Christina Patterson

Christina Patterson joined The Independent's comment desk as an associate editor and contributor in 2007. Formerly a director of the Poetry Society, a literary programmer at the Royal Festival Hall and deputy literary editor of The Independent, she writes on cultural issues, books, politics and the arts.

Christina Patterson: The discreet charm of the new politicos

"My dear, they looked too extraordinary. They had been having one of their ridiculous club dinners and they were all wearing coloured tail-coats – a sort of livery. 'My dears,' I said to them, 'you look like a lot of most disorderly footmen.'"

Recently by Christina Patterson

Christina Patterson: Why the Chinese have reason to feel pride

Saturday, 3 May 2008

Last week in Tiananmen Square, I was moved to tears. It was not, I'm afraid, the thought of the thousand or so protesters massacred there 19 years ago that had me wiping away the tiny droplet of salt water unexpectedly trickling down my nose. It was the sight of thousands of people standing in silence to watch the lowering of their national flag.

Christina Patterson: All hail the Messiah – and the politicians

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

A few days ago, I had a letter from a new friend. "Dear Christina," it said, "I know we have never met, yet I feel you and I have a special bond – we can communicate on a 'higher level' than the physical sense." Very sweetly, my new friend was offering to say some special prayers for me at Lourdes. Did I have an urgent need for money? A desire for romance? Or perhaps for a prayer to counter a curse?

Christina Patterson: Jane Austen and the sexual smorgasbord

Saturday, 19 April 2008

She flirts remorselessly. She wakes up with a hangover. She wisecracks with her women friends about the myriad failings of the pitiful male specimens she surveys. Sex and the City's Samantha? Carrie? Miranda? No, Jane Austen, of course.

Christina Patterson: The dark heart of British democracy

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

It's easily done. You're in a lift with your colleagues and then someone from the canteen or the kitchen gets in and suddenly you can't finish the conversation you're having, and you can't say anything to them, obviously, and so you just happen to mention to your colleagues that cleaners and catering staff shouldn't be allowed to come in that particular lift and then, well, the woman gets all uppity. Chases you down the corridor, actually, and claims to be an MP. How were you meant to know?

Christina Patterson: Beauty... a commodity ripe for taxation

Saturday, 12 April 2008

Yes, Gordon did mess up the Budget. Not a great idea, perhaps, to double the tax paid by the lowest earners in the country (though strangely unnoticed by the press and crusading class-warrior Cameron at the time). A shame, too, to squeeze a mere 30 grand (that's 30 of Samantha Cameron's Nancy handbags) out of that new breed of migrant workers whose idea of a bit of light shopping is a football club in the morning and a mansion in Belgravia in the afternoon.

Christina Patterson: Making the most of motherhood

Wednesday, 9 April 2008

Yes, it's shameless. Get the kid out of the house (safely round the corner with someone you know), announce their disappearance and watch the money roll in. In fact, it's Shameless – the nation's favourite dysfunctional family after the Royals (and, indeed, the Royles).

Christina Patterson: Poetry lessons from the masters of the universe

Saturday, 5 April 2008

"Poetry," said Carla Bruni's favourite poet, "makes nothing happen." The poet, in case you were too distracted by Bruni's, er, outfits to focus on her literary tastes, was W H Auden and the context was an elegy for W B Yeats, written in 1939 as the world was on the brink of war.

Christina Patterson: The price of freedom is the right to sneer

Wednesday, 2 April 2008

A few months ago, at a dinner, I sat opposite a snail. Well, actually, it was a male human being, but I'll always think of him as a snail. And so, I imagine, will everyone else. For this was Lord Baker of Dorking, former chairman of the Conservative party, historian, editor of poetry anthologies and member of the House of Lords. Most famous, however, thanks to a latex puppet which disappeared from our television screens 15 years ago, for being a snail.

Christina Patterson: The dignity of work in a supermarket

Friday, 28 March 2008

Imagine a world where your every move was monitored and recorded. "Got up. Walked across room. Went to loo." Boring, isn't it? (For just how boring, see public transport diary, below.) Boring for you, boring for the observer and possibly just a little bit intrusive.

Christina Patterson: Just what's so great about self-confidence?

Friday, 21 March 2008

In a hotel in Coventry a couple of weeks ago, I addressed a roomful of teachers. They were all involved in Writing is Primary, a project to inspire children in primary schools in their – guess what? – writing. I was there, I think, as pre-dinner light relief. Asked to talk about My Life as a Journalist, I told them about the heart-stopping glamour of sitting in front of a computer screen for 10 hours a day – glamour enhanced by the thrill of occasional trips to the canteen.

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