Diane Ackerman

Love or hate Sundays? Love, but I feel we should put out a warning. My Sundays aren’t nearly as showbiz-filled as you’d think. Anyone reading is going to be disappointed by the second paragraph. How do Sundays start? Up early, usually still in four-day-old-makeup, because of my collection of offspring. My son is 20. My … Read more

This year, for the first time in a while, I’ve written down some resolutions. Traditionally, I’ve considered such activities beneath me. But this has been a year of learning and humbling, of discovering my faults as a parent and a person. I’ll be better at both things if I improve my mental state, so I’ve … Read more

Chantal Coady, the only chocolatier to be made an OBE for services to chocolate, started Rococo 40 years ago. Then, a few years on, things went a bit sour. If you want to read more about it you can Google it. Now, Coady is back at Rococo (hurrah for karma!) and has launched the most … Read more

Gordo’s, 73a North Street, Guildford GU1 4AW (07737 981825; gordos.uk). Starters £8.95-£13, mains £10.50-£15, dessert £6.50-£10.25, beers £5.50, wines from £23 The first time I met Guildford it was drunk. Proper raging, steaming drunk. An editor with a dark sense of humour had sent me to the town’s booze barns on a Friday night 20 … Read more

January 2024. New month, new gardening year. Allotments and vegetable plots will be mostly empty. Just the more stubborn growers tending hardier crops. Keeping the slinking foxes company. Perhaps, though, a time to tidy. To lightly hoe a few wilder weeds. Sharpen and clean up any tools left untended. This is the month I will … Read more

The rhetoric around new year, new you is a tired, unimaginative marketing ploy. While I’m aware that every week I recommend new (and pre-existing) beauty products, the point is not for you to go out and buy them all. The point is to arm you with information so you can make informed choices. Change for … Read more

Real Drinks Company Dry Dragon Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Tea (£9, 75cl, Waitrose) I’ve always said that the reason I like wine so much has nothing to do with alcohol and that, if there were a non-alcoholic drink that could match it for complexity, mouthfeel and food-matching ability, and which was, crucially, not sweet, I’d be more … Read more