If no one saw - it didn't count. It's only when you eat in front of strangers or people that make you feel guilty that food is really fattening.

Society prizes a girl for being thin more than anything else she might bring to the table.

With a diplomat father, for whom foreign postings were a fact of life, my siblings and I were expected to attend boarding schools in Britain.

Both Plockton and the Isle of Muck in north-west Scotland are incredibly beautiful. Sadly, Plockton has been discovered by tourists because it's where they shot Hamish Macbeth.

If there's one thing I know, it's this - everybody thinks somebody else is having a better life.

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

If I'm hunting down gifts, I like to buy locally.