- Features RSS Feed

The sky's the limit: an extraordinary group of sky diving servicemen

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Lying in a hospital bed almost six years ago Sergeant Stuart Pearson had just survived a day of unimaginable horror. Caught in a minefield in Helmand, Afghanistan, he and his fellow soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, had valiantly fought to save each other. One by one, they were hit by exploding mines. Three of them lost legs while Corporal Mark Wright died trying to help his friends, an act of such bravery that the 27-year-old was posthumously awarded the George Cross.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Two months ago, I broke up with my wife after 10 years, and have nearly had a breakdown I've been so upset. It was all her decision. It's all I can do to go into work. But a couple of weeks ago, I met an amazing woman. I've told her I'm not in a position to say whether this relationship will go anywhere because I'm in turmoil, but she says she understands and just wants to help me. My friends say I'm mad, and should wait at least a year before getting into anything new, but this woman is making me feel happy again. I'm not being stupid, am I? Yours sincerely, Christopher

Life as a hermit: 'My life is a great adventure'

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I always fancied being a hermit. There was a tradition in the 18th century to pay hermits to live on your grounds and entertain the guests; I would have liked that. I live alone in an old house in the Scottish wilderness, near Aberdeen. There's an old stove that's the heart of the house and two bigs barns full of wood and useful things I've found.

The manhood makeover: The rise of the penis enlargement

Tue, 15 May 2012 06:00:58 +0100

A vast painting covers the wall above a marble mantelpiece on which rests a human skull. It depicts Maurizio and Roberto Viel, who are twin plastic surgeons, and a nude woman whose breasts they have augmented. The imposing work, called Creation, greets patients at the brothers’ clinic on Harley Street in London. Increasingly these patients are men and, increasingly, they come in search of a larger penis.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I have a friend I get on well with, but she never seems to appreciate what I do for her. I visited her in hospital every day and even took her nightdresses home to launder, I had her to stay – and I get no response at all except occasionally a grudging "thank you". I've tried to show her what manners are, so whenever I go to her flat or she does something for me, I email or ring to say how kind she is, and the other day I said I'd like a sign of appreciation occasionally, but she didn't seem to take it in. I feel so resentful all the time. I feel I'm just taken for granted. Yours sincerely, Lisa

Aerial circus: enjoying the high life

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Most novelists need a second job to help pay the bills. Few of them choose to run away with the circus. For his new novel The Trapeze Artist, however, Will Davis conjoined his twin passions: writing, and aerial acrobatics. It's the melancholy story of an awkward gay man who, in his struggle to overcome teenage trauma and an adult breakdown, begins a tumultuous relationship with a performer in a travelling circus, then obsessively trains himself in trapeze artistry.

Mr Right is not online

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I started internet dating a few years ago. I found that I rarely met single men in my day-to-day life. I work in book publishing, which is made up of about 80 per cent women, and most of my friends are married so my social life consists of going out to dinner with other couples. Internet dating seemed like a good idea; there's a huge cross- section of people out there and I had at least three friends who have married men they found on the internet, which was all quite encouraging.

"Doctor, we have some bad news..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

It took a while for the words to sink in. I was standing, staring at the people opposite me, having just had my body scanned for a routine medical project I was working on with my colleagues. They had something to tell me and I was a mixture of curiosity and anxiety.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

My 15-year-old son watches porn on the internet all the time (I know because I've looked at the browsing history on his computer).

Divorce in the internet age: It’s complicated

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

A year ago, as my first novel was being published and I was starting a new career, I was also dealing with one of the hardest stretches of my life due to an unexpected divorce. The divorce particulars won't break new ground in the genre and I don't pretend my experience is any more or less painful than what others have gone through.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I'm getting married this summer, but I'm starting to have second thoughts. It turns out that my fiancé can't swim, or even ride a bike. He doesn't know how to change a plug, and when I asked him to bleed the radiators he didn't know what I was talking about. True, he can always fix my computer, but I'm starting to get irritated by his inability to do anything practical. My father was always fixing gates, repairing machines etc. It's preying on my mind and I'm starting to feel he's not a man. Do you think it's just pre-wedding nerves, as my mother says?

