Last week, I was on holiday. In France. And there, on the shelves of the local supermarket, I eagerly looked out for my favourite evening drink. No, not pastis, but one of the extensive range of herbal infusions that grace […]

“Come again, this time in plain English?” said my poor baffled client. The biz-speak had escaped my lips before I’d even realised. You operate in a commoditised market place, I’d said. He hadn’t taken offence. For comprehension precedes offence-taking, and […]

Just last week, I almost paid full price for a book – The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Now I never pay full price for a book. It’s not that I think authors aren’t worth it. They are. […]

In between videos of gangsta rap, X-Factor also-rans and teenage popstrels, my in-house gym TV channel is running ads for the new BMW Series 1. Let’s pull up for a moment. Why do you buy the car you do? Probably […]

The man who broke the news was chubby, red-faced and very short-sighted. And therein lay the first clue. Not so much wearing his heart on his sleeve as wearing his wares on the bridge of his nose. An optician, then. […]