Africa because Fabio Capello decided that their presence would prove distracting - 13th June 2010
 * some his sin was staying in the closet'' - The idea of making his private life public would, I expect, have struck David Laws as something to be avoided at any price - 6th June 2010
 * only care about hookers when a monster strike'' - Lots of women who aren’t prostitutes like to dress as though they are, especially in city centres on Friday and Saturday nights - 30th May 2010
 * loops, no squiggles – it’s the kiss of death for romance'' - An email is good for conveying information but does not compare to a carefully handwritten letter - 23rd May 2010
 * the dishwasher, darling'' - I can’t entirely believe that divorce can be averted through the judicious manly application of Cif to worktop - 16th May 2010
 * extreme diets are a delusion'' - From tree syrup to baby food, a crazy diet won't turn you into a film star, fix your marriage, or stop you hating your job - 9th May 2010
 * again, those teenage demons are lovely'' - It’s depressing to find 14-year-old girls get a bad rap. That teenagers disagree with thier parents doesn't make them objectable - 2nd May 2010
 * City’s Caligulas won’t lie down'' - They are awfully pleased with themselves, the roaring City boys, and they think we don’t like them because we’re jealous - 25th April 2010
 * we’re totally delicious'' - In 20 years or so we have gone from viewing brown-skinned people as 'exotic' to being the people you’d most like to sleep with - 25th  April 2010
 * mother’s stand against Frankie the vicious stand-up'' - Are people with disabilities intrinsically funny? A serious question to which the answer isn’t as straightforward as it might be - 11th April 2010
 * can stay no longer in this Church'' - A faith based on infallibility must understand that failure to condemn the rape of children is to allow it - 28th March 2010
 * turkey pecks at Marco’s reputation'' - What possessed a man who was once the most brilliant Michelin-starred chef in Britain to endorse Bernard Matthews’s products? - 21st March 2010
 * let the honourable mistress of porn speak'' - Given that so many watch it on the sly, would it really be so terrible if a porn professional won office? There are worse things - 14th March 2010
 * quietly stripped food naked and made it sexy'' - I mistrust people who claim not to be interested in food, because what kind of weirdo would you have to be to chop off one of your senses? - 7th March 2010
 * our fault beautiful game looks ugly'' - Sport is not about who does what to whom in a hotel bedroom or how much their wife’s hair extensions and veneers cost - 28th February 2010
 * wants to play the Lolita card'' - I don't like the way dressing up to look like your mum is allowed only if your mum dresses like a model of Probity - 21st February 2010
 * green strings tying women to the home'' - The cupcake stands as the symbol of a whole load of weirdness, wishful thinking and guilt about being a better mother - 14th February 2010
 * a godsend; don’t make her a burden'' - Hats off to thousands of carers, but I don’t understand how forcing people to look after their elderly relatives would work - 7th February 2010
 * of the closet: our growing acceptance of gays'' - There’s some way to go before we’re as liberal as we like to think we are, but we’re heading in the right direction - 31st January 2010
 * decided it’s good to cry'' - Over the years, I have evolved into a world-class sobber. By the time I’m 50 I’m going to have to have extra Botox for tear tracks - 24th January 2010
 * bookshop strangler'' - Waterstone’s isn’t ideal - but it’s all we’ve got, and if it goes, there will be no big accessible bookshops left in the entire country - 17th January 2010
 * burqas unveils our nastiness'' - The idea that millions of ordinary, non-extremist Muslims need to be 'civilised' into knowing what’s what sticks in the craw - 10th January 2010



