Opinion

Nature, nurture, lifestyle choice, whatever. Will we ever truly find out what makes us LGBTQ? The subject of science interfering with sexuality in nature crops up rather too often, and today has given a new paper bag to scream into thanks to gay conversion's number one cheerleader and general reminder that bigots never have to search too hard for a platform, Ann Widdecombe, and her assertion on national TV that science may well "provide an answer" for those wishing to "switch sexuality". As ever,  I find myself puzzling over science's fascination with...

In a recent Guardian Blind Date, the two hapless souls ate at the Sanderson Hotel in London, which reminded me of a mortifying, excruciating experience I'd had there years ago. I didn't have time to go into it then, as I was working on my next book, but now I do, so here is the sorry tale. The Sanderson Hotel is in Berners Street, London, and enjoyed a period of huge popularity upon opening in 2000, when it became the go-to haunt for the era’s expensive handbag and watch-sporting celebs...

I always maintain I’m not a nostalgic person. I don’t get glassy-eyed at the thought of my hands still being small enough to make a Mars bar look gargantuan, lament the days when a Freddo was 10p, or wish Martine McCutcheon was still in EastEnders. But I do think about the past quite often now. That’s the problem with ageing: there is so much of the past accruing behind you – casting a shadow like an out-of-control leylandii – that you can’t help but think about it. So many things...