“Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.” So wrote Virginia Woolf in her 1928 novel Orlando, about a young nobleman who lives for several centuries, changing sex along the way.
Continue reading “How Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group unbuttoned Britain”Category: Features
Why being messy is good for you
“My home is messy”: four innocuous little words, but when spoken by the oracle of tidying up, Marie Kondo, they were enough to apparently break the internet.
Continue reading “Why being messy is good for you”“I had never hung out with people with wealth like that”: why social class still matters in relationships
In her new novel What Time is Love?, writer Holly Williams explores how class can divide romantic partnerships. Here, she explains why it’s as big an issue as ever in 2023.
Continue reading ““I had never hung out with people with wealth like that”: why social class still matters in relationships”Money matters – financial inequality in straight relationships
Jasmine’s sitting across from David* in the pub. It’s their first date and he’s living up to his Tinder profile – charming, good-looking, and seemingly the perfect mix of ambitious and kind. He paid for dinner, and she was keen to continue the evening in the pub.
Continue reading “Money matters – financial inequality in straight relationships”Why real love stories aren’t about fate or destiny
Have you ever wondered if you would have fallen in love with the same people if you’d lived in a different time? Would you even have met them, in an era with different social mobility – and if you had, would the relationships have worked out?
Continue reading “Why real love stories aren’t about fate or destiny”Why assume it’s a problem if a woman is child-free at thirty? Maybe she prefers it that way
Published in The Observer January 30, 2022
It was news last week that women are having fewer children and at a later age: the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that more than half of women in England and Wales don’t have children by the time they are 30. But it hardly felt surprising to me.
Continue reading “Why assume it’s a problem if a woman is child-free at thirty? Maybe she prefers it that way”The Green Homes Grant is an own goal for Rishi Sunak
Published in The Sunday Times November 22, 2020
When the Green Homes Grant was announced in July it seemed like perfect timing. I was in the process of buying my first home, a draughty Victorian terraced house in Sheffield. The idea that the government would help pay to insulate it properly, and replace the ancient single glazing — to the tune of several thousands of pounds — within a month or so of me moving in appeared . . . almost too good to be true.
Continue reading “The Green Homes Grant is an own goal for Rishi Sunak”More than just a miniskirt: Two exhibitions reveal how Mary Quant shaped our world
Published in The Independent February 2, 2019
If you’re a British woman, you’ve probably got Mary Quant in your wardrobe. OK, maybe not literally – but if there’s a sleeveless shift or a tunic dress, a Peter Pan collar or a skinny-rib sweater, a pair of brightly coloured tights or even a PVC raincoat, you’re wearing Quant. And that’s before mentioning her most famous creation: the miniskirt.
Continue reading “More than just a miniskirt: Two exhibitions reveal how Mary Quant shaped our world”Sex With Robots and Other Devices explores what happens when AI meets shagging
Imagine a world where your partner could arrive in an Amazon package. So goes the tagline for Sex With Robots and Other Devices, a new play about to open at London’s Kings Head Theatre. Continue reading “Sex With Robots and Other Devices explores what happens when AI meets shagging”
Welsh singer Gwenno’s new album is in Cornish. It’s one of many ‘lost’ languages being reborn
“A eus le rag hwedhlow dyffrans?” So goes the first track on Le Kov, the second album by Welsh singer Gwenno Saunders. But it isn’t Welsh: it’s Cornish, a minority language spoken by fewer than a thousand people. The line translates as “is there room for different stories?” – and this is the question at the heart of her record, which celebrates variance in language, culture and identity. Continue reading “Welsh singer Gwenno’s new album is in Cornish. It’s one of many ‘lost’ languages being reborn”