Forget Guccie's furry loafers or a Prada overcoat. What everyone in fashion wants in 2016 is a log cabin I've got cabin fever. And not only the New York, need-to-stop-eating-and-start-moving kind. I've got cabin fever because that's where I'd really like to be right now. In a cabin. Wooden, obviously. In a clearing in the middle of a forest, maybe. A lake would be nice, perhaps with a rickety li..
Emotions, friends and play are all crucial parts of our journey towards adulthood Before filming the Channel 4 series The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds I'd never imagined what following a young child through their day would feel like. It was wonderful to have the chance to listen to each child and follow the stories of their day. I thought I'd get absorbed by the science, but I kept gettin..
It's not as hard as you might think to set yourself clear goals New Year's resolutions can be a rollercoaster of emotions. There are the highs when you set them, imagining with excitement the new life you're going to be leading, but often also the lows of frustration and procrastination when things don't go exactly to plan. Procrastination is more than simply "not doing something" - it's "not do..
With my dumpier looks and stain-proof clothes, having a baby has mutated me into an adult at last We're about to celebrate a proud anniversary. This Monday, it'll be exactly year since my wife and I last had a day off. I can remember it all so vividly: 28 December 2014. Despite the triple-threat of Christmas, heavy pregnancy and a house fire that left my parents temporarily homeless, we carved o..
Parties! Fireworks! Endless bonhomie! If ever there's a night when you're expected to have unrelenting fun, tonight is it. But what if the prospect fills you with dread? Here are your four options New Year's Eve is such a chore, isn't it? Nobody enjoys it. Nobody has ever enjoyed it. In the entire duration of recorded human history, not a single person has ever approached New Year's Eve with any..
Every year, you make the same promises, and every year fail miserably. So, this New Year, why not try a whole new approach? Nothing can spoil the start of a new year quite like a long list of promises you already know you are going to break. Some resolutions - the privations, mostly - get betrayed right away; others remind you of your ongoing failure to do something for months. But the cancellat..
Many predictions related to politics, terrorism and fashion went badly awry. And what transpired instead was often more interesting There is cherry blossom on the tree outside the kitchen window already, candyfloss pink on a dark winter afternoon. Spring is springing everywhere this mild December, the garden all confusion; roses back in bloom, spring bulbs pushing up through the autumn seedheads..
The government pays grouse moor owners to drain their glorified outdoor chicken runs. Meanwhile it's the proles downstream who get a soaking These floods were not just predictable; they were predicted. There were clear and specific warnings that the management of land upstream of the towns now featuring in the news would lead to disaster. On 9 December one of my readers told me this. "I live in ..
The right sets great store by selling us optimism. But in this bleak climate what people really need is hope As the last turkey leftovers are served up as sandwiches or madras, it has long been traditional to audit the year that is ending and to survey that which is about to begin. In recent times, the right has seized such calendrical opportunities to remind us that, contrary to the jeremiads w..
The sharp-witted BBC mashup of classic novels strips away all the flummery and leaves us with characters who are movingly real My books are all in boxes at the moment. We moved six months ago, and discussions about where they should be housed are continuing. A key member of my household does not take the view that books furnish a room. Which is a long-winded way of saying, where the dickens are ..
A shortfall in trainees threatens to plunge schools into crisis. As a secondary teacher, I can offer the Department for Education some hard-won advice I became a teacher under duress, and that's not an exaggeration. Teaching wasn't a "calling" for me, nursed since youth, but a path based on a pragmatic assessment of how, with an English degree, I could join a profession that held the promise of ..
With so many external pressures can any of us be truly happy? As we welcome in a new year, Rachel Kelly suggests small changes to your life that can have a huge impact on your outlook What's top of your list of new year resolutions for 2016? Do more exercise? Eat better? Spend more time with your children? Find a fulfilling career? How about ticking all your boxes and simply be happy? Sadly, you..
The week between Christmas and New Year plays havoc with our waistbands. So why do we keep piling more and more on to our plates? Between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, the average Brit gains 6lb - not surprising, given all the chocolate, cheese and turkey eaten in the aftermath of the 25th, a day when most people consume three times as much as usual. But why do we reach for an extra mince pi..
What's the secret of a good morning routine? Jenny Agutter lays the breakfast table before bed, Esther Freud slips on her children's tracksuit bottoms and Brandon Flowers skips the shower... I don't wear cosmetics during the dayI love the idea of a routine, but I don't think I've ever had it. The nearest I get is when I'm filming. If I have an early, the night before, I lay out everything that I..
I have tried to believe Jeremy Corbyn can with the 2020 election, but more and more it feels like believing in Father Christmas This is the bleakest midwinter of Labor's misfortunes. Those emotionally invested in the hope of a future Labor government have never faced such dark days. Ahead lie years of a hegemonic Conservative era, free to do what they like in pursuit of driving the state below t..