Often, the things that a lot of work has gone into have been incredibly bad because they're over-worked.

One of the least arduous but most productive of gardening jobs, the magic of deadheading never fails to delight me. It was a revelation when the principle was explained to me: that flowers are the attempt by the plant to reproduce itself. So if you cut the heads off before the flower turns into seeds, the plant will continue to flower.

The accusation 'unprofessional' means 'You did not behave like a machine today.

Guilt is also a way for us to express to others that we are a person of good conscience.

Long weekends at festivals, short weeks at home, all summer long: now that is surely preferable to the immense cost and headache of the nuclear family holiday in the sun?

I think it's good to look at how people lived before, and then take the best bits of that culture and try to mix it in with your own.

There is nothing so perfect as pinball and a pint at 11 a.m.