A new column offering alternative ways to shop. This week, the classic and versatile button-through dressThe buttoned dress is the fashion pro’s secret weapon for weather that hasn’t quite made up its mind yet. Light fabrics with sleeves provide a grea…
Experience: our house was moved to a different town
We lived in our dream home. Then suddenly a huge chasm split our town. Rather than buy a new home for the move, we decided to transplant the houseI moved to Malmberget – a town in the far north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle – from a nearby village…
Dude, patriarchy messed up my life – and yours too
I was a kid who adored choir practice and wanted to melt when a fly ball was hit my way, but I felt I had to pretend to be someone elseWhen I was seven years old, a classmate informed me that a girl who acted like a boy was known as a tomboy. But a boy…
‘Someone who knows who she is’: the staunch, subtle style of Angela Merkel
Since 2015, the outgoing German chancellor has largely relied on a sole Hamburg designer for her wardrobe A four-storey house set a discreet distance away from Neuer Wall, Hamburg’s luxury designer strip, holds the secrets to Angela Merkel’s successful…
Chelsea flower show 2021 – in pictures
The small details catch photographer Sarah Lee’s eye at the late season show Continue reading…
A new start after 60: I became a priest at 63 – after 44 years as a soldier and a teacher
Newly installed in a Northumberland vicarage, Diana Johnson first felt her calling decades ago. But the church had to wait until she had raised her family – and transitionedAt 66, Diana Johnson has just embarked on her third career. She has moved to a …
Max Mara’s British designer brings a bit of beatnik to Milan
Ian Griffiths says he spent much of the pandemic at home in Suffolk reading existential novelsThe critic who in 1959 called the writer Françoise Sagan a “luxury hotel existentialist” didn’t mean it as a compliment. But for Ian Griffiths, the British de…
Robots, Russians and rock’n’roll – take the Thursday quiz
Fourteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?The quiz master remains on holiday, but before he departed he left behind a crumpled up piece of paper behind a filing cabinet with 14 questi…
Release the rainbow! Why red, blue, yellow, pink and orange are the new black
What’s the hot new colour, according to London fashion week? Anything you want, so long as it’s bright and bold. And the more you mix things up, the betterAt first I thought London fashion week was going to be all about parma violet. “Did you know purp…
Proper sobbing and perspective – what I learned when my younger daughter left home | Adrian Chiles
Seeing your children off to university isn’t easy, but it was worth dragging the dog across a crowded dancefloor to say some goodbyesThis child-leaving-home business seems to get harder every time. My first experience of it was as the child, albeit a 1…