Ceri Radford

Congratulations to Barbara Kingsolver for winning the Orange Prize for fiction. And now onwards to a far more illustrious award, the inaugural Book I Would Least Like To Read contest, with a coveted prize of cracked, hollow laughter. So far I have two contenders, courtesy of the Penguin press office.

Cheryl Cole waves goodbye to Ashley (Photo: Getty)

The nation can finally breathe a sigh of relief. No, George Osborne hasn’t found £157 billion quid down the back of the sofa – better than that. Cheryl Cole is divorcing Ashley. Rejoice! No longer will Britain’s favourite singing, blubbing clotheshorse be shackled to a lumbering moron with an (alleged) propensity for shagging secretaries. She will henceforth be free to promote lip gloss and sing mediocre pop, gloriously unhampered by an (allegedly) philandering premiership footballer. It is enough to bring a tear to the eye. Almost.

The breakdown of the Cole marriage does, though, illustrate a truth that should give women pause for thought in this pre-holiday season of bikini anxiety. No matter how perfect you look – how tiny your waist, how fluttery your… Read More

Theresa May is the new home secretary, but beyond that it looks like there will be few women in the Cabinet. Despite the increase in female MPs in this election, in terms of real clout the glittery new politics consists overwhelmingly of men in suits. This is in contrast to Tony Blair’s dusty old cabinet of 1997, which managed to include five women: Margaret Becket, Mo Mowlam, Clare Short, Harriet Harman and Ann Taylor.

Compared to other countries, Britain’s performance in this area is dismal, as this statistic, which was doing the rounds on Twitter before the latest announcement, shows:
Women in European cabinets: Spain 53%, Germany 37%, France 33%, Neth 33%, Italy 27%, Greece 26%, Belgium 23%, Portugal 13%, UK so far 0%
Should we be worried? I find it depressing in an instinctive way that there are so few women in powerful positions, and that the average eight-year-old girl watching… Read More

I love the new portrait of the Queen, by the artist Rupert Alexander. There’s something about the expression in her eyes which makes her appear completely in control and dignified, but not haughty. Without her crown or any of the usual regalia, she actually looks more regal, not less.

What do you think of it?

There are many layers of outrageous stupidity in the story of the British family who went to America and allegedly refused to be served by a black waiter, prompting a court case. For starters, you would have thought that if they were  such scrupulous racists, they would have avoided travelling to a place where a black person has the temerity to not just serve up gin and tonics but actually, you know, run the whole country. Then there is the craven stupidity of the hotel in allegedly complying with such mad, spiteful, paleolithic demands. My favourite bit of eye-popping idiocy, however, is the request that they should not be served by people with “foreign accents”.

They’re Britons.  In America. A foreign country. What did they expect?

Iceland’s volcano has been held up as many things – a symbol of man’s impotence in the face of nature, a test case for demonstrating that individual rescue efforts trump the big state. And instead of just sitting there spewing lava into the sky, as volcanoes are wont, apparently it’s causing adultery, too.

The fiery, passionate, adultery-inducing volcano (Photo: EPA)

Never one to pass up a PR opportunity, Illicit Encounters, the dating company for married people who want to have affairs, claims that demand for its services has spiked because bored stranded people are turning to adulterous sex to pass the time. Hmm. This seems implausible for a number of reasons, not least because if you are trying to figure out how to get home by bus, train, taxi and dug-out canoe, the last… Read More

If you’ve not yet encountered Debate2010, Telegraph.co.uk’s shiny new discussion forum, I’d recommend taking a look. At present, debate is raging on everything from how to encourage children to think for themselves to whether James Delingpole should be immediately deified.

I’ve released my own question into the wild – ‘You’re the new Prime Minister. What will you do with your first year in power?’ – and you can post your ideas or comment/vote on the existing ones by following the link.

Wedding planning doesn’t have much to recommend it – the endless tedious spreadsheets, the minefield of who to invite and who not to invite, the sappy features in Brides magazine about mad women who hand-weave their own invites from the rare fibres of Laotian silk worms. Then just as I was getting to the fun bit – a weekend with all my family, visiting my fiance’s family in France, where we’re getting married, to taste our menu and lots of local wine – what happens? Boom! That’s what.

Eyjafjallajokull: annoying, yet spectacular (Photo: AP)

I suppose I should be grateful that it’s a volcanic eruption that caused the cancellation of all our flights, and not something crushingly mundane, like fog, or snow on the runway, or striking baggage handlers. Eyjafjallajökull is at least more photogenic… Read More

“It should about what you achieve, not about being glam and pretty,” says Bridget Phillipson, a Labour candidate. Hear, hear.

Labour hopefuls: Luciana Berger, Rachel Reeves, Lucy Powell, Maryam Khan, Emilie Oldknow and Bridget Phillipson (Photo: Grazia magazine)

“We need to keep plugging the message: I’m around for policy, and that’s all,” says Dr Michelle Tempest, a Tory hopeful. Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. The label “Cameron’s cuties” is cringy beyond belief: like “Blair’s babes” it is a patronising and infantile way of portraying women in politics.

Just one problem with the pronouncements from this election’s female candidates, though. If you want to make the very valid point that women should be judged by what they do and not how they look, I’m not… Read More