Yours sincerely, Carla

The musings of the ancients: What can dead thinkers teach us about modern life?

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Answering the inevitable social question "So what do you do?" with "Actually, I'm a philosopher," Jules Evans, who really is one, received a burst of laughter from the woman he was talking to and the reply: "I thought they were all dead." Philosophy and philosophers are not obvious in modern life. There's a misconception that the musings of the ancients can't possibly be relevant in a world that contains the Twittersphere, rolling news and endless gadget solutions for our every problem and need. But increasingly, people are getting together of their own volition and talking about philosophy in cafés, pubs, classrooms and internet chat rooms. The School of Athens is open for membership, it seems, and people are setting up their own groups to debate the existential nitty-gritty. Evans, who is a philosopher, writer and journalist, is an instrumental member of the London Philosophy Club, which holds regular discussions, at a range of venues, on questions such as "Can happiness be taught?" and "Is there such a thing as a good death?"

"What's harder than telling your parents that you're gay? Telling your children"

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Fiona: The break up of my marriage and my coming out seven years ago happened when my children were just into secondary school. None of this came out of the blue – but for my children this was the first time their parents had spoken about anything they might have sensed or guessed at. They had to take on explicitly these two different, but connected, things at the same moment.

Assisted suicide: One last helping hand

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

This is a story about my late mother-in-law, Rosemary, her struggle with bereavement and Parkinson's disease, and her absolute determination to visit Dignitas in Switzerland for an accompanied suicide. Before retiring, Rosemary worked at a busy GP surgery in west London. She was a stylish lady, liked modern design and was of the Habitat era. She and her husband, Eric, retired to Sussex but, devastatingly, he contracted pancreatic cancer and died in 1998. He was only 73.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Dear Virginia,

I've only been married for a year and my wife has cancer and it seems she only has six months to live, if that. It's so sad – we're both under 30 and don't have kids. Her sister asked if we'd like her to come and help as my wife's had chemo and is very ill. We were delighted, but my sister-in-law has now taken over the house, organised all the furniture in different places, laid down rules about taking shoes off before coming in, and my wife is too weak to resist. I feel my last few months of my married life are being blighted. What can I do? Yours sincerely, Alan

What to say to save a life

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:59:01 +0100

"Let's keep going." "What do you mean?" "Go!" "You sure?" "Yeah... yeah." The final, unmemorable lines from Thelma and Louise hardly capture the atmosphere of desperation as they take their own lives by driving off a cliff. Suicide in film is often glamorised and always tragic, but often unconvincing. But can films ever capture the reality of wanting to take your own life?

Tourette's Syndrome: A heroic response

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:59:01 +0100

When Jess Thom had to get off the Tube early due to a station flooding she did what most people would do and asked a member of staff the best way to continue to her destination. She is used to people reacting negatively to her verbal and physical tics so she wasn't surprised when the station worker turned his back on her. However, once she'd explained that she had Tourette's Syndrome, she did expect a better response than the one she got: "I'm not giving you any fucking information."

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Q. I'm fairly well-off and people tell me I look good for my age – I'm 50. I'm divorced with a wonderful daughter, but though I do a lot for other people, no one seems to want to know me. I just can't get a girlfriend. I'm fine with short-term friends, but it's difficult to meet people when everyone I know seems to be married. I just seem to have dropped off the social rounds – it's as if I don't exist. I don't want to go online because I know it's full of gold-diggers and I'm reasonably well-off. Is there any hope for me? Yours sincerely, Patrick

'Nurses do not wake up each morning intent on delivering poor care...'

