Reader's Digest UK

Happy Birthday, Reader’s Digest! I first discovered your wonderful magazine by chance in a hotel reception. Your mixture of content and fascinating articles immediately captivated my attention and I made sure to subscribe to the publication upon retu

SENIOR EDITORS Anna Walker, Eva Mackevic EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Marco Marcelline ART DIRECTOR Richard Cooke ADVERTISING Jigs Pankhania HEAD OF FINANCE Santwana Singh FINANCE MANAGER Irving Efren MANAGING DIRECTOR Julie Leach CHAIRMAN Gary Hopkins TRUSTE

Many people avoid taking, or even looking into, medication for anxiety because of the stigmas associated with psychiatric drugs. They may worry about dangerous side effects, that they’ll become dependent on them or that loved ones will see them as we

Take time to talk Sex is all about communication, so make sure you actually speak to each other. It’ll help you get close and stay close. Set aside 15 minutes, preferably every day, when you can chat about anything other than children, work, money an

Philip Robinson is an ear nose and throat (ENT) surgeon at University Hospitals Bristol and founder of the Bristol Tinnitus Service How did you become an expert in ear problems? As a medical student I decided to become a surgeon. I enjoyed looking af

Cow’s milk Dairy milk is what most of us still pour on cornflakes and into our tea and coffee. Packed with protein—necessary for energy and overall health—and calcium, which builds stronger bones, it’s part of a balanced diet. The downside is it’s fu

Q: I’ve noticed narrow white lines appearing on my nails. They only appear on my thumb, and are worse on the left one. Aside from this my nails seem fine. Any idea what these are? Or how to reduce them? - Bill A: Dear Bill, you might be surprised to

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS that being part of a team has remarkable benefits for recall. But you’ll know that already if you’ve ever watched University Challenge. Every week the contestants perform amazing feats of memory. First, they work independently, rac

Single use plastic would be completely abolished. No plastic bags would be handed out and that would be a great step forward to getting rid of waste, especially in sea water. This would benefit marine life and also we would have to be mindful of brin

Shaving the chimp and getting it into a suit was one thing, but getting it elected? Madness. Gullible, yes. The people weren’t stupid…were they? Sure, he looked like a businessman and he had even learned to talk, but what he knew about running a coun

ALTHOUGH IT’S THE shortest month, February can feel like a real drag. The joy of Christmas is long over and the optimism of the New Year has gone out the window alongside those resolutions. And, it’s so bloody cold; our only means of survival in the

FOR THIS MONTH’S craft project, I’m focusing on one of my favourite sewing techniques—appliqué. Put simply, appliqué is the process of applying small fabric pieces to a larger one, to create layered design. It’s often used to upcycle or personalise c

A Victoria sponge cake is one of those classic English cakes that everyone can recognise by its airy vanilla sponge, scrumptious jam filling and fresh cream. It also holds a special place in my heart as I remember helping my mum create the best Victo

A foodie fruit seed with a strong, nutty flavour, you might be used to finding buckwheat in the health shop shop or gluten-free aisle as a substitute for traditional flour, pasta or porridge. Increasingly, the beauty industry has been getting in on t

2019’s starry murder-mystery Knives Out was one of Hollywood’s last pre-pandemic hits, but following it has taken time: knotty plots don’t grow on trees, and COVID made it hard to squeeze ensembles into drawing rooms. TV, thankfully, has stepped up t

The two played mother and daughter in Woody Allen’s classic 1986 comedy, Hannah and Her Sisters. Maureen was a famous Irish-American actress best known for portraying Jane in MGM’s Tarzan series of films of the 1930s and 40s, and was listed at Number

James Walton, Books “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison. A song that brilliantly captures both the sheer excitement of young love and the melancholy that comes with looking back on it. Plus, you can dance to it—or, rather, you can’t not. Susannah Hickl

Since his Nineties TV triumph as the co-creator of The Fast Show, Charlie Higson has been best known for his thrillers aimed at younger readers. Particularly successful—and rightly so—was a series featuring James Bond as an Eton schoolboy already sav

IN AROUND 400 BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates (aka “the Father of Medicine”) wrote that, “Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise.” This was a fact well understood in Ancient Greece. Every town had at least one gymnasium

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle This book introduced me to a new way of looking at the world, based on the idea that we suffer as a result of the stories we tell ourselves. That’s what causes all our emotional pain. For example, if your friend lets

IN THE MODERN world, we’re being constantly bombarded with information as our days consist of switching from one screen to another. We’re watching TV as we scroll on our phones through an unending Facebook news feed, pumping a steady diet of news, op

1. averruncator—A: manual posthole digger. B: instrument for pruning trees. C: press for crushing grapes. 2. chamois—A: cloth to strain whey in cheese making. B: cast-iron frying pan. C: porous leather used for polishing. 3. cauf—A: large box with ho

1. What was the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards? 2. What charitable goal did Irish-American billionaire Chuck Feeney achieve in 2020? 3. Beethoven and Mozart wrote music for it, but who invented the glass har

HOW TO PLAY: At this camping site each tent is adjacent to its own tree, either horizontally or vertically. Tents are not adjacent to each other, not even diagonally. The numbers outside the grid indicate how many tents are in that row or column. Loc

Go to readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us or facebook.com/readersdigestuk What’s the first sign of Madness? The “heavy heavy monster sound.” Comedian OLAF FALAFEL I went to that Action Man boxing match last week. Nothing below the belt. AMANDA SMITH, Wrex

AFTER REGULARLY READING magazines while recovering from a shrapnel injury from serving in the First World War, a novel idea came to a young William DeWitt Wallace. He desired to make a magazine that published 31 articles from leading publications (on

Think of a witty caption for this cartoon—the three best suggestions, along with the cartoonist’s original, will be posted on our website in mid-February. If your entry gets the most votes, you’ll win £50. Submit to captions@readersdigest.co.uk by Fe