Features

Allison Pearson meets the pensioners battling to keep migrants out of Braintree

At first glance, you would not guess that the pensioners enjoying coffee and cake outside the Yumy café in Braintree, Essex, on Monday morning were far-Right thugs. Two of the ladies, Valerie and Chrissie, who are celebrating their 80th birthdays, are...

‘Yoko was in love with Paul first’

Hunter Davies, veteran author and journalist, holds up a pair of navy-and-white swimming trunks that he has pulled out of a plastic bag he keeps in a packed cabinet. “They’re Paul’s,” he says. He means Paul McCartney. “He and Linda stayed with us in...

Is this the end for Anna Wintour?

Don’t put your summer clothes away just yet...

Save for my shorts, there isn’t really anything in my summer repertoire that I don’t wear all year round. My wardrobe gets a biannual seasonal switchover: when the shorts go away, the knitwear comes out. Everything else is on rotation for all 12...

The eco conmen who scammed pensioners out of £70m

When George White*, 70, transferred £112,000 from his pension into a tree-planting scheme in Costa Rica, he believed that he would be securing not only his family’s future, but also the planet’s. “It felt good to be promised an excellent return on my...

It’s all downhill from here...

Amid the strike-riven gloom of James Callaghan’s Britain came a television show that was full of dazzling jeopardy and thrillingly modern. Ski Sunday debuted on BBC Two on January 15 1978 and was presented by David Vine. It soon became a popular part...

‘The voices in my head tell me I’m an a--hole’

Ruby Wax shudders when recalling the time that Bill Cosby made her kneel before him. “Maybe I should have cried,” she sighs. “I did feel like crying.” She shakes her head. “It was all so upsetting, the way he made me get down on my knees, put his arm...

Step into autumn like Audrey

As the seasons shift and our wardrobes require a refresh, it’s always wise to eschew the latest flash-in-the-pan fads. Instead, find timeless inspiration from vintage pin-ups and the style legends of yesteryear. What was once known as “classic” style...

Mabel’s rosemary and sea salt twist

Several products have people travelling to Mabel the Bakery in Norfolk’s Downham Market, says co-owner Lucy Peacock, among them classic pastries. “We once had someone cycle all the way from London just for a croissant and a cinnamon bun!” she...

The Palestinian branded a Zionist traitor for condemning Hamas

He has the word “Zionist” screamed at him. He is branded a genocide supporter. He is called a traitor. When Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib goes to talk at university campuses, sometimes he doesn’t even get as far as opening his mouth. As a result of protests...

‘Whispering’ Bob Harris: Dolly made me feel like I was the only person in her universe

The last time I met Dolly Parton was in London in 2023. She was visiting the UK to promote what has turned out to be her final album, Rockstar, and I was recording an interview with her for my Country Show on BBC Radio 2. As always, she was...

I tried six different bra fitters – the results were uplifting

Finding the right-sized bra has traditionally required time, effort and money, and studies show 80 per cent of us are wearing the wrong size, suggesting bra shopping involves a lot more “ugh” than “ah”. So what are lingerie retailers doing to make the...

Five common food pairings that damage your health

Cheese and crackers, fish and chips, bangers and mash: some foods just go together. However, other matches that might appear made in heaven are quietly working against you as you eat them. “Some foods contain compounds that can reduce the absorption...

Praising Lorde: the millennials’ Madonna is still hard to beat

Pop All Points East Victoria Park, London E3 ★★★★★ Ignore the naysayers. Judging from the Saturday edition of this year’s All Points East festival, pop music is in rude health. Fans who survived the hacking coughs, brought on by swirling dust...

‘I can’t make a living farming food – so I’m planting trees instead’

I joke I’m no longer a farmer, just a glorified groundskeeper, but that gag is nearing reality this autumn when I’m replacing my only remaining large-scale food crop of organic oats with 65,000 trees. A government-backed environmental scheme, this...

The strange, brilliant life of ZZ Top’s Frank Beard

ZZ Top’s Worldwide Texas Tour was no ordinary live show. Spanning 98 concerts in arenas across the United States in 1976 and 1977, the production featured live buffalo, longhorn steers, rattlesnakes, javelinas and more. Each night, Frank Beard, the...

Easy layering tricks for summer’s yo-yo weather

Hot one minute, chilly the next – when the weather can’t make up its mind, it’s easy for just getting dressed to feel like a guessing game. Is it too cool for a dress? Will I overheat in jeans? Did someone say showers? After our heatwave summer, but...

Tim Wonnacott: ‘Englishmen like me are under threat’

Tim Wonnacott hasn’t watched a single second of Bargain Hunt since he abruptly stopped hosting the beloved BBC show in 2015. His reason? “If you have done something rather brilliantly, why bother ruining the memory?” he says imperiously from a...

What to wear to a destination wedding

The joy of receiving a wedding invitation can be snuffed out pretty sharply when you catch a glimpse of the destination. We’re familiar with what’s expected for a summer wedding in the village church. We scrub up well for a fancy stately-home do. We’ve...

