18 December 1998

Don't slip on the media's banana skins

By Umberto Eco

Umberto Ecoargues that society is ill: the press is full of gossip, and only the rich want privacy

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The giving age has been postponed

By Geoffrey Lean

Geoffrey Lean reveals a shocking and precipitous fall in aid from rich countries to the world's poor

The new political dictionary

By Nick Cohen

Nick Cohen on words that mean just what you want them to mean

Perfect for a nation of gripers

By David Lawday

David Lawday fears that extremists will always flourish in France

How to grow a better class of carrot

By Leanda de Lisle

Organic food costs too much. Leanda de Lisle proposes a return to the rotating crops of our ancestors

I take thee, in a lawful relationship

By Penny Mansfield

Marriage means better health, more money, more sex. But we still need some alternatives, argues Penny Mansfield

A city lost to the forces of darkness

By William Dalrymple

Indian independence and partition destroyed the city of Lucknow and its Hindu-Muslim culture. William Dalrymplemourns the passing of a civilisation

Unite against the tyranny of toys!

By Ziauddin Sardar

Ziauddin Sardar implores parents to resist demands for Sindies and Barbies and to give their children empty cardboard boxes instead

What they want for 1999

By Catherine Webb

Politicians, novelists, broadcasters and historians confided their hopes for the last year of the millennium to Catherine Webb

Watch out when you go back home

By Oliver James

R D Laing was right: family Christmases can drive us mad, argues Oliver James

Would you believe it?

By Peter Stanford

Thumping good stories are part of the Christian church's success, but Peter Stanfordthinks it is time to distinguish fact from fiction

A dysfunctional family feast

By Henry Sutton

Christmas today, writes Henry Sutton, means having to say you're sorry to your step-parents, stepchildren, step-siblings and your parents' significant others . . .

On Christmas night, a baby cried

By Liz Hunt

Liz Hunt explains why, when asked if she believes in ghosts, she says "maybe"

Now, boys, that's not very nice

By Caroline Daniel

The left believes in altruism, equality, community and all-round cuddliness. Caroline Danielfinds new Labour a bit short on these qualities

The KGB interrogated my turkey

By John Kampfner

John Kampfnerrecalls 25 December 1991 in Moscow - the day Gorbachev resigned

Where do all the women go?

By Anthony Browne

Look around the streets and you will see that the homeless are almost exclusively male. Anthony Brownefinds out why

From North to South - an air that kills

By David Nicholson-Lord

What is the price of an air-conditioned car? A few drowned Bangladeshis

A very English affair

By Andrew Stephen

The sacking of the organist at Westminster Abbey offers a glimpse of the closed ranks and snobbery that still rule our Establishment

The brightness and the glory

By Stephen Smith

A 154-foot tower, a chandelier weighing 300 kilos. Stephen Smithgains entry to the Mormon temple in Chorley, with its wedding chamber and celestial room

Diary

I felt a slight shock to learn that a model electric chair is now on sale in America as a children's toy

By Bruce Kent

This has been a year of noisy neighbours, nosy neighbours and dirty herberts

By Mary Riddell

On television, on billboards, in poetry, at dinner parties and even on the Tube - sex is everywhere

By Cristina Odone

At Xmas, my mother, usually so sad, burst into song

By Darcus Howe

It's that time of year when little messages reveal just how important you are (or aren't)

By Sean French

This England

Media

Thanks to a Sun goal, it's 2-1 against EMU.. over to Ally in Vienna

By Ian Hargreaves

Media

I don't want to moan or anything, but where are all my Christmas cards?

By Laurie Taylor

Competition - Win a bottle of champagne