Amsterdam has more than 150 canals and 1,250 bridges, but it never seems crowded, nor bent and bitter from fleecing the tourist.

Feminism seeks to turn the biggest, bloodiest carnivore in the world - passion - into a right-on cud-chewing vegan. It can never work. Sex was never meant to be that way. Sex, on the whole, was meant to be short, nasty and brutish. If what you want is cuddling, you should buy a puppy.

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast.

I'll declare my own interest right here at the start and admit that, like the vast majority of people, I find youthful looks appealing.

Families, generally, suck. And I say that as someone who, like my husband, had parents who proved the proverbial exception to the rule.

The latest twist on the pampering concept is spa parties, where a group of friends take over an entire spa.

I know that Brighton is famously a mixture of the seedy and the elegant, but in the summer of 2001 seediness swamped elegance hands down.