Max Hardy

Tuesday

Max Hardy

You’re never too old for a party

From our UK edition

Prudes may insist otherwise, but parties in your 20s are about one thing: sex. If you come with someone you are going home with them; if you meet someone you hope you are going home with them. For a decade or so, parties are full of promise, purpose and possibility. Parties provide essential external stimulus to married couples Then comes marriage, middle age and children. Parties start to mean something else. The first is money. A quick cocktail party is £60 at least in babysitting. The next thing they mean is negotiation with your spouse. Rare is the party that delights both husband and wife. There are parties of obligation: birthdays of family members, christenings and weddings. There are parties of professional preferment and dreaded networking dinners.

Thursday

Max Hardy

Spare parents from overbearing school apps

From our UK edition

I was educated in the 1990s, first at a country prep school and then at Eton, and have a clear memory of how my schools communicated with my parents. Basically, they didn’t. They received a letter before the start of each term and some written reports at the end and that was it. If Eton sent your parents a letter in the middle of term it almost certainly meant you had suffered a mortal injury or been expelled. What Eton did do was publish a small pale-green pocket almanac called Fixtures which listed every sporting match in the calendar but also contained essential information such as the courtesy titles of any sons of dukes at the school and the colours of the 4th XV.