Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands enjoyed decade long tenures at the London Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, before becoming the first female editor of the Sunday Telegraph in 2005. Her topical weekly column looks at social and cultural issues.

Sarah Sands: Take it from an usherette: kissing's what the back row is for

Those of us in the film world take seriously our responsibility for the moral health of the nation. As an usherette at the Swiss Cottage Odeon, I used to shine my torch with Stasi severity at the shadows of the back row.

Recently by Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands: We have blemishes. The famous have signature moles

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Oliver Cromwell instructed his portrait painter, "Warts and all." But then he was never subjected to the same level of facial scrutiny as Sarah Jessica Parker. The removal of a mole from the actress's chin has provoked internet concern. The website Sarah Jessica Parker Looks Like a Horse, which monitors her appearance carefully, was on to it fast.

Sarah Sands: Heathcliff is at his best when the wind is howling

Sunday, 13 July 2008

It has been my persistent belief, backed by empirical evidence, that Gordon Brown is responsible for the wild, wet weather we have been experiencing since he came to power. Last week, he more or less admitted that he is the storm incarnate; for he is Heathcliff.

Sarah Sands: Another Wimbledon, another year of ill-suppressed sexism

Sunday, 6 July 2008

On a hot Friday afternoon, I watched the men's semi-finals at Wimbledon. Marat Safin swerved from sublime confidence to Chekhovian despair in the match against Roger Federer.

Sarah Sands: Only one man can reduce film stars to babbling schoolgirls

Sunday, 29 June 2008

Here we are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the parties have never been better. The guest lists look a little topsy-turvy; the most photographed lovelies at the Tatler party were David Hockney and the "reclusive" socialite Lucian Freud. At the Financial Times party in Kensington Palace Gardens, Alistair Darling mingled with female performers dressed as flamingos on pink stilts.

Sarah Sands: Naked cycling is a pain, and not just in the backside

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Turning into Park Lane on my push bike last weekend, I wondered at the emptiness of the road. Not for long. Over the horizon came an army of naked cyclists. As they bore down on me, they waved like comrades in arms and shouted at me to get my kit off. I smiled back wanly, feeling like V S Naipaul towards his fellow Trinidadians. I may cycle, but being a cyclist is not the core to my identity. I feel just as much at home with non-cyclists.

Sarah Sands: Liars are thrilling on the stage, but there's no room for them in real life

Sunday, 15 June 2008

There are many kinds of lies – and Kant rejected them all, even if done to protect others or to bring about a worthy end. A background of deception creates a world without trust

Sarah Sands: Reality television makes Marxists of us all

Sunday, 8 June 2008

The case for Lucinda Ledgerwood making the finals of The Apprentice was that she was capable and confident. The case against was that she broke the first commandment of reality television: she was not pleading for the job, body and soul. Lucinda believed that she would be good at it and wanted to have a crack at it. That's all.

Sarah Sands: It's a great plot: two novelists under one roof

Sunday, 1 June 2008

When writers live together there's a race to plunder the family archive for ideas

Sarah Sands: Say 'I do' to 'Hello!' and the real VIPs will walk

Sunday, 25 May 2008

If Hello! magazine were a person, she would be a socially anxious woman of a certain age, played by Maggie Smith. An invitation to a royal wedding would fill her with joy and terror. Then imagine the mortification of being told that her presence had lowered the tone and that it was an error of judgement to have put her on the guest list. And this despite her personal donation of £500,000. This has always been the relationship between the aristocracy and money. You only have to read Trollope. It has just been blurred by the new financial ruling class. The Royal Family's approach to Peter Phillips's wedding was typically amateur. If they had thought about it, they could have got large-scale motor racing sponsorship.

Sarah Sands: There's more to man boobs than meets the eye

Sunday, 18 May 2008

Three High Court judges debating the sexual allure of man boobs is the stuff of music hall. The Court of Appeal has just overturned the conviction of a homosexual care worker who filmed another man at a swimming pool. He could not have been found guilty of voyeurism under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act, because the male chest is not accorded the same privacy as female breasts.

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