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Make a splash

Even though I always made it clear that I only used the place for its swimming pool, people often seemed a tiny surprised when I told them I had a gym membership. I’m not out of shape, so I wonder if their reaction was down to the fact that I have a beard and somewhat wild hair. I’d be the first to admit that – especially when accompanied by the sizeable flares I invariably wear in my landlocked life – it’s not a look that suggests aquatic dynamism. Nonetheless, for the last three and a half years, I have triumphed ...

Dignity in death

It is ordinary things that Nell Dunn misses. “There is a table and chairs in the garden where we would often eat our breakfast and lunch, but there doesn’t seem any point in taking my food out there now.” She no longer watches certain programmes on television: “Funny tiny things that we both had a laugh over.” She misses being quiet, just thinking – “what a luxury, that” – in the same room as someone she loves. Nell Dunn’s partner, Dan Oestreicher, died two years ago. He was 77. He had wanted to die at home, he wanted a dignified ...

Reidernator is not beaten yet

Let’s start with floundering sublebrity Alex Reid, and see where he takes us. First up, Lost in Showbiz can only conclude the cage-fighting former Mr Katie Price is engaged in what Tony Blair’s aides once called a “masochism strategy”. In Blair’s case, this involved allowing convenient members of the public to come up and slag him off over the NHS or Iraq. In the case of Alex Reid – whose purview is slightly smaller – it involves being ambushed in “impromptu” street brawls, captured by conveniently passing paparazzi.

Perfect ribs

We just do not love bones like we used to. While I’m sure that every reader of this column has a freezer full of homemade stock, is well au fait with the lamb shank and never plumps for breast when there is thigh on offer, the real joy of bones – “picking [them] up … and chewing the sweet juicy meat still clinging to them”, as Jennifer McLagan frankly puts it in her fabulous book on the subject, Cooking on the Bone – is a sadly rare treat these days. She reckons they “satisfy a deep primal urge to eat ...

Kicked out

The first inkling of any problems with my parents’ marriage came in the form of a love note I happened upon when rifling through my mom’s handbag for cash to feed my burgeoning fruit-machine addiction. I was quite shocked when I read it … “I want to touch your hands, your hair, your lips, your eyes …” The words transmitted their feverish desire into my already squirming brain and sent me all of a quiver. I showed it to my older brother, who stated calmly, “She must be having an affair,” as if he was referring to her doing a ...

Williams serves a fashion ace

There are some certainties about Wimbledon: that it will rain, that the TV cameras will seek out Cliff Richard and that one or other of the Williams sisters will cause a bit of fashion fuss. On opening day Venus obliged tradition and appeared on Centre Court wearing a mini lace jumpsuit. The message was louder than her trademark grunt: her bid for the championships is still in its early stages, but she is already aced the style victory. Again. As ever with the five-times Wimbledon champ, the outfit managed to shoehorn several different trends into one over-designed piece of tennis ...

Graduate fashion week – in pictures

London fashion week: Daily round-up Catwalk optical illusions, posh venues and Wintour watch: Simon Chilver’s top moments from London fashion week on Tuesday Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Rising to the challenge

It’s a long way down. We’re parked at the edge of the Rift Valley, looking out over the vast, faded mass of land stretched out below. In the back of the van are about 10 Kenyan runners, including David Barmasai, who a few months ago won the Dubai marathon (the most handsomely remunerated race in the world) and is part of the Kenyan team for the upcoming world championships. The driver starts the engine and we bump along the uneven dirt road winding its way down into the valley. Far below, small, cone-shaped mountains poke up like grassy knolls.

In the pink

It is a momentous day in meat cookery: the US Department of Agriculture has lowered the recommended minimum cooking temperature of pork by 15 degrees Fahrenheit (9.5C). That may not seem worth a crackling to you, but to pork chefs it is a victory of the light over ancient forces of prejudice and ignorance. David Chang, the two Michelin-starred chef / proprietor of Manhattan’s Momofuku restaurants declared in the New York Times this morning the death of a terrible dogma: “Everyone thought the sun revolved around the earth, too.” The revolution is that science has overcome misguided fears about the ...

Our parents resented us

My brother David and I loved being told stories, and those my dad told were spell-binding. He would just take you away somewhere else, to some different, vivid world. One story was about my parents’ meeting – our own personal creation myth, a different world even though it was about our parents. It developed as we grew older, and in a sense it continued after their death, as I learned to comprehend them more. The story begins in April 1939, on the brink of world war. All bets are off. It feels as if the future has been cancelled.