Articles: 2009

 * just woken up to Wogan – and it’s too late'' - The values epitomised by Terry's radio show were as nostalgic as a gobstopper, except they were real - 20th December 2009
 * blackened by his all-white trophy cupboard'' - At some point you notice that all the women Tiger Woods has slept with since marrying his Swedish wife in 2004 have been white - 13th December 2009
 * sexed-up Sally, the sinner we all need'' - The political wife’s role still involves hiding your light under the largest of bushels and standing around in nice dresses smiling - 6th December 2009
 * lays bare the myth that every hooker is a victim'' - I'm hard-pressed to see how an expensive hooker differs wildly from an under-dressed 'party girl' out on the town with someone loaded - 22nd November 2009
 * teen gangster’s new weapon: a snarling dog'' - Last week, my daughter was knocked over by a monstrous rottweiler-type thing. If I’d had a gun, there would have been carnage - 15th November 2009
 * for a good school is making criminals of parents'' - I am irritated by middle-class people making a virtue of sending their kids to state schools, as though they were brave pioneers - 8th November 2009
 * steak knife stuck into smug soirees'' - They were never about fun, but presenting an inauthentic version of what people felt their lives should be like - 1st November 2009
 * want their equality cake and eat it too'' - Being so irresponsible that you make your children obese is absolutely reprehensible and deserving of punishment - 25th October 2009
 * gust and our fears go soaring'' - On Thursday, six-year-old Falcon Heene was believed to have been cruising at 8,000ft - 18th October 2009
 * cougars leave women caged'' - The female gender are no longer allowed (by anyone, themselves included) to be anything other than sexual - 11th october 2009
 * cruel to fill their little heads with dreams of fame'' - The combination of reality television talent shows and the abundance of drama courses means everyone thinks they can have a go - 4th October 2009
 * kids are seething and it’s our fault'' - It’s weird that the world of fashion should present such a stark image of inter-generational awkwardness and discontent - 27th September 2009
 * I say chin-chin to all you tiresome moralisers'' - How marvellous to go through life eating and drinking and being raffish, and to die gently during a postprandial snooze - 20th September 2009
 * simplest of delights can cure'' - We live in a culture where moaning is deemed the appropriate response to most things - 13th September 2009
 * tyre has blown fashion apart'' - Magazines are crammed full of the super-skinny because women like the fact that the £2,000 dress is being modelled by a size 4 - 6th September 2009
 * hear it for the weekly stag night'' - Outside of mosques with questionable links, there’s a lot to be said for segregating the sexes - 16th August 2009
 * values return online'' - Checking Twitter updates isn’t wildly different from listening to Radio 4 - 9th August 2009
 * vain bid to outrun age on the gym treadmill'' - I find it weird that female celebrities have not embraced middle age gleefully, hurtling towards smocks and thirds for supper - 2nd August 2009
 * sister, have I misjudged beauty queens'' - Beauty pageants have become the last remaining area where women feel they can sit in judgment on other women - 26th July 2009
 * swine flu panic button'' - I start wondering whether we couldn’t maybe put red 'X's on the doors of the infected, plague-style - 19th July 2009
 * around, a senseless waste of young lives'' - I opened up a paper last week and read that two boys had died in Newquay at the time when my son was there - 12th July 2009
 * Michael: your passing has shown the power of Twitter'' - Jackson's death wasn’t so much to do with The Day the Music Died as with The Death of Our Youth - 28th June 2009
 * A*s? That’s wonderful, darling – but useless'' - The easiest, most lucrative option left for the well-educated, tutored adolescents is to become tutors themselves - 21st June 2009
 * keeps us simmering'' - Last time I looked, Australia was not quite at the forefront of earnest liberalism - 14th June 2009
 * A new toxic kind of fame'' - If you want to be famous, you must have no heart and no brain, otherwise you're walking wounded - 7th June 2009
 * no pistol in your pocket, my little darling'' - Insults about men are a clever shorthand way of communicating with women and of making them like you - 17th May 2009
 * girls show us how to get even'' - Bosoms are nice. But they’re a bore, too. Imagine the fuss men would make if clothing were designed to display the testicles - 10th May 2009
 * Carla: dismissed with a pat on the backside'' - How antediluvian our approach to women in the public eye is, and will, sadly, continue to remain - 3rd May 2009
 * divorce becomes a spectator blood sport'' - Do we really need to know the ins and outs of celebrity divorce cases and custody proceedings? - 26th April 2009
 * rotten way to treat children’s teeth'' - What is in their diet that is causing so many small children to have such serious dental problems? - 12th April 2009
 * don’t know what work is – until we lose it'' - Having a job gives you dignity, a sense of purpose, something to get up for in the mornings - 5th April 2009
 * — a drunken romp isn’t rape'' - Is it too much to hope that men falsely accused of rape remain anonymous until proven guilty? - 29th March 2009
 * skulking - we can see what you're up to now'' - I love the idea of panic-stricken members of the public freaking out because they’ve been snapped groping their neighbour or weeing on a hedge - 22nd March 2009
 * skulking - we can see what you're up to now'' - I love the idea of panic-stricken members of the public freaking out because they’ve been snapped groping their neighbour or weeing on a hedge - 22nd March 2009
 * adds insult to the injury of domestic violence'' - It is neither the Home Office’s nor the police’s job to monitor people’s intimate relationships - 15th March 2009
 * Freeload faces a shock'' - Your parents feed and clothe you, the state educates you, and the rest is there for the taking - 8th March 2009
 * starter for 10: why don’t we like clever women any more?'' - A shy young classicist led her team to victory in University Challenge, only to be derided as smug - 1st March 2009
 * and pride: vices dividing the sexes'' - Men eat and have sex and then worry about it; women preen and resent, and don't especially like themselves for it - 22nd February 2009
 * a child isn’t spared by the nameless internet poisoners'' - Anonymous online commenting means that the public’s disinhibition is out of control in some quarters - 15th February 2009
 * Goody, a broken toy we made and want no more'' - Whatever you may think of her, Goody is a woman of 27, with two small children, who probably doesn’t have long to live - 8th February 2009
 * of hope behind Slumdog's 'tourism porn''' - The film’s greatest achievement is in combining a social conscience with pure entertainment - 25th January 2009
 * ugly quest for perfect embryos'' - The day when women sit around at home screening themselves for imperfections doesn’t seem far off - 18th January 2009
 * the EU said: let there be cold, grey light'' - Incandescent bulbs will have become extinct by 2012: thank you and goodbye, Thomas Edison - 11th January 2009
 * year I really mean to aim low'' - What's funny about living in a society that worships perfection is that imperfect people seem to be the ones having all the fun - 4th January 2008