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:00:32 +0100

Poor care is due to systemic failings, not the nurses

Day Five: My 10-point plan for change by Christina Patterson

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

1 Reinforce the responsibility of the ward sister for the quality of the nursing care delivered to all the patients on his or her ward.

Anne Milton: 'We need to raise the bar'

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

It isn't easy to get someone from the Government to talk about nursing. It isn't easy to get their press officers to answer emails, or return calls. I first contacted the Department of Health press office in September, to request an interview with Andrew Lansley. I also wrote to him, but never had a reply. In February, I was told that I couldn't interview him, but I could, if I was prepared to wait a few weeks, interview the Public Health minister, Anne Milton. The day before the interview, I got a call to say it had been cancelled. When I was asked when it would take place, I was told it wouldn't.

The 10 Best running events

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

1. Isle of Man half marathon, 22 July

The power of spin: Hula hoop your way to happiness

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Beset by memories of poor childhood co-ordination and playground ignominy, I approached this year's latest fitness craze with a certain sense of gloom. But it is hard to stay gloomy when you're flinging a day-glo hoop around your waist and waggling your hips like Ricky Martin.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I am convinced that my 65-year-old husband has something wrong with him. He used to be so intelligent but now he's forgetful and muddled. He writes paranoid letters to neighbours, and is obsessed by one, who he's convinced is spying on him. He now also spends hours on the computer on the David Icke website. He agrees he's got more peculiar but blames it on our neighbours' pesticides. He used to write and paint, but now just gardens all day. Our mutual friends say there's nothing wrong and it's me who's paranoid. What can I do?

Yours sincerely, Emma

What doesn’t kill us: We shall overcome

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Michael Paterson had been married for three weeks when his armoured Land Rover was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in West Belfast. It tore off the young policeman's arms and killed the vehicle's driver. Veronica and her daughter, Ruth, were listening to music when they crashed into a car that had flipped over in front of theirs. Ruth died two days later. Gill Hicks was standing in a Tube train in London when it was blown up on 7/7. She lost her legs and watched 26 people die.

'Anorexia has many causes – and you're probably not one'

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:00:01 +0100

When one of Lynn Crilly's twin daughters was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, the threat to her child was plain to see. But what Crilly didn't expect during that dark period in 2004 was a condition that would almost tear apart her family and a health system that would struggle to cope with a complex illness, leaving her to seek solutions by herself. Seven years on, after her daughter's recovery, Crilly has become a champion of the forgotten victims of eating disorders, which are estimated to afflict 1.6 million people in Britain. She has become a leading counsellor and has just published her first book, Hope with Eating Disorders, a self-help guide for the parents, carers and friends of sufferers.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I'm 18 and after a few drinks with my mates, I ended up in bed with a girl whose name I didn't know. We were both pretty drunk. We exchanged names and numbers in the morning, but never got in touch. Now she's rung to say she's pregnant. I don't remember much about the night, but do distinctly remember her saying she was on the Pill. I feel my life's ruined because of one night. I haven't told my parents, as I'm sure they'd be furious. I suggested I pay for an abortion – I'd find the money somehow – and she put the phone down on me. What can I do? Yours sincerely, Jack

Shingles: Under my skin

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

For four months last year I suffered from shingles. It would be an exaggeration (though only a slight one) to say that my life was on hold: it would not be an exaggeration to say I suffered great anxiety as to when (if ever) I would be rid of the searing headaches that dominated my days.

Locked in, but still lost in music: UK's bravest DJ

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Bram Harrison, better known as DJ Eye Tech, has a truly unique selling point. The playlist for his Eye Life radio show takes weeks to put together – not because he's an indecisive control freak who endlessly revises his record selection, but because he relies on his eyes for everything.

