Other Men's Flowers

Farewell then, Lieutenant General Baron Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, who has died aged 93. In April 1945, then a major and adjutant to the...

Here’s a preview of one of the items featured in the March edition of Large Hats Monthly . It was worn by the Queen at the Westminster Abbey...

Back in November 2004, under the title First Lines , I invited readers to identify twenty-five openings to books or short stories. Not surpr...

The Sunday Times has long since ceased to be a serious newspaper and has been fighting OK! and Hello! for the position of house journal t...

For years I have assumed that those who pronounce "H" as if it began with that letter were merely uneducated, but it seems that th...

Meaning Breaker of Rocks . That was what they called Sir Henry Morton Stanley when he was in the Congo, and probably other things too, sinc...

As I have never felt the need—or the inclination—to follow closely the careers of 1960s record producers, it is not surprising that I had no...

Feeling lazy this weekend, and looking for some easy laughs and a post that writes itself, I thought of doing as dozens of commentators have...

When I took an English Literature exam years ago, one of the set books was Pride and Prejudice, which I didn’t actually get around to readin...

This British actress appeared on stage and TV, and made more than 60 films between 1934 and 1996. During the 30s she was much in demand for...

I had always thought, vaguely (the way I usually think), that the Queen of Hearts was the first to utter this command, but I was reminded th...

The author Kathryn Hughes has a witty and perceptive piece in today’s Guardian , entitled Never mind the cleavage , making the point that J...

For my birthday last Saturday I was given a splendid dinner at a country restaurant, and then a night at a delightful farmhouse just below ...

We have all been irritated by having to listen to people wittering away on their mobile phones or, in the case of Americans, cellphones; it ...

No 275 in the series Sensational Headgear , A recent survey has shown that 0.03 percent of Englishmen aged between 18 and 75 always wear a h...

It’s a great mistake to assume that the kind of language in which an opinion is expressed is always some sort of guide to the value of that ...

Half a century ago Michael Flanders wrote A Song of Patriotic Prejudice , consisting of vigorous—and, by and large, well-deserved—insults ai...

Yes, for Paradise the Southland is my nominee, Just give me a ham hock and some grits of hominy… Many people think of grits as a mainly Sout...

It was a dull day yesterday but I was greatly cheered by news from my friend Grumio , who is currently on holiday abroad with his beautiful ...

This is from a recent catwalk show staged last week at a school hall in an East London back street by a fashion designer called Giles Deaco...