Virginia Ironside: Dilemmas

school I felt left out – friends boasted about girls, but it all seemed to pass me by. I'm now 36, and although I enjoy seeing pretty women, I just don't have much of a reaction. I have had sex, it's just that I didn't rate it a lot. I can't go to my doctor. What's wrong with me? I love that phrase "I can't go to my doctor"...;- 26/10/2010, Features

Members Only: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond, By Paul Willetts

It must seen difficult for a younger generation, steeped nowadays in sex, to realise that in the 1950s nudism was illegal on stage. Or rather, you were allowed a nude but only if it didn't move an inch. The results were bizarre tableaux which the compere would introduce with words like: "First, ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Natalya and the charming lit It...- 22/10/2010, Reviews

Couples together apart: We're close...just not that close

The news that Boris Johnson is living in a rented flat just yards from his family home has raised questions in some quarters about the state of his marriage. But perhaps there is another reason for the unorthodox arrangement: that he and his wife, Marina, are the latest couple to become LATs, that is to say couples who are Living Apart but Together. It's a ...- 19/10/2010, News

The Feral Beast: Pearson flip-flops on benefits

"Take away our baby money at your peril" fog-horned Allison Pearson in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.- 10/10/2010, Press

Crazy Age: Thoughts on being Old, By Jane Miller

Reading Jane Miller's Crazy Age is rather like peering into one of the cluttered-up drawers she talks about being saddled with, now that she's old. It's a shame that those thoughts are presented in such a confused jumble. There's a lot here that should have been put into a bag and taken off to Age Concern. Is this a book about how novelists and writers ha Ja...- 24/09/2010, Reviews

Virginia Ironside: The Catholic Church should stay out of the gay adoption debate

It's not often that the Charity Commission, which has always seemed to me rather spineless, sticks its neck out and does the right thing. But when it rejected the application of a Leeds-based adoption agency, Catholic Care, to restrict adoption to heterosexual couples, I had nothing but admiration for them. - 21/08/2010, Commentators

M-J Lancaster: Outspoken writer and editor who became a prototype of the modern career woman

It was not surprising that Miss Hope-Nicholson shortened her first name to M-J, christened as she was, Marie-Jaqueline, Dorothea, Beatrice, Alexina, Romaine, Adriana. Her decision reflected the future editor's outspoken, forthright manner, possibly a reaction against her deeply eccentric family. Her father, Hedley Hope-Nicholson, was heir to a raincoat fo M-...- 14/07/2010, Obituaries

A Vision of Loveliness, By Louise Levene

This novel is not really about people. It's about an era: the late Fifties and early Sixties. It was a time of social transition in England, the point at which it was just possible (with a lot of effort, correct posture, elocution lessons, and the ability to order correctly from a menu) to move from one class to another, to "better yourself". - 13/07/2010, Reviews

Virginia Ironside: Did none of the jury have a normal childhood?

On the face of it, the judgment against the two 10-year-old boys, convicted of "attempted rape" of an eight-year-old girl, seems little less than ludicrous.- 25/05/2010, Commentators

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas: 'My son says I'm a dreadful mother and doesn't want to see me any more'

This is a terrible situation for you to be in and there's really nothing you can do. Sometimes people who go to certain counsellors – not all, I hasten to add – end up with views fed to them at a time when they are most vulnerable, that can only be described as wicked. It's so easy to turn a young person's mind when they're at their lowest, an Th...- 13/05/2010, Healthy Living

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas: My flatmate is always moaning about her love life

Q. Dear Virginia, I share a flat with two girls. One is fine, and keeps herself to herself. But the other is constantly moaning about her love life. She’s got two boyfriends – one’s in love with her and she can’t bear him, and the other she loves but isn’t that interested in her. But I have no one and find it A. Ha...- 06/05/2010, Healthy Living

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas: 'My wife doesn't seem to want to spend time with our two children. What can I do?

Dear Virginia, I'm worried because my wife, who I love very much, doesn't seem to want to spend time with our two children. She works all the time, often going away, and rarely giving them a call. I work, too, but try always to get back early, and spend time with them, but she doesn't seem to be interested. She says she's exhausted. I feel I don...- 29/04/2010, Features

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas: 'My old university friend seems to have gone off me'

Dear Virginia, I'm sure you'll think I'm paranoid, but I have an old university friend who seems to have gone off me – and I don't know why. We've always been close and often lunched together. I'd always drop in on them when visiting friends in the country, where they live. But for the last year I've heard nothing. Every time I sugge I'm s...- 22/04/2010, Healthy Living

Virginia Ironside: Next week's dilemma

Dear Virginia, I'm sure you'll think I'm paranoid, but I have an old university friend who seems to have gone off me – and I don't know why. We've always been close and often lunched together. I'd always drop in on them when visiting friends in the country, where they live. But for the last year I've heard nothing. E to dilemmas@inde...- 12/04/2010, Healthy Living

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas: How do I tell my children I was adopted at birth?

Dear Virginia, How do I tell my children I was adopted at birth? The answer is becoming quite urgent. The children are aged seven and five and I want to tell them myself but I don't know how to begin. I've tried to explain it to them a few times, but always bottle out at the last minute. I suppose I'm afraid it will upset Sorry to sound like...- 12/04/2010, Healthy Living