The Independent - Sarah Sands RSS Feed

Sarah Sands: Why it takes a mother to make the male of the species blush

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The New York racketeering trial of John "Junior" Gotti, son of the late mafia boss, so far suggests a man who knows his own mind. Gotti is accused of gutting a man in a Queen's bar fight. A witness who talked to the cops was found hanging from a low tree. Eighteen jurors in this trial have made last-minute appeals to be dismissed. Charges include extortion, kidnapping, robbery and shootings.

Sarah Sands: Why I check the stationery cupboard for lovers

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A photograph in the Times business section of a tense and purposeful chief executive of an insurance company, framed by his office view of the City, suggests a motivational piece about coming through the recession leaner but more competitive, etc. But it turns out to be a report of an affair between Andrew Moss, the married chief executive of Aviva, and a member of his human resources department, Ms Deidre Moffat, now known as Deidre Galvin. What complicates matters further is that Ms Moffat's husband is the head of HR for Aviva in Europe.

Sarah Sands: It can't be true – it was in the newspaper

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Which of the following stories sounds true to you? Lily Cole claims to be able to move chairs through mental will power. Kate Perry sucked Russell Brand's face off. Pixie Geldof puts sweets into her bra.

Sarah Sands: More email kisses would oil the wheels at work x x x

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A friend of mine, a clever, civilised man, once worked as a private banker to Fred Goodwin, during his reign of madness at Royal Bank of Scotland. My friend's field was not actually customer relationships, but Goodwin insisted that he would deal only with the most senior person in the bank where my friend worked.

Sarah Sands: Parakeets have turned Richmond into Rio

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

During a birdwatching lull, after each of us had borrowed the best-looking tripod for a closer look at some marsh herons, the subject turned to the explosive issue of the ruddy duck. Being among friends, some of the company confessed that they were shooting the ducks on the quiet. Although they were introduced into this country during the 1950s, the ruddy ducks never really assimilated. They just bred and bred and made themselves a nuisance. No one used the expression "River Tiber foaming with much blood" but the tension in the twitching community was evident.

Sarah Sands: What a chap wants in bed – TV and a sarnie

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Stereotypically, the female areas of a house are the kitchen and the bedroom. Mail order brides are advised that they will need to perform in both. The male areas of the home are the downstairs lavatory and the garden shed.

Sarah Sands: Let us hope the Baroness pays her housekeeper well

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The most enjoyable sin to unmask in public figures is hypocrisy and the Daily Mail's discovery that the Attorney General had broken the very immigration law that she introduced has revived an 18th-century spirit of revelry in the media. The wit of Dr Samuel Johnson echoes still: "Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels but they live like men."

Sarah Sands: Skip the hanky-panky and you just might score

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

George Best used to tell the story of the night porter who brought a bottle of champagne to his hotel room shortly after he had walked out on Manchester United. The football star lay sprawled on a bed with casino winnings and a Miss World. "Would you mind if I asked you a question, George? Where did it all go wrong?"

Sarah Sands: Death in Hollywood: Cleopatra hunched in a wheelchair

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It is both shocking and poig-nantly apt that Dame Elizabeth Taylor was kept waiting for nearly two hours among empty chairs for Michael Jackson's funeral to begin. It is shocking because she is one of the last links with old Hollywood.

Sarah Sands: It's better to be a young mum – and cheaper, too

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The premise of Francis Wheen's new account of the Seventies, Strange Days Indeed, is that recent history can seem remarkably distant. It was pre- mobile phones, pre-Tony Blair and early Germaine Greer. Given the timescale, it is not surprising that we have lurched rather than marched towards social progress, particularly in the field of human relations.

Sarah Sands: Reasons to be cheerful – we're stoical, inventive and we cope in the rain

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

You must have noticed how juicy and abundant the blackberries are this year? Apparently, summer conditions have been just right: mild, sunshine and showers. It may not have been a barbecue summer, but it has not been a wash out. Some days have been glorious. And even in late August the grass is still green rather than pale and parched.

Sarah Sands: Biggs is the darling of Fleet Street. When he goes, it goes

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The clue to a person's age is not hands so much as precious cultural references. The outstanding age indicator of these past days has been the media coverage of Ronnie Biggs. The name means little if you are under 40. Yet the front pages of most newspapers carried heartfelt coverage of the villain's final release from prison on the 46th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery.

