It's very hard to imagine the phrase 'consumer society' used so cheerfully, and interpreted so enthusiastically, in England.

Lots of women love to accuse men of being immature when the fellow in question displays a reluctance to 'commit.'

Most women are wise to the fact that lots of men love a cat-fight, and thus go out of their way not to give them one.

My dad didn't drive - the only dad I knew who didn't.

One Christmas build-up tradition, however, has totally bypassed me - that of going up to town and 'doing a show.'

People - and I include myself - get fat because they choose pleasure over self-denial.

People often yearn back to more innocent times, but more and more, as I get older, I find myself hankering after more jaded days.

Rachel Cusk's books are like pop-up volumes for grown-ups, the prose springing out of the page to bop you neatly between the eyes with its insights.

Shame, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.

Show me a frigid women and, nine times out of ten, I'll show you a little man.

Some say that Cusk has no sense of humour, but expecting giggles from this writer would be akin to expecting sonnets from Benny Hill.

Surely being a Professional Beauty - let alone an ageing one - is one of the most insecure and doomed careers imaginable.

The Feminist Me says that a woman's right to her own body should be inviolate at all times, free from fear of peeping paps.

The latest twist on the pampering concept is spa parties, where a group of friends take over an entire spa.

The secret is not to care what anyone thinks of you.

There are exciting, intelligent, fat people - and exciting, intelligent, thin people.

What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?

When a man wants to relax, he will slob out and really relax. Or he will pursue a hobby - anything from building models to watching sport.

When actresses jump on the anti-Iraq bandwagon, they often combine down-home momism with an ignorance of Islamist intent which is truly awesome.

When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio?