'No warning. No time to sort anything. Just the exigent summons: come quickly, because you might be able to help. Come quickly even if you can’t help. Come quickly because one of your own might be there'

Say it out loud. Nay, whisper it low. Because whispering gives the inspired brand name its full comforting resonance. Softenon. The sweet sibilance of it.

It can be surmised, based on Hurricane Charley, that countless island homes will be boarded up or have bright blue roof coverings for months to come.

The rest of the world has opinions, most of them hostile, about everything, but the letter-graffitists, seem opinion-free

A new word, today, for readers to consider. Dementiachondria. A freshly invented noun, describing a condition whereby the sufferer attributes their every ailment to oncoming undiagnosed dementia consequent upon age.

My grandmother described the IRA as ‘our lads’. And yet, at Christmas — as well as the Pope’s urbi et orbi address — she would listen reverently to the queen’s broadcast

US President, perhaps because he’s been in politics for so long, understands the power of a single, carefully staged speech

In his resignation statement, the unfortunate Robert Troy objected to landlords being demonised. In factual terms, this is hairy

Seeing your home through the eyes of others is a delight — but some visitors may have felt let down by my TK Maxx bedspread

We have all but forgotten how polio devastated lives in the 1950s and must heed warnings from New York, London, and the HSE