Catherine Deveney: In successful parenting, genetics is no surrogate for good relationships
For months before my third child was born, my son, then five, was adamant about his preferences.
Columnists
Ron Ferguson: ‘The kind of people who drive me nuts are crazed optimists who insist that if we believe harder we will ward off reality’
Twenty or so years ago, journalist and leading broadcaster Sheena McDonald had it all, so it seemed.
Chris Deerin: Never mind the horrors of ‘no deal’ when there is three for two on dried noodles to be had
It was two months ago that my life changed for the better. I’d dropped a daughter off at her new Saturday club and decided, with no real optimism, to explore the industrial estate where I was bound to spend the next hour.
Alex Bell: We need clarity about life after a Yes vote for independence – and the process itself
The SNP is best understood as the IRP – the Independence Referendum Party. It exists to create the ideal circumstances for a vote on Indy.
Dr Katarina Trimmings: UK surrogacy laws are far from kids’ stuff
What do Elton John, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kim Kardashian have in common aside from being well-known names if you are a follower or fan of celebrity culture?
David Ross: Highlands benefit from top flight football
This month saw an important Highland anniversary.
Lindsay Razaq: We risk paying a very high price once we stop valuing our traditional news media
My uncle sits at the kitchen table, his newspaper spread out in front of him.
David Knight: Eat enough of the bad stuff and you can stop worrying about managing the apples and pears
I perfected the art of walking downstairs backwards while enjoying a flying visit to catch up with relatives in Birmingham.
James Bream: Falling back in love will take more than a minor facelift when it comes to Union Street
There is one thing most Aberdonians will all agree on. We all agree that Union Street is frankly a bit sad.
The Flying Pigs: Star-struck in the cinema as Gandalf picks me up for pinching his popcorn
Shelley Shingles, Showbiz correspondent and Miss Fetteresso 1983
Dr Miles Mack: Taking great pains is vital in best helping those with chronic conditions
For the last few days I have been somewhat grumpy.
Catherine Deveney: Addressing homelessness needs a change of heart as much as a change of policy
The girl’s face, I remember, seemed blanched and was framed with straggling waves of dark hair. She was young but her pale skin had the grey pallor of sickliness, her hooded eyes surrounded by dark circles.
James Millar: The maths looks bad for Boris – but even worse for everyone else
With Boris Johnson taking the reins in Downing Street my daughter moved on to the fourth Prime Minister of her lifetime.
Iain Maciver: We will always look for the Skye light that could be at the end of the tunnel
Sometimes I see stories in certain newspapers and I think that’s a daft one they had left over from the beginning of April.
James Johnston: There are no winners in this new world order
We sometimes remember a thing for what we might wish it to be and not what something actually is.
Lindsay Razaq: Low spirits in the high street risk eroding community and fuelling prejudice
I bustle through my grandparents’ front door, shopping bags in tow.
Susan Brown: Selfishness makes it easier to attend dreaded medical appointments than make simple changes to benefit all
Being a woman of a certain age, I get the regular letters the NHS sends, dropping through my letterbox, encouraging me to be screened for this, that or the next thing.
Ben Dolphin: Feasting on the Cairngorms with fresh eyes
“It smells so clean!” he said excitedly.
Bishop Anne Dyer: Don’t blame God for the “biblical” weather – we created this crisis all by ourselves
In the last few weeks there have been incidences of extreme weather across the UK.
Catherine Deveney: In modern America, Liberty’s light shivers precariously in the darkness.
The original copper of the Statue of Liberty is famously green now, tarnished with the vagaries of time, but the lamp of Libertas, of welcome, still supposedly gleaming and lifted to the world.
Daniel O’Donoghue: Will the Union survive Boris Johnson’s ‘do or die’ Brexit?
The UK will be leaving the EU on Halloween "whatever the circumstances, no ifs or buts", was the message from the prime minister’s official spokesman on Monday morning.
Iain Maciver: The best things come to those who wait – the rest are welcome to drink synthetic Scotch
All I did was tell people to take a little time out of their busy lives to fill in a form and they may get some cash back from their bank if they were oversold PPI. That’s all I wrote here last week.
Campbell Gunn: What we eat has caused the gull problem – could it be a radical solution too?
I have a friend of an ornithological bent whose feathers are ruffled at the mention of seagulls.
Lindsay Razaq: Happy or sad, by savouring all life’s moments we keep ourselves grounded
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
David Knight: Faced with a gun, I threw in a grenade – sometimes brinkmanship is best
It was, as President Trump might have put it, a "beautiful deal".
Eleanor Bradford: One series of Love Island was enough for me – but it is not without valuable lessons for younger viewers
What can a dating programme involving a bunch of image-obsessed twenty year olds possibly teach us?
The Flying Pigs: Walkthrough fountain outside Marischal College defence against global warming
Some don’t like it too hot.
Jim Hunter: All that glitters is not a golden age
What will happen if the United Kingdom government opts – as now seems probable – for a ‘no deal’ departure from the European Union on 31 October?
Catherine Deveney: Sergeant Rees-Mogg of the vocabulary constabulary is on a mission to use words to divide us
I always thought there must be some esoteric purpose to Jacob Rees-Mogg but for the life of me, could never work out what it was.
James Millar: If Scotland is to be the climate emergency saviour, it will take more than pointing fingers at London
The Green New Deal is the current buzzword of internet lefties.
Lindsay Razaq: Being spellbound by books should be the human right of every child
It’s as if the previous 12 years didn’t happen.
Derek Tucker: My faith is restored in the power of the press – but charities still have a way to go
If the pessimists are to be believed, nobody reads newspapers anymore, and print on paper is in terminal decline.