Tom Utley

Haven't we always been taught that doing crosswords is an excellent way of exercising the brain as we age, keeping it sharp and staving off dementia?

On the advice of my financial planners, this week I joined the stampede to grab a tax-free lump sum from my pension pot before next month's Budget , which so many of us dread.

During my misspent youth there were more occasions than I care to remember when I would stagger to work in the morning with the mother and father of all hangovers.

Explaining why she thought Cambridge had become a more intelligent university since she and I were there in the 1970s, the celebrity classicist Dame Mary Beard came out with a remark...

My first thought when I read that a foreign businessman and his wife are seeking a £180,000-a-year tutor to turn their son into an 'English gentleman' was: 'Wow! Nice work if you can get it!'

First, a trigger warning to readers who share my profound squeamishness where certain bodily functions are concerned: what follows will reference the bowel habits of our mongrel Minnie.

Amid the fevered speculation over the nightmare Rachel Reeves has in store for us all in her Budget later this month, you can bet your shirt on one tax rise that is all but a certainty.

There was a time last year when we had to be double quick to pick up any parcels left on our doorsteps by delivery drivers.

These are words I never thought I'd write, but I felt a pang of sympathy for Peter Mandelson when it was confirmed he could face a £300 fine after he was caught relieving himself in the street.

Someone asked me the other day to name the proudest achievements of my 50-year career in journalism. I found it a hard one to answer.