Articles: 2008

 * twits taking intimacy a tweet too far'' - Using Facebook to keep your friends updated with every movement of your unborn child seems a piece of information too far - 21st December 2008
 * girls, hubby’s mother will have revenge'' - The mysterious thing about mothers-in-law is that they were once, presumably, just like us - 14th December 2008
 * off it, girls - beauty contests are a man's game'' - Women still fear being seen as merely clever: they want to be seen as cute to boot - 7th December 2008
 * are all the nosy parkers when you need them?'' - Where do we redirect your appetite for gossip? To the stars of reality TV shows or the girlfriends of footballers - 30th November 2008
 * makes ugly reading'' - I don’t think misery lit is harmless. People who read these books should hang their heads in shame - 23rd November 2008
 * Dave, sex with you in cyberland is unreal'' - There is some pathos in hoping to form real-life relationships by wandering around a computer game wearing purple hair - 16th November 2008
 * and middle class: there’s a threat'' - A brown or black person who earns much more than you? That’s too much; that can’t be borne - 9th November 2008
 * the women who come within range of Brand and Ross'' - 2nd November 2008
 * rears its head in Palin’s wardrobe'' - 26th October 2008
 * been left at the mercy of our teenage children'' - Teenagers need, if anything, more support than small children from their parents but seldom get it - 12th October 2008
 * push, having faith in a child works wonders'' - 5th October 2008
 * honest: we all love the sexist alpha male'' - Manly men behave in their retrograde way and are rewarded for it with popularity, success and hefty pay packets - 28th September 2008
 * it away, you giggly golfing birdies'' - Is this what the role of modern spouse has boiled down to – fragrant appendage to talented man? - 21st September 2008
 * thing is Brand let US off lightly'' - You do worry when Americans threaten physical harm to a comedian for joking about the President - 14th September 2008
 * a relief, boom has turned to bust'' - Recession, falling house prices and rising fuel costs will provide a welcome break from our excessive spending habits - 7th September 2008
 * true, ladies, you can’t have it all ...'' - ...but that doesn’t mean it’s either work or family. You can have a lot of both - 31st August 2008
 * working mother’s first job is to be our scapegoat'' - If we stopped working, our place wouldn't be in the home but in the trailer, or in a cardboard box - 10th August 2008
 * daddy of marriage mysteries'' - The abduction of a girl by her father exposes the perils of relationships built on lies - 3rd August 2008
 * a lot to be said for ageing disgracefully'' - ... just look at Mick Jagger, still swinging at 65 after a lifetime of hedonism - 27th July 2008


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