I think everyone should plan a wedding in their forties. It’ll probably be the most liberating thing they’ve ever done. When I got married for the first time — aged 27 — there were expectations to manage. Mostly, they were from family members who wanted us to invite people we…

I dread people asking me what I’ve “been up to recently”. Not because of anything I actually get up to; let me make that clear from the off. No, I dread that question because it equals pressure. I’ve got to mine my ailing memory (OK, what have I been up…

I left Facebook in a spitting haze of anger last year. I vowed never to return. It’s a vow I’d have kept, had I not stupidly offered to manage my best friend’s Facebook page last month. She’d just bought a gorgeous little tea room in our hometown, realising a long-held…

When was the first moment you knew you were “old”? At almost 46, I had no idea I was just four years away from being classed as an “older worker”. Specifically, an “older worker” who qualifies for special help from the likes of the Centre for Ageing Better. I discovered this personally devastating fact recently, while researching a client article…

Can it be a good thing to sleep with your boss, just as you’re about to marry someone else? For the past decade, I’ve been writing a novel that tries to answer that question. Well, I say for the past decade; it’s not like I’ve written faithfully every single day of those ten years. More like every single month. (Actually, no… sometimes two, three, four, or even five months…

Here’s one for all you freelancers and small business owners out there. Do you care if your competitors look at your website? If so, have you ever dreamed about a snoopy software package that would tell you EXACTLY who those competitors are, when they looked, and for how long? Well…

Losing people to the Dark Side — i.e. parenthood — makes me feel a tiny bit sad. Even when the person in question isn’t an actual friend; just someone I’ve vaguely heard of. Case in point: two of the luminaries I quoted in my 2020 book, I’d Rather Get a…

Don’t worry. This isn’t one of those ubiquitous social-media scenarios: someone asks ChatGPT a question, then posts a screenshot of its polite and cheery answer. (If you really want a key differentiator between human and machine, manners might be it. ChatGPT is unfailingly nice). Instead, I’m going to discuss some…

I love the little fizz that illuminates the back of my brain when I discover a surprising “did you know?” fact. Classic sayings are a case in point. Generally, when people learn the real meaning behind an age-old idiom, they can’t wait to smugly correct the next person who mentions…