Culture

Name: Nick FowlerAge: 60Electrical engineer turned personal trainerI was a severe asthmatic to start with. Living in Darwin every time the season changed, I ended up in hospital. They said I had to start swimming to build my chest...

Dramatic before and after pictures, promises to “lose 3x more weight” and motivational quizzes are fairly common sights around this time of year. But seeing them from a government-funded scientific research agency is a little more unusual.From the outside,...

Something was missing from Elizabeth Black’s car.In July, she and her husband had sold their house in Seattle and packed up all of their belongings, which the movers would bring to Boston. The couple decided to drive there, and...

I am a divorced woman in her 60s who has recently dated a couple of men in their 40s. I have always looked young and my ex-husband is much younger than me. I have never thought much about it,...

See Amsterdam’s Canal district as never beforeStarting from their artisanal chocolate shop in the De Wallen red light district, husband-and-wife team Ian and Salomé have devised a tour of Amsterdam that, right now, shows its canals quieter than...

Will future generations look at the interior design of the early 21st century in appreciation? Possibly not. We do not appear to have crafted many design classics, unless slab-like corner sofas in mud-grey velvet are Eames chairs in the...

A friend and I took my blue and white-striped umbrella to Noosa beach the other day. I was a bit dismayed. From the path above the beach we surveyed the scene. Perhaps, I thought, we had fallen through the...

Can cleavage ever be a plot device? The 18th-century Russian court, as visualised in The Great, a bonkers new satire from Hulu and Channel 4, is a hotbed of moral iniquity, vodka and bears. But, like most costume dramas,...

Years ago, somebody gave me their recipe for batter, in two ways. One as a long, chatty ramble as she stood making it, then later jotted down on a square of paper – whisk 200g flour, 300ml water, two...

Traditionally, January is a time of reining it in; of attempting to atone for a month of near-constant consumption by suddenly deciding that you want to be Gwyneth Paltrow. Putting a pause on the booze is a very simple...