Christina Patterson
Recently by Christina Patterson
Christina Patterson: Please stop telling me you're sorry
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Sorry. I was baffled when the word screamed out at me from a giant billboard on the tube a couple of weeks ago. Who was apologising to who? Transport for London, for its incessant announcements – and weird emphasis on prepositions – in the tone of a kindergarten teacher whose patience is just about to snap? Bankers, in a fit of sudden remorse for the implosion of the global economy? God?
Christina Patterson: Cracking the code of the Da Vinci nuts
Thursday, 23 April 2009
In 1995, an aspiring writer wrote a book called 187 Men To Avoid: A Survival Guide For The Romantically Frustrated Woman. Snappy title, eh? Slightly depressing, perhaps, what with the weirdly specific number wiping out pretty much every known category of the male species, and the euphemistically pseudo-scientific labelling of the women (I mean, why not go the whole hog, and call them sad spinsters?) but wonderfully publicly spirited, no doubt.
Christina Patterson: Please tell us what to do about getting old
Saturday, 18 April 2009
I look at the pension supplements piling up next to my sofa and I feel sick
Christina Patterson: Can't we all please just calm down?
Thursday, 16 April 2009
So, at long last there are "glimmers of hope". God has spoken. Or at least the nearest thing we have to God on this earth has spoken. There are glimmers of hope not just because there's a new joie de vivre at the White House (in the form of a dog whose breed sounds like some form of Guantanamo interrogation technique, but who says the President doesn't have a sense of humour?) but because, according to the Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, there are "tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing".
Christina Patterson: The day I applauded Alastair Campbell
Saturday, 11 April 2009
While politics is flawed, it’s the only process for changing our society we’ve got
Christina Patterson: Sister, stop stuffing your face
Thursday, 9 April 2009
No one expects nurses to look like supermodels, or lap dancers
Christina Patterson: We're right to be obsessed with the bedroom
Saturday, 4 April 2009
You don’t need to tell me that sleep is a way of getting rid of the day’s mental rubbish
Christina Patterson: This tragedy has nothing to do with poetry, nothing to do with art
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
In his letters to the critic Keith Sagar, Ted Hughes described blissful fishing trips with his son, Nicholas, in Africa, Iceland and Alaska. Alaska, he said, was a "dreamland" where they "fished alongside bears" and "lay awake listening to wolves". It was a rare glimpse of the poet's relationship with his son, and of their shared passion for nature and silence. It is, therefore, beyond any kind of irony that it was in this "dreamland" that, a week ago, Nicholas Hughes hanged himself.
Christina Patterson: Don't expect moral guidance from our leaders
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Communist countries may do capitalism these days but they don’t do spirituality
Christina Patterson: Ayn Rand is the last role model we need right now
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Bad artists are rarely good guides to economics, politics or anything else
Christina Patterson: Whoever said that writing, or life, would be easy?
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Whoever said that anything worth reading, or hearing, or gazing at, would be easy?
Christina Patterson: We forget that manners oil the wheels of society
Saturday, 21 February 2009
These days an unexpected act of kindness can seem like a gift
Christina Patterson: When the going gets tough, the tough wise up
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Not much space for chic little sofas when you’re worried you might lose your home
Christina Patterson: First, catch your man. But not if you're over 40...
Saturday, 7 February 2009
We're mating according to the rules of misogynistic Manhattanites
Christina Patterson: Madness: a great metaphor, not such a great life
Saturday, 31 January 2009
You can go bananas and be sidekick to one of the leaders of the Western world
Christina Patterson: Heaven help the white working class now
Saturday, 24 January 2009
We all sneer at the brainless blobs of lard chewing the cud over ‘Jeremy Kyle’
Christina Patterson: Feel good escapism – for those that can escape
Saturday, 17 January 2009
It is hard to celebrate a society that remains so profoundly cruel as that of Mumbai
Christina Patterson: When there's a male crisis, blame the women
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Which is better: to keep society ticking along, or the planet?
Christina Patterson: Never mind wealth, think index-linked pensions
Saturday, 3 January 2009
That world of mediocrity and inefficiency is suddenly attractive
Christina Patterson: Let's raise a glass (but not at a party)
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
New Year's Eve on your own? You're the saddest person in the world
Christina Patterson: Blog and be damned – and thrown into prison
Saturday, 13 December 2008
I thought about how we had nothing much to say, but we said it anyway
Christina Patterson: Nothing is certain except uncertainty
Saturday, 6 December 2008
We contemplate a future in which the pillars of our lives may well be taken from us
Christina Patterson: Poor George. I really do like the man
Saturday, 6 December 2008
When I interviewed Boy George for this paper three months ago, we had a lovely time over a nice cup of tea in a hotel in Newcastle, chatting about diets, clothes, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown.
Christina Patterson: Don't be vague, just go to The Hague
Saturday, 29 November 2008
There is nothing like some music and art and good writing to lift the spirit.
Christina Patterson: You can tell a lot about people by their friends
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Wouldn’t it be nice to return to a time when friends were not just names to be dropped?
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Columnist Comments
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• Rupert Cornwell: Whiff of sleaze in the Windy City
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