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Friday

Julie Bindel

The great Valentine’s Day con

When a press release for solar-powered sex toys popped into my inbox on 3 January, it dawned on me it could only mean one thing: we were already in the build-up to Valentine’s Day. A few days later, it was followed by the new aphrodisiac version of the Knorr stock cube, Knorrplay, and a set of champagne glasses adorned with red hearts. A couple of years ago I found myself overnight in Newcastle, with a male colleague. We were working hard on a harrowing story and decided a nice meal out would cheer us up. Not a chance in hell: neither of us had realised that the dreaded Valentine’s Day

Wednesday

Ettie Neil-Gallacher

What kind of woman envies her daughter?

My mother hated Motherland, storming out after five minutes, saying Julia’s frantic school drop-off was too much like real life. She’d have loathed Amanda, the self-styled ‘alpha mum’. But I loved it – and was happy with the spin-off Amandaland, where Dame Joanna Lumley plays Amanda’s mother with gleeful froideur. When interviewed alongside her screen daughter, Lucy Punch, Lumley commented that one of the reasons for their characters’ taut relationship is how ageing women are resentful of their pretty daughters. Maternal envy, being rather destructive for all concerned, has provoked much debate in the papers (and no doubt consternation at dinner parties across Middle England). In the Daily Telegraph, Anna

Patrick West

Generation Bland: the inevitable rise of ‘Palentine’s Day’

As we approach with anticipation or dread 14 February, the day we traditionally celebrate love and all things amorous, a certain demographic will instead be observing a rather less passionate and altogether more bland occasion: ‘Palentine’s Day’. Commemorated on 13 February, this is apparently the date upon which to honour platonic friendships instead of romantic engagements – and it’s proving increasingly popular among Generation Z. It all started with ‘Galentine’s Day’, a celebration of female friendship invented by the character Leslie Knope in American political satire mockumentary Parks and Recreation in 2010. As the concept moved from comedy to real life it morphed into the gender-neutral ‘Palentine’s’ – lest anyone

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Never write a book

I have just finished writing a book and am moping about the house at a loose end. The conventional advice to anyone thinking about writing a book is: don’t. Unless you’re one of the 1 per cent of authors who make 99 per cent of the money, it’s a mug’s game as far as making a living is concerned. Your cleaning lady earns more per hour. So my advice is only write a book if you have an alternative source of income. One of the hardest things about writing a book is stopping. The temptation to tinker persists until the publisher screams at you to stop and mutters that publishing

Tuesday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

With Groove Armada’s Andy Cato

19 min listen

Andy Cato is a musician, record producer and DJ, and is perhaps best known as one half of the Grammy Award-winning electronic music duo Groove Armada. Andy is also a farmer and now puts his energy into championing a better food system as co-founder of Wildfarmed, the UK’s leading regenerative food and farming company. Backed by Jeremy Clarkson and hundreds of farmers nationwide, regenerative farming methods place nature at the heart of food production: protecting natural landscapes, minimising pesticide use and building food security. On the podcast, he tells Lara about nutrition on world music tours, his favourite food spot at Glastonbury Festival and why he sold the rights to his music