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Picture this. It’s Thursday afternoon. You’re sat in the office staring blankly at an inbox full of passive aggressive emails from your client. You’ve got a meeting in ten minutes but you haven’t prepared a thing - partly due to a lingering hangover from after-work drinks, but mainly because you have a to-do list as long as your arm. You get that sinking feeling because you know have to tick it all off before the weekend – but deep down...

London changes you. You start listening to Icelandic ambience on vinyl Now, if you’re called Rich – you might want to stop here. There’s more than just bird shit coming for you. I’m Emmie, I’m 24 and from Newcastle. J’adore le foot. Ou est les piscine? I moved to London 6 months ago because ‘it’s where all the jobs are’. The new-life-motto, ‘defecate on the Rich’ was a graffiti tag I saw in my first few days of London life....

Too many selfies, ranting about politics and ‘Liking’ your own profile picture have been named among the top 25 social media sins, according to research. A poll of 2,000 phone-mad Brits also found four in ten get wound up by cryptic, attention-seeking status updates designed to elicit sympathy from friends and family. It also emerged Brits commit more than four social sins per week, and half reckon that trolling someone online is the worst thing you can do. The study...

It’s probably common for most dads to dream about the moment when they can watch sport with their son. Male bonding time, father and son moments. Swig a beer and cheer, and all that. So I always worried that when I came out as gay at 18-years-old, my dad would wonder if I had really enjoyed all those football and rugby games we had watched, or if he’d thought that I might have rather played with a Barbie instead. The...

The average Brit needs an extra three hours a day to get everything done, new research has revealed. A study of 2,000 people has found 54 per cent wish there was more time in the day, with almost one in ten saying they can’t remember the last time they had an evening night to spare. Eighty-nine per cent of Brits admit they feel that life is too serious for them and three quarters wish they had more time to relax and be more laid-back....

With the sun shining, Wimbledon underway and the first test at Lords nearing its halfway point it is safe to say that summer is finally here - and what a let down it is going to be. According to a new study millions of Brits feel ‘let down’ by the British summer – with hay fever, insect bites and hearing about other people’s ‘great’ holidays among the biggest bugbears. Research revealed most of us start the summer with good intentions,...

Last Saturday was the tenth anniversary of the introduction in England of a ban on smoking in enclosed public workplaces. I had a walk-on part in the drama of the ban: as a clerk on the House of Commons Health Committee, I drafted its report on the Government’s proposed legislation, which made a number of recommendations, largely for a more comprehensive and draconian ban, without the exemptions the Government had intended to enshrine in the law. Initially, while of course I...

When cellist Anna Frazer played her first concerto with a full orchestra, it was an emotional moment for both her and her family. Anna is principal cello at London's Adoramus Orchestra but 16 years ago she made the difficult decision to give up her career as a full- time professional musician when her then six-year-old son William was diagnosed with epilepsy. But when the Radcliffe Orchestra, made up of medics from hospitals in the Oxford area, invited Anna to be...

By Chris Mates  Some months ago I wrote about a documentary that was released in conjunction with Baby Loss Awareness Week. The main message I tried to portray from watching the film was that you have to try to move forward whilst never forgetting your child.  As somebody that experienced those tragic events I still believe in that message. In the two-plus years that have gone since my son Joshua passed away my wife Jen and I have worked hard...