Men have been narrating novels through female heroines ever since `Clarissa', but the idea never fails to cause a stir. Hester Lacey reports on the latest cross-writers

Jeremy Laurance at the British Psychological Society conference reports on how Labour members are feeling the strain of power

BEING an MP leads to higher levels of physical and emotional stress, researchers have found. Well, knock us down with a ballot paper. It is a commonplace that you have got to be pretty strange to want to be an MP, and what are academic researchers for if not for dressing up the commonplace?

MUCH OF the pounds 63m of taxpayers' money spent each year on educational research does nothing to improve schools, Chris Woodhead, the Chief Inspector of Schools, says today, writes Judith Judd.

NEIGHBOURS fight protracted court battles over it, spending thousands of pounds in legal arguments about their light. It can grow by three feet a year and reach 60ft.

WOMEN say they would be more likely to take up full-time work if employers paid for part of their childcare costs, according to a new MORI poll due to be published today.

Seen... delicate china become one of the latest victims to catch the designer's eye. Peter Ting, Thomas Goode's in-house designer, creates china collections for clients ranging from style makers Elton John and the late Gianni Versace to Prince Charles. His exhibition will put one- offs and limited editions on sale, and you can swill champers and quaff canapes at a special view tonight at 5.30pm (tickets cost pounds 10). To 28 February. Thomas Goode, 19 South Audley Street, W1 (0171-499 2823).

MAKE SURE YOU

UPPER-CLASS Egyptians preparing for their journey for the afterlife cannot in their wildest dreams have imagined that it might take a tiny part of them to Manchester in the cause of medical science.

Your article "Brown swoops to save doomed estates" (6 February) would have been better entitled "Brown charges up same old blind alley". Government policy on urban poverty has followed this mistaken path of area targeting for the last 30 years, and it has failed.

One of the most difficult things to achieve in the workplace - especially for a first or second jobber in their mid-twenties - is a look that inspires respect and confidence, and not questions of the "are you here on work experience?" variety.

Scenting blood in their campaign to kill off any right to roam, landowners yesterday unveiled new ideas for improving access to the countryside on their own terms while hinting at court action if the Government legislates.

NME Brats Tour: TheAudience, Warm Jets, Asian Dub Foundation, Stereophonics, Manchester University, 16 Jan 1998

After three weeks of being hauled around India when half asleep, the England women's cricket team take on New Zealand today for a place in the World Cup final. Far from being jaded or homesick the side are relishing their big Boxing Day. Pete Davies reports from Madras