'I thought I could never live a normal life': A former heroin addict tells how an interview with The Independent helped his recovery

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

On Christmas Eve 2001, The Independent ran a feature about 36-year-old twins, Kevin and Brian Dooley. In the accompanying photograph they sat on a park bench, staring at the camera with blank expressions. They were homeless heroin addicts, and this newspaper had decided to highlight the important work of Crisis' Open Christmas Shelter, where hundreds of vulnerable Londoners would go to seek help, by telling their story. In the piece, Kevin Dooley spoke of his wish to some day be in a position to be able to help others who were in a similar situation to him.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Before she died I promised my mother I'd look after my younger sister. She is now 40 and I'm 45. The problem is that she rings me sometimes four times a day, always complaining about her life, her husband, what a neighbour said to her... I feel I'm being used as a kind of free therapist! Her husband has been diagnosed as a schizophrenic, so she does have problems, but he has a good job and is perfectly nice to meet. Is there a syndrome that my sister's suffering from – unhealthy wallowing in impossible situations? She just seems hard-wired to be anxious. Yours sincerely, Jemima

Aqua fitness: Cool in the pool

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Swimming is popular, there's no doubt about that. Three million Brits dive into a pool every week, compared with the 1.8 million who hop on a bike. For many people, however, it has a reputation as more of a family leisure activity than a serious way to get fit. Efforts to counteract this with water workout classes such as aqua aerobics have seemed fusty and unfit for purpose for a number of years – lines of ladies, perms protected by swimming caps, lifting their arms up and down through the water does not look like a reliable route to bikini biceps.

Trending: Why something called PGD2 is man's greatest (follicular) foe

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I call it "the island". A friend prefers "petit chapeau", which makes it sound almost desirable in his native French. But it isn't desirable, just the sorry remainder of a forelock that was once so thick my barber of 20 years joked he needed shears to hack through it. The same barber now snips charitably at a tuft during a haircut that takes him six minutes.

Donald MacInnes: One vice shouldn't be cheaper than another

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A few of my colleagues may have picked up awards the other night (kudos to all), but I simply must insist that I be presented with The Golden Pillowcase for sitting through Ozzy's fag-baiting REM-fest. Holy Night Nurse, Batman! I was reduced to pouring triple-shot lattes directly into my eyeballs to stay awake. Even the Chancer himself looked a little fatigued. So much leaning! Good job the despatch box was made of stout British wood and not room temperature Dairylea, as he would have quickly ended up at a 45 degree angle, like in the video for Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal". Ee-hee, indeed.

Louis de Bernières: 'I've been through absolute hell'

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Louis de Bernières, the best-selling author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, is singing. "My love she speaks like silence, without ideals or violence, she doesn't have to say she's faithful, yet she's true, like ice, like fire."

The boat that set us free

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

What's the noise?" At 3am Justin Ruthven-Tyers was roused from sleep by his girlfriend Linda. There was a strange cracking, snapping noise. Justin jumped out of bed to investigate. The house looked fine. He went into the dining room and everything was as it should be. He went into the living room. Nothing looked amiss. He was about to head back to bed, but stopped at the door and gave the room a cursory last glance. It was then he noticed a finger of smoke rising from one corner of the fireplace "like the wisp from the end of a fag". He went to the grate, pulled back the carpet and the room filled with smoke. Fire was raging in the gap between the first and second floors, flames licking the structural joists of the wooden house.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

For the last three years, my husband has forgotten our wedding anniversary, though we've been married nine years. It is coming up again and I find I am already dreading the disappointment of him forgetting again. I know it's silly, and everyone says it's clear he loves me, but it means so much to me, and when he forgets we always have a terrible row. He says I should remind him, but if I remind him, then there's no point... he should remember of his own accord. I don't know how you can help me, but does anyone else feel like I do? Yours sincerely, Nollie

Why I'm saying no to a smear

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Renew travel card. Book haircut. Go for screening test. Buy cinema tickets. Meet friends." You may have spotted the odd one out – for this is not a list of things to do at the weekend, but the front cover of the NHS Scotland's "Cervical Screening Test" information booklet.

