I used to see my time at the hairdressers as a lovely little ‘me-time’ treat. But as I plunge headfirst into my mid-forties, I’ve started to hate going. The reasons for this are many and varied. One: my roots have streaks of grey in them, so going to the hairdressers…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but everybody who’s anybody starts their day by plunging themselves into a body of freezing cold water. “Any other challenge today is going to be less intense than sitting in this thing for 90 seconds,” said BrewDog’s founder James Watt, about his morning ice-bath…

I say “estranged family”, but really I’m only estranged from my mum. It’s been this way for over 20 years, and it was my choice to cut off contact. This decision is the best I’ve ever made, for an avalanche of reasons. And as I haven’t got children (again: my…

I was umming and ahhing last week, wondering whether I should go outside and say something to the man painting the house next-door. He’d been busily — and noisily — rubbing down our shared fence; in the process covering my lovely garden in a shower of manky old paint chips…

Things I wish I’d known about being childfree in mid-life Forgive me for sounding glib, but I don’t think there’s much that hasn’t already been said or written about the ups and downs of parenthood. Even forgetting the heaving litany of parenting podcasts and mummy blogs for a moment, there are over 10,000 books about parenthood listed on Amazon alone. …

Or: here’s what it really takes to build a creative career “…whenever I’m asked for my advice on becoming a writer I say: advance slowly. Shore up your position now by getting a stable job and write in the evenings. This way you will write more of what you want and you’ll get to keep writing it for longer. Only throw…

Please note: this piece includes real, frank conversations about suicide. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently,” I said, peering at my friend Lizzie over the smudged rim of my wine glass. “Offing myself, I mean.” “Yeah. I have too,” she said, not missing a beat. Neither of us…

It might sound weird to say this, given that I spent a small fortune on publishing it. But when I wrote my book, I’d Rather Get a Cat and Save the Planet: Conversations with Child-free Women, I didn’t expect anybody to actually read it. If they did, I thought, they’ll…

…I’m not comfortable with the torrent of heart-rending personal posts on LinkedIn. The photos at hospital beds. The long, long (long) stories of triumph over assorted adversity. All the posts that start with “I wouldn’t normally share this here, but…” It might be churlish of me to say that, especially…