Inside

Your 12-page Sport section

The drug-free way to bring your blood pressure back from the danger zone

I wince as I feel the familiar squeeze of pressure on my arm and the obligatory “just try to relax” from the doctor. My heart is racing, my breath shallow, and the results aren’t good. I have high blood pressure. My blood pressure (BP) has come in at...

‘We asked Brian May to join Sparks – but he stuck with Queen’

Before we start: a note. When Ron or Russell Mael of Sparks refer to “This Town”, they are talking about their 1974 hit, This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us – a song that left such an indelible impression when they first performed it on Top of...

My sister was killed when her horse fell at a jump. Eventing needs to be safer

Two years ago, I was waiting for the lift at my local Tube station when my phone rang. On the other end of the line was my mum with devastating news: my younger sister, the international event rider Georgie Campbell, had been killed while competing at...

Dive into the shimmering realm of Britain’s professional mermaids

It’s a Friday evening at Sea Life aquarium in Manchester, and a group of children is almost ultrasonic with excitement. In the tank in front of them are fish (plenty of them), a turtle named Ernie, a couple of stingrays called Babs and Rita, a zebra...

The vanished fashion brands that shaped Britain’s style

It was 1975, and I will never forget the excitement of walking from Manchester Piccadilly station, after a one-hour journey from Stafford, and passing the man with the tripe cart – because I knew I was only minutes away from entering my favourite...

Seven smart food swaps to stay healthy on a budget

If you’ve recently walked out of the supermarket wondering how a small bag of groceries appears to cost the same as a weekly shop, you’re not alone – or wrong. The Food Foundation has revealed that the price of food has increased by 30.5 per cent...

Allison Pearson: My friend Rod Liddle was a great British freedom fighter

According to George Orwell, a journalist should always be a guerrilla on the flank of the regular army “never marching in lockstep”. At a time when too many in our trade fall into line for an easy life, and invitations to the right dinner parties, Rod...

It’s wrong that it’s me who’s the Earl of Devon, not my big sister

When the Prince of Wales announced the sale of a number of farms earlier this year, he would not have been aware that he was stirring up a 487-year-old grudge with the Earl of Devon. But Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl, is still brooding over the...

Matthew Bourne’s lust-drenched new show is the perfect summer scorcher

Dance The Car Man Sadler’s Wells, London, EC1 ★★★★★ What better programming for this hot summer than Matthew Bourne’s steamy, sweaty, lust-drenched thriller The Car Man? First seen in 2000, this devilishly entertaining dance show – which fuses...

‘Whenever Zendaya’s around, you know you’ll be outshone’

Consider The Odyssey’s month-long promotional campaign and you might assume Zendaya had a leading role in the film. Not only did she do countless major interviews, but she dominated social media after each premiere thanks to her signature “method...

Inside

Your 12-page Sport section

Booker judges’ obsession with style over substance is just plain weird

A word of advice to Booker Prize judges: never signal in advance the sorts of novels you want to support. “We’re due a return of weird literature,” said Patricia Lockwood in an interview last year. This year’s 13-strong longlist suggests that judging...

Health and safety be damned: the school trips that made us who we are

School trips are becoming rarer. These annual jaunts, usually held at the end of the summer term, often to France but sometimes farther afield, have fallen victim to a combination of budget cuts, cost of living concerns and parental anxiety. And even...

The mystery of why Sonia Exelby paid a man to kill her

Locked inside a cabin in the forests of central Florida, 4,000 miles from home, Sonia Exelby’s fantasy had become a nightmare. As her alleged captor took a shower, the 32-year-old British musician contacted a friend in desperation, knowing that she was...

‘In my heart, I knew he was never coming home’

When my husband, James, found out he had lung cancer, his greatest wish was to live to see his 60th birthday. Had that wish come true, had he not died at just 53, he would have watched our son grow from boy to man. He would have been there to take all...

Joe Pasquale: there’s no TV comedy for the over-60s

When Joe Pasquale was seven years old, his mother, Ethel, was involved in a serious car accident. Not wearing a seatbelt, she was thrown through the windscreen of the car, suffered concussion and subsequently developed epilepsy and depression. “She...

My heart was in my mouth as I watched the Bayeux Tapestry being moved

Like a referee addressing contestants on the television show Gladiators, a woman wearing a headset and an ochre-coloured apron is briefing staff beside a long, wheeled table in a hangarlike gallery at the British Museum. “Winch operators, are you...

Crisis of conscience: how Amnesty International lost its way

As the granddaughter of Seán MacBride, Amnesty’s late cofounder and international chairman, Iseult White feels the human-rights charity is part of her DNA. In the Seventies and Eighties, the pre-Christmas period at home was always spent writing to...

‘Easy delivery apps sent me into a spiral of alcoholism’

The first time I ordered a bottle of alcohol to my door just for myself, not to split with friends alongside a takeaway, was in the first few weeks of lockdown. Most people can remember how lucky we got with the weather that spring. It was warm and...