How Allen Carr saved my lungs

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Without wishing to overgeneralise, people like me – well read, sceptical, snobbish – think that self-help manuals are lame and the people who read them are losers. But ask which book I most regularly recommend to others, or which has had the most significant influence on my thinking and lifestyle, and I'll have to admit that it's my well-thumbed charity-shop find The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently by the late Allen Carr – an extended recapitulation of his 11-million-selling 1985 hit The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I've been married for five years and our sex life has never been very good but I love my wife very much. However, last week she suddenly dropped a bombshell. She told me there is a man she really fancies, someone she met at her yoga class, and that she wants to have an affair with him. She says why don't I find someone as well and then she won't feel guilty. I've told her OK, because otherwise it's over, but what can I do? I don't want to lose her. But I don't like the idea of an open marriage. Yours sincerely, Brendan

Hoarding: The art of letting go

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Oh, I wonder how that got there ... What is it?" Layla Jade (not her real name) has picked up a folded silver chewing gum wrapper, that has fallen, somehow, onto her carpet. She holds it close to her face, squinting, trying to work out its origins and whether it can be salvaged. After a few moments she places it carefully onto a side table.

The 10 Best Mother's Day gifts

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

1. The Milestone Hotel afternoon tea

£31.50, milestonehotel.com

This splendid London hotel, opposite Kensington Park, is highly recommended by the Tea Guild.

Armed-forces parents: 'At last we have the son we fought for'

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

When Jan Parks spoke to a social worker about adopting, she was asked whether her husband – an army officer – would be able to leave his "disciplinary side" at home. The comment was typical of the insults many military couples endure when seeking to adopt.

The new ages of man

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

One thing that can be said of "Middle Age" is that it's moving further from the middle. The annual British Social Attitudes Survey suggests just a third of people in their 40s regard themselves as middle-aged, while almost a third of those in their 70s are still clinging to the label, arthritic fingers notwithstanding. In A Shed of One's Own, his very funny new memoir of male midlife crisis and its avoidance, Marcus Berkmann reaches for a number of definitions for his time of life: "Middle age is comedy, and also tragedy," he says. "Other people's middle age is self-evidently ridiculous, while our own represents the collapse of all our hopes and dreams."

The Ex factor: is raking up the past a good idea?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:00:01 +0000

"He did feel the same, Elinor – for weeks and weeks he felt it. I know he did, and nothing but the blackest art employed against me can have done it, I was as dear to him as my own soul could wish." The words spoken by Sense and Sensibility's Marianne Dashwood are just as relevant today as they were 200 years ago in expressing the confusion many of us have felt after being dumped with little or no explanation.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I've been made redundant and my wife has just found a new job. We really need her to work so we can keep the house. So the idea is that she goes to work and I look after the children. But I am no good with kids. I love them, but I couldn't look after them like she does. They're eight, six and five. She says just give it a go, but I'm frightened that I'll do something by mistake and there'll be an accident. I know some men like being househusbands, but I've been brought up to be the breadwinner. Do you think I can do it? Yours sincerely, Eric

Tanya Franks: 'If EastEnders saved one life by putting this story out, it's worth it'

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Tanya Franks, a teetotaller who has barely touched alcohol, has spent a lot of her career playing drunk. From Karen, the flamboyantly alcoholic primary school teacher in Pulling, the Bafta-winning BBC3 comedy, to Tanya Branning's vodka-soaked sister in EastEnders, she has perfected both the wild-eyed stare and the aggressively penitent mumble.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

For three years I had an affair with a man living in our village. We're both married. Then I left my husband to go off with this man, but after a couple of months we both realised it was a mistake. I'm now back with my husband – happier than ever, oddly – but my ex-lover's wife is causing no end of trouble. I work in the village shop and last week she came in and threw a bucket of water over me. Sometimes she comes in and screams at me. My ex-lover says there's nothing he can do. And I'm too ashamed to go to the police. What can I do? Yours sincerely, Megan

Say no to the scalpel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Who, over a certain age, hasn't stared in the mirror and wished to turn back the clock? If only it were possible to lift and tighten the skin on your face – but without resorting to the surgeon's knife. Looking good may not be the route to inner happiness, but a youthful complexion can certainly give us a boost. It's not all about trout pout and those wind-tunnel or pillow-face looks sported by many celebrities who overdo Botox and fillers. The most modern treatments are much less radical and more subtle. All the same, some sound pretty scary and most are expensive, so how do you know what to try?

