Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands enjoyed decade long tenures at the London Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, before becoming the first female editor of the Sunday Telegraph in 2005. Her topical weekly column looks at social and cultural issues.

Sarah Sands: Shopping is a science, and I know the perfect formula

If you should find yourself in the chilly, unspoilt, Cameronesque parts of Oxfordshire this weekend you may be puzzled by the colossal volume of cars and coaches veering off at junction 9 of the A40. Trust me, they are not looking for Blenheim. The faces pressed against the fogged up windows are not admiring the peaceful stone villages and pretty church spires. They ignore the Sunday parachutists and gliders in the sky. They are just passing the time before they see the first signpost to Bicester Village retail outlet. This shopping Eden had no mention in Cameron's happiness index, yet for young women, particularly if Chinese, there is no lovelier place on earth.

Recently by Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands: We are at our best when we think of others

Sunday, 21 November 2010

It was tricky for the Children in Need telethon on Friday to find the right tone. The stars of Saturday night light entertainment were yanked together with the sick and suffering, big X Factor smiles suddenly changing to furrowed brows and hushed voices. The programme was wary of stand-up comics: Jimmy Carr looked trepanned into docility, Frankie Boyle was absent, as he would presumably have felt obliged to make jokes about meningitis. But we were safe and warm with Terry Wogan and Tess Daly.

Sarah Sands: Guilty or not, the BBC is behind the times

Sunday, 14 November 2010

I was not aware of Miriam O'Reilly, the former presenter of Countryfile, until she became a martyr for women over 50. O'Reilly claims that Jay Hunt, the former controller of BBC 1, dumped her because her face could not survive the age of high-definition television. It is perfectly possible, however, that Hunt took against O'Reilly for individual rather than general ageist reasons. Plausibly, it is not that Hunt "hates women", as a fellow female presenter alleged, but that she didn't rate her.

Sarah Sands: 'Downton Abbey' is sloppy tosh. That's why we love it

Sunday, 7 November 2010

What a terrible weekend for the BBC. Not only did strike action take from us the Today programme, Front Row and other middle-class pleasures, but it's been beaten in the field it used to call its own. The most perfect middlebrow drama this year concludes tonight – on ITV.

Sarah Sands: Men are being wrongfooted by the new feminists

Sunday, 31 October 2010

The Time columnist Nancy Gibbs noted last week the taunting, muscular rhetoric coming from female Republican candidates. Christine O'Donnell told her opponent to "get your man pants on" after he raised a constitutional point. Sharron Angle, who campaigns with a .44 Magnum and a pick-up, tells her rivals to "man up". Heroine of the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, accuses President Obama of lacking "cojones" on immigration policy.

Sarah Sands: Zuckerberg is the master of a universe he has invented

Sunday, 24 October 2010

For Mark Zuckerberg, the most irritating aspect of The Social Network was the way in which it cast him as a social reject and misogynist; a student who created his own online club, Facebook, because he was a failure with girls.

Sarah Sands: From Chile, nobility. From Venezuela, a lesson in culture

Sunday, 17 October 2010

A delegation of fine-featured, slightly melancholy men from Chile met me for coffee at the end of the summer. They wanted to encourage tourism but didn't know how to generate publicity. As it turned out, there may have been easier ways, but none as effective. The Chilean miners, like the New York firemen after 9/11, have a beauty of their own.

Sarah Sands: The play's the thing, and the coalition should cherish it

Sunday, 10 October 2010

It is unusual for a new production of Hamlet to be a front-page news story. It is remarkable when the actor playing him is not a film or television star, but a jobbing actor in his early thirties. The critical recognition of Rory Kinnear's Hamlet is about the most cheering thing to happen to the arts since rumours of the scale of the projected cuts took hold.

Sarah Sands: Threadbare is the classiest look of all

Sunday, 3 October 2010

The PM's shabby socks signal his fine lineage

Sarah Sands: First love is best left in the past, unmourned

Sunday, 26 September 2010

Fame creates an aura of association. The name Steve Blacknell means nothing to me and Kate Bush will leave most people under 40 blank but, if we say the first boyfriend of the musical predecessor of Florence Welch, we are in business. Blacknell is selling a teenage love letter from Bush, claiming that he is the subject of her song "The Man with the Child in His Eyes".

Sarah Sands: Shake my hand and give yourself away

Sunday, 12 September 2010

The factors that decide health and longevity are mostly genetically determined. So the medical research last week that recommended a strong handshake got an enthusiastic airing. But are handshakes an expression of physiology or of character?

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