Amidst family illness and financially keeping my head above water, I often forget about the simple pleasures of life like smelling a rose, stopping to admire the smoky London sky-line, or having a giggle with a friend over a coffee. An acting teacher once suggested observing children at play: how they remind us as adults to embrace the moment, and give total commitment to the task at hand. I think Susie Steiner's article from The Guardian beautifully pinpoints these basic truths READ MORE

Our annual January 'urge to purge' following the holiday excesses has thrown up some shocking statistics: that twenty years ago female models weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today she weighs 23% less.

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Actors can find adopting the mask of a character a welcome escape from their own lives. But for Pandora Clifford — actress and mother — there was no hiding place portraying the dignified and strong mother in a new stage version of The Railway Children. She tells how it forced her to challenge her own ideas of motherhood.

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Increasing numbers of young people are using prescription 'smart' drugs like Provigil (modafinil) to boost alertness, memory and brain power, say experts. The long-term effects are unknown and they are available to anyone with a debit card via the internet 

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OK, I get it now! The hookah bubbling away is just a more fruity form of smoking tobacco. But is the shisha tobacco — flavoured with fruit and the smoke filtered through water — a similar health risk or in fact far more dangerous?

Shisha cafés have always struck me as the Arab equivalent of ye olde English pub of yore, minus the beer-stained carpet.

The pubs I have occasionally used — usually for a quick dash to the loo — are bastions of maleness suggesting a bygone era. But I have never dared enter those exotic all-male shisha emporiums. Although I've enjoyed the fruity wafts of smoke as I walk by.

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