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/ 2 August 2004

A broad abroad

At a talk I gave about my travels, the male organiser pinned a map of the world on the wall behind me, and handed me a pen. He asked me to trace a line to demonstrate where I had travelled for the benefit of the audience. I made a dot. I hadn’t really travelled anywhere, not in that sense. In the past, women travelled to lose themselves, while men preferred to climb and conquer.

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/ 6 February 2004

Taking the piste

"I’d never been skiing. I’d tried ice-skating once, but spent the whole horrible half-hour clinging to the bar at the side of the rink, my ankles shaking either through feebleness, fear or both. So when I was told that even I could learn to cross-country ski in three days, I was sceptical." There’s more to skiing than plunging down snow-covered slopes, as Dea Birkett found out.

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/ 19 July 2002

The instant mums club

Once, in the heyday of Hollywood, the evidence of screen success was a soft-top pink Cadillac. Now it is a far smaller — and not necessarily pink — bundle of joy that, like the oversized car, can be easily purchased and driven straight back to the Los Angeles mansion: an adopted baby.