Sarah Sands: Jude must learn the first Law of affairs

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The appeal to Jude Law of playing Hamlet must have been the absence of vulgarity. In the darkness of the auditorium he would be treated as a theatre actor rather than a soap opera. And, indeed, his performance was textbook perfect – a little cautiously so. I noticed he had a graceful athleticism about him, but put that to the back of my mind.

Sarah Sands: For the war poets 'de nos jours', look no further than the City

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A topic at literary festivals and book launches is: where are our war poets? Maybe our writers have been captivated by an even larger story. The reason the Ministry of Defence cannot send more helicopters to Afghanistan is that it is flat broke, like every other department.

Sarah Sands: It's showbiz, Arlene, not a human rights crusade

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The sacking of the 66-year-old Arlene Phillips as a Strictly Come Dancing judge is described as "absolutely shocking" by the Equalities Minister Harriet Harman, who has been much more sanguine in her assessment of the benefits of the war in Afghanistan. These are the priorities of our age.

Sarah Sands: A world without men? Easy. But if there were no women, what then?

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The existence of men in the future becomes a matter of grace if it is true that sperm can one day be manufactured in laboratories. Women have been mildly assessing their men since last week's scientific breakthrough, weighing up the non-biological advantages of keeping them on.

Sarah Sands: Passion, drama, agony: a British institution in the making

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

On Friday evening, even as Scotland's latest most famous son saw his dreams dissolve at Wimbledon, the country's adopted daughter played out hers at Leicester Square.

Sarah Sands: Will old goat be on the menu at Berlusconi's summit?

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A petition by Italian women academics that calls on wives of G8 leaders to boycott the forthcoming summit in Italy as a protest against the behaviour of President Berlusconi is gaining signatures. The main topic on the agenda of the L'Aquila summit in July is the stabilisation of Afghanistan, but the chief subject of conversation is likely to be the heroically/disgracefully goatish behaviour of Silvio Berlusconi.

Sarah Sands: Revered, powerful, serious - so thrillingly ripe for ridicule

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A criticism made of Sacha Baron Cohen is that he picks easy targets. It is not hard to portray American rednecks or Austrians in an unflattering light, although it is fiendishly difficult to create characters of comic genius, such as Ali G and Bruno.

Sarah Sands: To run a store, it helps to break the bank first

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The late Lord Rothermere, Vere Harmsworth, was patient towards the misdemeanours of his journalists, explaining that if a canary fell off its perch then it must be tenderly put back. The most dangerous person in any office, he said, was the one who had never made a mistake.

Sarah Sands: A two-minute video is all the truth I need

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The publisher Caroline Michel explained the new business model to me over lunch last week. The important thing to grasp was that a book was no longer the starting point. These days the deal could begin with something as instant as a video clip. The video clip could lead to a book. The book could lead to a film.

Sarah Sands: When the going gets tough, the cheap get going

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

As thousands sweated over their university final exams last week, a grim employment survey suggested that openings for graduates were drying up. The bequest from parents is a generation of debt, an ocean full of plastic bags and empty of fish, a political establishment in a state of collapse. And Susan Boyle.

Sarah Sands: Michelle's front-page power is all in her warmth

Sat, 23 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Magazines sell on the immediate appeal of their covers. If you were choosing a significant figure this week, you might consider Steven Chu, the US energy secretary. Then quickly pass over his photograph.

Sarah Sands: Farrah Fawcett excels in her role of a lifetime

Sat, 16 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A popular current YouTube home video is of a chubby girl singing "Nobody's Perfect" in her bedroom while keeping an anxious eye out for her mother coming up the stairs. The appeal of the video lies in the irony that a million viewers are privy to the girl's secret life, while her mother is not.

Sarah Sands: Lumley for president? I'd keep the Queen

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A high-end argument for the monarchy is that the elected alternative would be worse. The Queen or... Simon Cowell. There is no one apart from the Queen who could unite the country, be a symbol of all our history and values, rise above petty politics in favour of duty and honour, the argument goes.