Dire Another Day

So, goodbye, Keir Starmer. Though I never knew you at all, you had the grace to hold yourself, while those around you crawled. They crawled out of the woodwork, and they whispered into your brain. Specifically, they whispered: “Burnham’s got a seat....

...BUT TWO VERY DIFFERENT PATHS

The four-decade friendship between A-listers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck is astonishingly enduring, given the fickle nature of Hollywood. Yet the choices made by these Boston buddies, who together won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, could hardly be more...

I fell foul of fashion’s deadliest trousers

They’re my favourite buy of the summer – a silky pair of blue and white wide-legged trousers and matching top. Or a co-ord set, as the fashionable people would say. They’re not actually silk. They’re 100 per cent polyester and were – whisper it – dead...

Jack Mosley

After my dad [Michael Mosley, the TV doctor and diet guru] died, mum and I received thousands of messages from people who wanted to let us know just how much he had helped them. They spoke of reversing their diabetes, or dramatically improving their...

THE SCARY TRUTH ABOUT SAUSAGES

You can’t beat a banger. Whether it’s a Lincolnshire, cocktail or Cumberland sausage, they are the unifying factor across fry-ups, parties and barbecues and a firm staple in the British diet. When it comes to our health, the news isn’t all gloomy....

‘It’s impossible to enjoy a body you’ve known only how to hate’

After the demise of my first long-term relationship at 23, I stopped enjoying sex and stopped being able to climax. For some years, I put this down to being “broken” and simply “not a sexual person”, until a chance encounter with a fellow guest at a...

The eco-fascists turning climate change into a race war

Alfie Coleman was 16 when Britain went into Covid lockdown and, like many teenagers, he spent more time online than he should have. Doomscrolling in his bedroom, he found much to trouble his young mind – including apocalyptic warnings about climate...

Find the right shades to frame your face shape

Eyewear experts spill the secrets to selecting a pair of sunglasses to match your features and personality. By On what basis did you choose your last pair of sunglasses? Because you lost your previous pair and needed some to hand? Because you were...

Are you in the stress danger zone?

Short cuts to beach chic

How white working-class kids lost the grammar school race

Jemima* is mixed race, but when she first toured Queen Elizabeth’s School with her eldest son, she was struck by the lack of diversity at the north London grammar. Founded in the 16th century and located in Barnet, Queen Elizabeth’s consistently ranks...

‘Islamists want to dominate, not integrate’

Inside

Your 16-page Sport section

Bring back Miliband? That’s bananas

Ambassadors are paid to be calm and collected, but the European envoy who rang me out of the blue seemed utterly exasperated. Could I meet him and a colleague in half an hour? Yes, it was important. The colleague turned out to be a visiting diplomat...

Why Madonna has swapped Manhattan for Marylebone

When Madonna describes a beachside town as her “idea of heaven”, one pictures a beautiful location catering to the super-rich: the squares of St Tropez in early summer, perhaps, or the hidden coves of Capri that are accessible only by boat. What one...

Holly’s high-risk comeback

What to eat to beat the heat

Record temperatures and a rare Met Office red warning this week have caused school closures and travel disruption – while amber warnings are still in place and set to continue into the weekend. When temperatures soar like this, most people know to...

Brexit 10 years on: Allison Pearson, David Frost and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Is it really 10 years? I’ve been trying to cast my mind back to the actual moment when we knew. Sleepy but glued to the TV, determined to stay awake, hoping against hope that, despite everything, we could do it. Rochford, Forest Heath, Eden, Erewash....

How to beat the heatwave

EXPOSURE THERAPY

It’s a boiling hot Sunday when I pull up to the big green gates of the Heritage Family Naturist Club, at the end of a leafy lane in Berkshire. Secretary Ken Clark meets me, as arranged. He’s naked from the waist up – I thought I’d have time to...

Air rage, alcohol and estrangement:

Family members often pick sides in an acrimonious divorce, but it’s unusual to see children publicly declare their allegiance to one parent and estrangement from another. Yet, that’s exactly what seems to be happening with Brad Pitt and Angelina...

THE NEIGHS HAVE IT

Why Eton is the perfect fit for Prince George

‘Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was like being in a rock band’

Kevin Whately is easy to spot in the foyer of Garsington Opera’s studio space, nestled in an idyllic corner of the Chilterns. He sidles up, his round, boyish face instantly recognisable from the hit TV shows Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Peak Practice,...

Decline and fall of the aristocracy

The ad campaign that sparked a pile-on from the pro-Gaza mob

Gwyneth Paltrow has always rubbed people up the wrong way. Born rich, well-connected – you might have heard of her godfather, Steven Spielberg – and beautiful, she was perceived as a “nepo baby” in Hollywood long before it became Instagram’s insult du...

The unlikely cult of Jane McDonald

The nightmare seating plan for Taylor Swift’s wedding

The world’s biggest pop star, Taylor Swift, will marry American football player Trevis Kelce next month in a ceremony so feverishly anticipated (and secretive) that it makes the Prince and Princess of Wales’s 2011 nuptials look low-rent. Swift is...