My son Daniel revels in it, but for me, that daily shower — or rather, the 40-second blast of pure cold water at the end — is something I rather dread. Of course, the discomfort is momentary, and afterwards I feel alert and ready for the day. This is one of ten really simple things, … Read more
Frankie Muniz and wife Paige Price shared the first look at their new bundle of joy. The 35-year-old actor joyously took to Instagram on Saturday to post the first photos of their newborn son, Mauz Mosley Muniz. The couple welcomed their first child on Wednesday and Frankie said he is already ‘1000% obsessed’ with him. Meeting Mauz: … Read more
What is happiness? It’s one of those questions that’s vexed great minds down the ages, including the Peanuts creator, Charles M. Schulz, who famously said: ‘Happiness is a warm puppy.’ I hate to contradict one of my favourite philosophers but, thanks to the World Happiness Report, produced every March by the United Nations Development Network, … Read more
Signs of serious liver problems include tiredness, confusion, itchy skin and, according to the British Liver Trust, ‘writing which becomes difficult, spidery and small’, writes Dr Michael Mosley, pictured Large, the size of a rugby ball, rubbery and reddish-brown in colour, your liver is not a glamorous organ. Yet it quietly gets on with performing … Read more
One of the advantages of being over 60 is that I recently got a Covid jab (AstraZeneca, as it happens). It was all incredibly easy and apart from the brief sting of the injection, I had no side-effects — except cockiness. The morning after my vaccine, feeling bright and cheerful, I went along to the … Read more
Back in 1986 I made a film for the BBC science series Tomorrow’s World about a remarkable new class of drugs called statins. Studies had shown that statins could cut people’s risk of heart disease by lowering their cholesterol levels. It was all very exciting. Thirty-five years on and statins are now one of the … Read more
From Jane Smiley’s fanciful fable to Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding, a period thriller by Michael Farris Smith and Walter Mosley’s latest, this week’s best new fiction By Hephzibah Anderson and Eithne Farry and Anthony Cummins and John Williams Published: 22:01 GMT, 27 February 2021 | Updated: 22:01 GMT, 27 February 2021 The Strays … Read more
When we finally emerge from this lockdown and meet up with friends, don’t be surprised if some of them have gone grey. I don’t mean their faces (though it has been a long winter), but their hair colour, and not simply because they’ve not been able to get their highlights done! We’ve all been under … Read more
As we all know, when it comes to achieving a healthy weight the challenge is not just losing the pounds but keeping them off. Like most people, I struggle with temptation — my particular weakness is chocolate and biscuits, so I have to keep these treats out of the house. I also try to keep … Read more
Tragically, the UK has one of the highest Covid death rates, per capita, of any country in the world (only Belgium and Slovenia are worse). But although the British Government can be criticised for a lot that went wrong, one thing it got absolutely right was the vaccine programme. Just before I sat down to … Read more