Residents set up traffic patrol to challenge drivers forming long polluting queues near London schoolBounds Green primary school sits on a road so busy it has a bridge for a pedestrian crossing. Even on a good day the air is acrid, suffused by mephitic…
A new start after 60: ‘I had the most dishonest dark hair imaginable. So at 65 I shaved it all off’
When her daughter’s hair began to turn grey, Marsha Coupé decided she had to say goodbye to her own dyed locks. It was like being rebornFor her first 65 years, Marsha Coupé had dark hair. She wore it in a blunt pageboy style, with red lipstick. She was…
‘I just wanted to write something funny for my friends’: Torrey Peters on Detransition, Baby
Her novel caused a storm when it was longlisted for the Women’s prize, and is one of the most talked-about of the year. She talks to a writer and trans dad about LGBTQ+ families and the ‘Sex and the City problem’Torrey Peters did not write Detransition…
Tom Daley on love, grief and health: ‘It was hammered into me that I needed to lose weight’
Fresh from winning gold in Tokyo, the diver answers readers’ questions on everything from gay role models to his passion for knitting and the secrets of his successTom Daley, Britain’s most decorated diver, grew up in the spotlight. He was 14 when he m…
Nearly half of toys from third-party online sellers found to be dangerous
UK industry body warns of ‘wild west of safety’ after investigation into toys being sold on major sitesNearly half the toys purchased from third-party sellers on online marketplaces were dangerous, according to an investigation by an industry body that…
Thank God I have kids. How else would I have found out how incredibly grating I am? | Zoe Williams
Yes, I don’t say ‘Catwoman’ fast enough, yes, I saw Nirvana at Reading festival in 1992, and, yes, I have been pronouncing ‘Marvel’ wrongly for an extremely long time. I accept that that’s a lot to cope withThe correct way to pronounce Marvel, as in Ca…
Screens doubled as babysitters during lockdown. What now? | Emma Brockes
Karate, ballet, after-school club … keeping children occupied without technology is exhausting. But worth itIt has been more than a year since most kids had a regular schedule entailing full-time school and a slate of extracurricular commitments. In Ne…
Fear on the ward: UK mothers threatened with social services for refusing maternity care
Women who turn down advice from health service staff say they are being coerced with threats of referrals to agencies and policePregnant women and new mothers are being referred to social services by midwives for refusing to follow their advice, patien…
Can a mother ever be good enough? I know what my son would say … | Zoe Williams
My almost 14-year-old is annoyed that I think his birthday is a bigger deal for me than it is for him. Still, it will always be my special dayI was casually telling my son, before his 14th birthday this week, why it was a bigger deal for me than it was…
The great sperm heist: ‘They were playing with people’s lives’
Paul was in his 80s when someone called to say she was his daughter, conceived in a fertility clinic with his sperm. The only problem? He’d never donated anyFor 40 years, Catherine Simpson thought she knew who she was: a nurse, a mother of three, a dau…