We talk to successful career women. We seek the views of successful career women on life, work, family and everything! This month we talk to Jane Porter, a highly successful family lawyer who runs the family law department at Lester Aldridge. Lester Aldridge LLP is a nationally recognised law firm with offices in London, Bournemouth […]
Wilderness is not a luxury, it is essential for the human spirit. I hardly sleep… “another suitcase, another hall” … it’s a little how this holiday in the canyon lands of Arizona and Utah is feeling. I have been longing for total immersion in the stark, stunning and extraordinary landscape of the desert but my […]
In case you were wondering, should Boris Johnson happen to be out of action for any length of time then it is Victoria Borwick as his statutory deputy who would step in to take charge. Despite the baffling total of seven deputy mayors it is Victoria whom Boris has selected as his first among equals […]
I was on the Herefordshire Bench for 4 years (that’s the bench not a bench!). I was proud to be one of our local JPs and in a privileged position where I might be able to make a small difference to people’s lives in a positive way. Somehow too I saw it as a continuation […]
“If only Hereford had a better cinema,” bemoaned my husband with a heavy heart and not for the first time. Being a Londoner he grew up on takeaway kebabs and going to the cinema whereas for me the first was unheard of and the second such a rare treat that I can remember each and […]
Skin is a wonderful British/South African film made in 2008. It focuses on the huge complexities of being born mixed race to white parents in South Africa during the apartheid era and is based on the true story of Sandra Laing. The fortunes of the main character do not make for happy reading; she is […]
I have spent a bit of time with my parents recently, my dad is needing some hospital care. We had a hospital appointment, sat there waiting, my mum and dad together as ever, my mum anxious, protective and frail yet strong, and my dad stoic and gentle. We see the specialist…my dad has to strip […]
Germaine Greer talks to a packed out Birmingham Literature Festival theatre. I imagine any time spent in the company of Germaine Greer is unpredictable and occasionally frustrating, and this evening at the Birmingham Literature Festival was no exception. I was not of course alone with the great lady – the studio theatre in the library […]
Carolyn Lazarus talks about her appointment to the Herefordshire Bench. There are some things in life that don’t bear thinking about. Consider my application for the post of magistrate on the Herefordshire Bench. My mind had been idle since the birth of my daughter and she was now in full-time education. What could I do […]
Some holiday kindness goes a long way We are at our familiar hotel in the Algarve in Portugal and so far nothing is letting us down, nothing is concerning us…bar, that is, the question of sun loungers and parasols. Do we adopt the German system and place towels in position before breakfast, after breakfast, during […]
I meet Venetia Williams at her beautiful home, which used to belong to her grandparents, just across the River Wye from the village of Hoarwithy, Herefordshire. Parked up outside the house are her Aston Martin, in which she is known locally to pick up pace, and the Jaguar given to her after her magnificent win […]
Carolyn heads into the wild on safari in South Africa “Oh the animals, oh yes we did those in Kenya…” said one of my tennis partners airily in between rallies. Surprising how many people I spoke to before our trip of a lifetime to South Africa had already ‘done’ the animals. Indeed, I was fast […]
From childbirth to menopause: why do women keep quiet about these most profound of life experiences? “Why does no one tell you what it’s like?” exclaimed one of my more literary friends and colleagues in North Oxford one sunny morning. Over instant coffee in odd chipped mugs in my modern square patch of townhouse garden […]
As women – wives, mothers, daughters, partners, grandmothers – we all make choices…what choice did you make? Only now, far away from the stress, anxiety and messy desk, do I feel able even to start writing about this project, this great ambition, this crazy inspiration to join all us like-minded women, us much overlooked energetic […]