The real me now may not be thin but she's got the cake and, if she likes, can eat it too.

Despotism isn't nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be.

My mother, father, stepmother and surrogate mother have all died of cancer; my best friend has got terminal cancer and at least five of my other friends have had cancer but survived it.

If one's honest about it, spending time in a car with children is pretty ghastly.

If, however, you have richer pursuits in mind and know that no woman should be judged by how she looks - that everything she brings to the party is more important than the size of her arse - then refuse to be sucked into the never ending whirligig of self-doubting, self-hating madness that is stop-start dieting and crazy new exercise regimes.

Success, in whatever form it takes, is a tricky thing - once you've achieved your goal, then what? Where do you aim?

There is so much that is positive, wonderful even, about state schools. At a state school your kids will learn to live alongside and appreciate other kids from many diverse and different cultures.