The 10 Best pre-school toys

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

1. Storysack

From £42, storysack.com

A cloth bag packed with items – book , CD, activity guide, games, props, scenery, soft toys and more – that bring a story to life.

Anne Nolan: "I felt nothing when my father died. But telling the truth about him changed everything"

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The Nolans, Ireland's most famous singing siblings, have lived through it all – fallouts, marriage break-ups, musical mockery and no fewer than three cancer diagnoses – all in the glare of the media. But in the 33 years since their most successful song, "I'm in the Mood for Dancing", nothing was quite so shocking as the news that Anne, the eldest daughter of the eight siblings, was sexually abused by their father – and that, when she was just 16, he even suggested they run away together and live as man and wife.

Fun in the sunset years

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Come and spend your autumn years in an Indian palace," a seductive voice beckons at the beginning of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In the new film, Judy Dench and Bill Nighy lead a veteran cast of characters travelling to Bangalore in the hope of spending their retirement in sunnier – and cheaper – climes.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

My husband and I have a joint email account, and the other day I was checking to see if I'd sent an email when I came across an email my husband had written to a friend. It read: "Thank you for listening to all my woes. This has, as you can imagine, been the most terrible worry for me, and you are the only person I can confide in." I have no idea what he was talking about – my husband doesn't have any worries that I know of. Do you think I should tackle him about it and find out what the problem is? Yours sincerely, Elisa

Procrastination: Not now – I'm busy

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

At this time of year, we're all as sluggish as a hibernating dormouse, with the efficacy of an embattled wintry immune system, and the productivity of a stale slice of bread. And yet we're supposed to swing joyously into action for spring, with the youthful vigour of a passel of One Direction fans, heedless of the weight we've put on since the clocks went back or the fact we feel completely outfaced. No wonder we spend so much of our time pretending not to think about work, or putting off minute tasks that have since piled up to create one enormous, insurmountable obstacle.

The 10 Best sledges

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

1. Grass Sledge

£255.33, grass-sledge.co.uk

This toboggan skims down grassy slopes as smoothly as snowy ones. Sit back in the moulded seat and have the ride of your life.

Virginia Ironside's Dilemmas

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I was recently bicycling along past a neighbour's house when his dog came out and bit me. It wasn't just a nip. Eventually, as it became infected, I had to get hospital treatment. I feel angry because the dog's owner, an elderly man who's lived there for years, didn't seem to appreciate the severity of the attack, and rather brushed it off. I didn't go to the police because I didn't want the dog put down, but I still feel resentful. Was there anything I could have done – or should do now – to make this man feel more responsible? Yours sincerely, Ed

The 10 Best Valentine's gifts

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

1. Kodak Smile Key Chain

£23.64, play.com

Keep your loved ones with you all day long with this tiny digital picture frame. Plug it into your laptop, transfer up to 100 photographs and, hey presto, you've got a miniature photo gallery.

Alison Thompson: 'I see danger all around me now'

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Alison Thompson is beaming as she opens the door of her cottage, nestled down a lane near the river in Richmond. She laughs often, displaying a sunny disposition that would be less remarkable if she did not deal with death every day. Thompson is Her Majesty's coroner for west London, a busy district that sees about 4,000 mysterious deaths reported every year and provides the subject for a new BBC documentary, Death Unexplained. It is the first time a television crew has been granted access to a coroner's court, which works to establish when, where, how and why a person died.

The 10 Best fountain pens