Family
Admit it: most wedding speeches are awful
Perhaps the most traumatic part of attending an American wedding – much worse than the bridesmaids coming in the wrong…
How do I feed my children now my wife has gone on strike?
Caroline has gone on strike. At least, as far as cooking is concerned. Her case for downing spatulas is that…
My hunt for the perfect ‘mum van’
I spent my childhood being ferried around in my mom’s minivan, a hunter green Ford Windstar. Compared with most family…
Middle-class parents are creating a new breed of brat
I recently reconnected with an old friend; I went to his house and met his children for the first time.…
Why is the NHS pushing pregnant women towards sterilisation?
It was a routine antenatal appointment. I’d done it twice before and knew the format. The obstetrician runs through the…
Are you too middle-class to adopt?
Too many books? Yes, we had too many books. That’s what our social worker told us when we were being…
The truth about surrogate babies
I was a twin when I was born, but this was in the days before decent scans and proper neonatal…
Cornwall’s gypsies face eviction
‘Don’t use our real names,’ says the teenage gypsy. ‘Other gypsies will laugh at us.’ Even in a tracksuit, the…
A painful homecoming: The Visitor, by Maeve Brennan, reviewed
Returning to the family house in Dublin after the death of her mother in Paris, 22-year-old Anastasia expects a warm welcome – only to be steadily spurned by her embittered grandmother
‘I’m a new kind of Christian’: Jordan Peterson on faith, family and the future of the right
Professor Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist, author and commentator whose latest book, We Who Wrestle with God, is about…
The nuclear family? We blew it up years ago
Now that John Lewis has produced a Christmas ad that celebrates family, starring white people as humans, all sorts of…
The deep sorrow of losing a sibling
My sister died last summer, before her time, at 58. Her death has left me shaken with sorrow and remorse:…
The rise of the ‘divorce influencer’
On Woman’s Hour recently, Anita Rani and her guests set out to celebrate the positive sides of a woman’s midlife.…
Heard but not seen
The simplicity and joy of audio recordings
Diary
The temperature has hit 40°C in Crete, where I am writing this, and although there have been no fires, nothing…
Dear Mary
Q. I have a public profile and have always looked after my personal presentation, but my identical twin has never…
The limits of nostalgia
Why I had to let go of my late sister’s house
The dangerous cult of ‘toxic parents’
Complaining about ‘toxic parents’ has been a viral hit on TikTok with videos on the topic racking up several billion…
Under a green sea
How, between 1911 and 1917, Owen became the dazzling poet we know and love is the story told in Jane Potter’s new edition of his selected letters
The root of the problem
The novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo is attracted by the freedom a New York job promises, but misses the young daughter she has left behind in London
Viking invasion
How the import of Danish sperm has become big business
