Bm@il: Listen up, this is a lesson for life

I HAVE just watched a show on Sky Arts 1, called In Confidence, which consists of one-to-one interviews. The last person I saw grilled was Michael Frayn, which made fascinating viewing, so I made a point of tuning in again.Read

Bm@il: The 12 delays of Christmas, and Natasha, our lucky 13.

HOW’S the Christmas shopping going? Have you dug out the decorations, dusted off the tree, untangled the lights? Maybe the cards are all written? No? Me neither.Read

Bm@il: Corners of foreign fields forever Fisher

YOU may remember my surprise at being recognised for this Gazette column at the Hay Festival in May.Read

Bm@il: After years of going away, the kids have come back

WE HAVE just returned from a couple of weeks in the Mediterranean. Well, it’s the only way to face the winter, isn’t it?Read

Bm@il: Strictly no screaming for six packs on the X Factor, please ladies

I HAVE been disturbed by some strange things lately, on subjects such as baby clothes and men’s chests, so excuse me while I sound off. Having a column is such great therapy.Read

Bm@il: Treats, beats and cough sweets

I’VE recently enjoyed three treats, though each of them has been accompanied by throat lozenges and man-sized tissues, as my cold insists on hanging about.Read

Bm@il: Jimmy Savile fixed it for me to have a cold

JUST back from a few days away and I’m full of cold and cough and feeling fed up. The Fisher nose alone could light up Uxbridge.Read

Bm@il: Child protection is vital but are we going overboard?

I HAD a genuine Victor Meldrew moment when I heard that a school is banning parents from watching their children play sport unless they first pay £26 to undergo a criminal records check.Read

Bm@il: Middle-aged orphanhood feels pretty weird

RECENTLY I’ve been made uncomfortably aware of the cycle of life as most of my parents’ generation shift off this mortal coil.Read

Bm@il: Burgeoning Blair makes me feel all 'auntly'

YOU may remember that several years ago the Gazette agreed to sponsor a boy in Uganda through the charity World Vision.Read

Bm@il: Face-to-face in Nave with eminent scholar

HEARING that Sir Rhodes Boyson had died, at the age of 87, took me back to the days of one-to-one public interviews in Uxbridge, which I’m sure many of you will remember.Read

Bm@il:Have your cake and eat it for breakfast, 'lanch' or 'sapper'

I’VE just read an interesting article about the names people use to describe their eating rituals. Do you have three meals a day? If so, what do you call them?Read

Bm@il: Unlike my lamb, John The Baptist's head ended up on the plate

TODAY, Wednesday, August 29, is the feast day for the beheading of John the Baptist, but I don’t suppose you’ll be celebrating. I certainly won’t.Read

Bm@il: Vain quest for a pint, a poor plughman's - and not a packet for my peanut

WHAT has happened to all the British pubs? If there had been an Olympic challenge for watering holes we’d never have got a Team GB together.Read

Bm@il: Can we divorce the Scots and still love them as I love Dustin Hoffman?

ON AUGUST 8, 1942, following a speech by Mahatma Gandhi, the All India Congress Committee passed a resolution calling for the immediate independence of India from Britain.Read

Bm@il: There's a care plan, Mr Lansley, and it is quite old itself

WHAT do you think about the recent government plans for funding elderly care?Read

Bm@il: Mr F's Olympian huff cannot quench my flame of achievement

IT’S countdown to the Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday, and how I’d love to be there to enjoy the spectacle – all the synchronised leg-kicking and high-wire communal singing, or whatever they’ve got lined up for us in the Olympic stadium.Read

No such thing as the wrong weather: just the wrong country

SO, IS it wellies and woollies this week, or sandals and T-shirts? Forget the climate change debate; I reckon we are the experts on this subject, not the scientists.Read

Chips, chaps and the modern matriarch

IT IS always great to bump into Gazette readers – and I do, a lot ­– but I was particularly amused to hear that Bm@il has become a regular part of one couple’s Friday night ritual.Read

Whichever way you cut it, I'm always ahead in the style stakes

WHENEVER I’m asked to list my hobbies, Mr F always says I should put ‘hair’ at the top of the list.Read

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