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Susan SwarbrickHerald Scotland |
Throughout history, the eccentricities of the aristocracy have been a source of intrigue and bemusement. There are plenty of stories of this ilk in...
It has been 20 years since the last patients departed Bangour Village Hospital. Once a pioneering facility for psychiatric care, for the past two...
I have a birthday this weekend. It isn’t one that, in the grand scheme of things, is particularly noteworthy. Not like reaching the giddy heights...
And here we are. That odd stage in the calendar where discombobulation abounds. The second week in November always feels like a curious hinterland,...
An October night and my dog is shaking in my arms. His entire body trembles with fear. We’re huddled together on the kitchen floor and my heart...
The other day, while I was packing my shopping at breakneck speed at the tills of a well-known budget supermarket, the cashier struck up a...
In recent weeks, I have developed a bit of a screen time problem. It tends to be something that creeps up on me around this time of year,...
As regular readers will know, I fancy myself as a bit of an amateur anthropologist. A keen observer when it comes to the subject of generational...
If ever you need a barometer for the current mood of the middle classes, simply type a single word into an internet search engine: hummus. This...
A Saturday morning and an early autumn chill hangs in the air. I meander the short distance from the car park with a huge smile on my face. It is...
One of the best gifts I have been given in recent times is a coffee mug from my friend Alison that is inscribed with the words: “What a year this...
Student life seems a lot more wholesome than I remember. I was struck by this thought the other day when I saw a social media post about an upcoming...
At what point in life do you find yourself spending equal time gazing back as you do looking forward? This isn’t, as it might appear at first...
I have never been someone who gets the ick from insects. As a child I would collect ladybirds, millipedes and beetles in an old ice cream tub,...
If you are anything like me, you’ll have likely spent much of the past week glued to coverage of the Olympic Games in Paris. My diary has been...
As I get older, something that I increasingly struggle with is what to buy friends and family as gifts. Many of my nearest and dearest are, like...
One of my all-time favourite quotes reads: “Your new life is going to cost you your old one.” It forms part of a longer passage by the US...