The point of the feminist movement wasnt simply to set our underwear on fire and muscle into small spaces in the male-dominated workplace, but to create a world where the contribution of both sexes was equally valued and no ones worth was judged on their take-home salary.

Joy acts like a trampoline, everything that touches it bouncing right back off it.

Seeing the world differently is one of the toughest incompatibilities to reconcile in a relationship.

It's so much easier to count our disadvantages than tot up the mitigating circumstances that generally outweigh the despair.

As a species, we tend to be doers, forever shaping and reshaping the world to better suit our purposes.

We invest less in our friendships and expect more of friends than any other relationship. We spend days working out where to book for a romantic dinner, weeks wondering how to celebrate a partner or parent's birthday, and seconds forgetting a friend's important anniversary.

In the city, I wake bolt upright in the small hours, convinced that intruders are marauding through our apartment despite Swiss bank-style security arrangements.