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Rosemary GoringHerald Scotland |
WHEN Sir Chris Hoy announced the devastating news that he has terminal prostate cancer and has only a few years to live, everyone was aghast. How...
Some time ago in our local town, an elderly woman wove her way between oncoming cars as if navigating an obstacle course. In a sense, that was...
Remember the 1980s, when the word yuppie came into vogue, disparaging young, upwardly mobile professionals? These were the expensively-dressed types...
For tourists in London, Harrods is as big an attraction as Buckingham Palace and Madame Tussaud’s. Its stunning displays of sensational toys and...
Autumn seems to have arrived early this year, but the harvest is slightly later. Usually by the time schools go back fields are filling with hay...
When the judge sentenced neonatal nurse Lucy Letby last August to spend the rest of her life in prison, he described her as a “cold, calculated,...
Outside my window this summer there has been the sound of hillwalkers clumping up the street on their way to Lindisfarne, and holiday-makers gathering...
Every summer, Edinburgh residents can be heard bemoaning the number of visitors in the city centre. “It can’t get any busier!” has become an...
To the sun-kissed (sometimes) Ayrshire coast and the bejewelled burgh of Troon where, I am told, a golf tournament is in progress. To Troon, which...
It’s hard to think of someone who has itchier feet than Robert Louis Stevenson. One of the earliest travel writers – and still among the finest...
Breaking news: we’re hiring, says the notice in a pub window in our nearby town. Advertising for “summer superstars”, it has vacancies for a...
So it’s goodbye from the Wigtown Book Festival to its sponsor Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based investment company that has gained pariah status...
In a café recently I got into conversation with a young man who had recently moved here from Hong Kong. Among his reasons for relocating was the...
Another week, another defection from the Conservative benches to Labour. Penny Mordaunt, who presides over the House of Commons as if auditioning for...
Those who have been dockside when a ship is launched say it takes the breath away: the size, power and potential danger as these majestic vessels...
Supermarket shopping: so much quicker and more efficient – not to mention cheaper – than dotting along the high street from butcher to greengrocer...
“Try Praying”, says the sign outside a church, hoping no doubt to capture the attention of someone in need of help. Part of a publicity campaign...
There’s no denying that most of us are more interested in discussing the weather than the state of the economy. Storm clouds or a brisk breeze get...
Few of us will ever know what it feels like to have the world desperate to know when we intend to retire. That’s the difficult situation Andy Murray...
Few of us will ever know what it feels like to have the world desperate to know when we intend to retire. That’s the difficult situation Andy Murray...
Criticism of Humza Yousaf has reached a ridiculous pitch when even his choice of holiday destination is turned against him. When it was announced...
Driving through Northumberland, the A68 rises windingly and steeply as it approaches Carter Bar, a narrow pass in the Cheviot Hills where there once...
The scent of wood smoke on a frosty day is one of the joys of winter. It is what makes Tuscan hill towns so charming, the spirits lifting at the...
The leader of Scottish Borders Council made a plea last week, asking neighbouring councils to help pay for the numbers 51, 101 and 102 buses. The 51...
Parliament, they like to say, is a bubble. Whether it’s Holyrood or Westminster, those on its benches inhabit a different reality from the rest of...
Parliament, they like to say, is a bubble. Whether it’s Holyrood or Westminster, those on its benches inhabit a different reality from the rest of...
It is a terrifying and not uncommon sight where I live: a car heading down the street, with nobody behind the wheel. Has the handbrake broken? Or the...
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year”, sings Andy Williams, in the shmaltzy festive song that always makes me lunge for the radio. Before I...
If this column were a movie, it would come with a clutch of trigger warnings: discrimination, scenes of violence, injury detail. I’m not by nature...
The omens are not good. Readers of the runes, who tell us what to expect, suggest there’s not much doubt that Donald Trump will win the upcoming...
The omens are not good. Readers of the runes, who tell us what to expect, suggest there’s not much doubt that Donald Trump will win the upcoming...