Bestselling author of Lace and Superwoman turned her attention to helping people overcome anxiety about maths Shirley Conran, the author of Lace and Superwoman, has died aged 91, her son the designer Jasper Conran has announced. The bestselling “queen of the bonkbuster” was also the founder of the Maths Anxiety Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to help people who experience anxiety or fear when faced with maths problems. Last week Conran was awarded a damehood in her bed in Charing Cross hospital in London for her services to mathematics education ..read more

Our national style is ‘not too polished’, apparently, and ‘a little bit undone’. Can we be a bit more specific? Chioma Nnadi, who has taken over at British Vogue, says she has settled back in seamlessly after 20 years out of the UK. “I realised just how much growing up in London shaped me,” she told a Vogue Club podcast. “I’ve been talking a lot with my friends about this idea of British girl energy; it’s just an irreverence, kind of a cheekiness, it’s not too polished, and it’s a little bit undone …” British girl energy, eh? I love this: time for us to claim our own style identity, like the F ..read more

A bloodstain here, a wonky seam there: it had its flaws, but so do I. And I’m absolutely fine with that They say it’s unlucky to make your own wedding dress. They say the same about receiving knives as gifts, brides wearing pearls or getting married on a Saturday. So much of wedding culture is built on fear. But wearing my homemade wedding dress was a moment of courage. I was underqualified to make it. I hadn’t sewn together a proper piece of clothing since my GCSE textiles classes. But I knew the basic concepts, I could read a pattern and I can be very stubborn. In the end, I decided to go ah ..read more

Manahel al-Otaibi, who promoted female empowerment on social media, was arrested under anti-terror laws A young women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia was secretly sentenced to 11 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court after being arrested for “her choice of clothing and support for women’s rights”. Saudi officials confirmed in a statement to the United Nations high commissioner for human rights that Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced on 9 January for what the Saudi government called “terrorist offences ..read more

Farrow & Ball colours and namesPatriarchy chickenCaroline Lucas giving up politicsEarly Christmas emails Emma Beddington’s article amused me (Let’s hear it for the true geniuses: the people who name paints, 22 April). My late husband, the decorative painter John Sutcliffe, who died in September 2022, collaborated very closely with Farrow & Ball to help mix the first batch of colours. He also researched and created the names for which the company became so famous, starting the trend that we all know. John even had one of the colours named after him, Sutcliffe Green, No 78, which just ha ..read more

Rates are improving in the US as healthcare organizations take steps to confront the continuing crisis. Still, new mothers often feel alone: ‘People don’t know what to do’ After five months of maternity leave with her second baby, a daughter born on 26 March 2020, Pam Lins felt she was ready to return to work and start a new role. This was the first year of the pandemic, so she had to work remotely while simultaneously raising her newborn and a toddler. Six weeks into her leadership position – about eight months postpartum – she finally admitted something was wrong ..read more

An open marriage, dating sites, sex with strangers – now the writer’s fearsomely frank and funny memoir about the joys of polyamory has become an instant bestseller Molly Roden Winter wasn’t planning an extramarital affair. Certainly not a string of sexual encounters with multiple partners, each liaison now intricately catalogued in the public domain. When she stormed out of her Brooklyn home one evening in 2008 – kids crashed out upstairs, husband barely through the front door – it was space, not sex, she desperately craved. “The night this all started,” she tells me, “my husband, Stew, had w ..read more

Marina Hyde with her take on Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s surreal US presidential bid (1m23s); Emine Saner meets the sociopath who learned to behave – and found happiness (8m05s); why Gen Z has fallen in love with Sex and the City (24m45s); and do our political opponents really hate us? (29m54s ..read more

The Arizona governor, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, called for an Arizona supreme court ruling to be repealed that permits enforcement of an 1864 law banning almost all abortions. Speaking at a press conference the governor said: 'The near total civil war-era ban that continues to hang over our heads only serves to create more chaos for women and doctors in our state.' First passed when Arizona was still a territory, the ban only permits abortions to save a patient’s life and does not make exceptions for rape or incest Arizona supreme court upholds 1864 law banning almost all abortions ..read more

Got a beauty dilemma? Our expert is here to offer advice. This week, Zoe needs help with thinning hair Hair loss is such a sensitive subject. If it’s a problem that started for no apparent reason, your GP should be your first port of call, and you may be referred to a dermatologist for tests. You can also see a hair loss specialist (a trichologist) privately, too. The first step is pinpointing any obvious causes, often through blood tests. “There are many possible causes of hair loss,” says Anabel Kingsley, trichologist at Philip Kingsley. “These include anything from hormonal changes and gene ..read more