Radio column: Ships in the night are sleeper hits

If, like me, you have trouble sleeping; if at night your brain starts fidgeting in your skull like a recalcitrant toddler, pin-balling from one deranged thought to the next without a care for the exhausted body that houses it, then the radio is probably your best friend.
Read more...

Book review: Autobiography, By Mary Quant

Don't believe the old saw "If you can remember the Sixties, you weren't there". Mary Quant remembers everything and she was the Sixties, having single-handedly created the look – the miniskirts, the hotpants, the PVC macs, the skinny-ribbed sweaters – that defined Swinging London.
Read more...

Radio column: By royal appointment

The Art of Monarchy on Radio 4 began with a small black-and-white photograph. In it was a two-year-old girl standing in front of a large ivy-smothered house and staring daggers at the camera.
Read more...

Obituary: Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston, who has died at the age of 48, was a dazzling performer who blazed a trail for a new generation of black female singers, from Beyoncé Knowles to Mary J Blige. In her Eighties heyday, Houston became the queen of the power ballad and single-handedly invented the concept of the pop diva. Even the sappy production and anodyne lyrics of her biggest singles couldn't dent her reputation as an artist of unrivalled vocal talent.
Read more...

Stay The Night: Castaway Cottage, Whitstable

Fiona Sturges stayed at a stylish former fisherman's cottage and made sure the well-equipped kitchen enjoyed a good rest as well. Read more...

Papa don't preach: Older women still rock

Madonna's Super Bowl show has drawn criticism for nothing other than the material girl's age. Fiona Sturges is indignant
Read more...

Radio column: No domestic bliss from the suburban sitcoms

What pops into your head when you think of sitcoms? Middle-class households filled with Ikea furniture? Acne-dappled teenagers slumped on sofas delivering withering put-downs to their parents? Neighbours with personality disorders who don't knock before coming into the house? Scripts so rotten that their terrible stench lingers in the memory for years to come?
Read more...

Radio column: Balding's golden moments

I've never liked sport. As a person whose job basically involves listening to stuff, and whose spine has become embedded in the sofa like an ancient fossil, the last thing I want to do is have my nose rubbed in other people's physical accomplishments.
Read more...