Christina Patterson

Christina Patterson joined The Independent in 2003 as deputy literary editor and is now a full-time writer and columnist. A former director of the Poetry Society, and literary programmer at the Southbank Centre, she writes on culture, politics, books, travel and the arts and does the weekly "big interview" for the Arts & Books section. Interviewees have included Martin Amis, Alastair Campbell, Werner Herzog, David Starkey and Bryn Terfel.

Christina Patterson: Hijab and civil war in the House of Lords

Politics is, boringly, necessarily, but at times gloriously, the art of the possible.

Recently by Christina Patterson

Christina Patterson: When old age is the time of your life

Thursday, 11 June 2009

The other day, in a house in Prague, I met an extraordinary woman. The house was the home of Alfons Mucha, the Czech artist who met Sarah Bernhardt in Paris, and whose posters for her performances made him one of the leading lights of Art Nouveau. The woman was his daughter-in-law, Geraldine. She met his son, Jiri, at a wartime party in 1941 in Leamington Spa. You can see why he fell for her. Geraldine Mucha is attractive, bright and funny. Next month, she will be 92.

Christina Patterson: Alternative therapies just don't work

Thursday, 28 May 2009

There was the man who took blood from my ear and told me to avoid aluminium saucepans. There was the couple from the Cotswolds who wired me up to a machine. There was the woman who told me to rewrite my parents' past. And then, of course, there were the herbs. Liquid herbs, powdered herbs, herbs in capsules, herbs in tinctures and the herbs that bring fear to the heart of those who have tried them, the herbs that trigger Pavlovian waves of nausea and disgust. Yup, the Chinese herbs.

Christina Patterson: Of course women can't have it all

Saturday, 23 May 2009

Helen Fielding lives in the land of gleaming gnashers and giant, plastic breasts

Christina Patterson: If you're reading it, you should be paying for it

Thursday, 21 May 2009

On Tuesday night, I sought salvation, but found only counsels of despair. "The future is ghastly," said Claire Enders, a leading analyst of the industry. And then, just in case we hadn't got the message, "the outlook is extremely bleak".

Christina Patterson: The true religion of Iran is not Islam

Saturday, 16 May 2009

How free did we feel before this hot, itchy carapace swaddled our heads?

Christina Patterson: Please stop telling me you're sorry

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Sorry. I was baffled when the word screamed out at me from a giant billboard on the tube a couple of weeks ago. Who was apologising to who? Transport for London, for its incessant announcements – and weird emphasis on prepositions – in the tone of a kindergarten teacher whose patience is just about to snap? Bankers, in a fit of sudden remorse for the implosion of the global economy? God?

Christina Patterson: Cracking the code of the Da Vinci nuts

Thursday, 23 April 2009

In 1995, an aspiring writer wrote a book called 187 Men To Avoid: A Survival Guide For The Romantically Frustrated Woman. Snappy title, eh? Slightly depressing, perhaps, what with the weirdly specific number wiping out pretty much every known category of the male species, and the euphemistically pseudo-scientific labelling of the women (I mean, why not go the whole hog, and call them sad spinsters?) but wonderfully publicly spirited, no doubt.

Christina Patterson: Please tell us what to do about getting old

Saturday, 18 April 2009

I look at the pension supplements piling up next to my sofa and I feel sick

Christina Patterson: Can't we all please just calm down?

Thursday, 16 April 2009

So, at long last there are "glimmers of hope". God has spoken. Or at least the nearest thing we have to God on this earth has spoken. There are glimmers of hope not just because there's a new joie de vivre at the White House (in the form of a dog whose breed sounds like some form of Guantanamo interrogation technique, but who says the President doesn't have a sense of humour?) but because, according to the Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, there are "tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing".