Sluttery Reads: Mrs Mills Solves All Your Problems

One of my absolute favourite parts of the weekend is reading Mrs Mills' advice column in the back of the Sunday Times Style magazine. 'Mrs Mills Solves All Your Problems' is a collection of some of the finest questions and answers featured and handily grouped into sections on how to deal with your loved ones, the wider world and everything else.

Best read with a martini or glass of champagne, these are my personal favourite pieces of advice:

"GSOH stands for Good Size Of Hand. Occasionally it is followed by NNTB (Nose Not Too Big). Why this should be, I have no idea. 'Attractive' means nothing more than recognisably human."

"Christmas pudding: supermarkets do a very good one these days. Spend Christmas Eve destroying all evidence of the packaging."

"It is obscene to see people wandering about their houses in T-shirts in the winter months, why do they think God invented tweed and woollen underwear?"

"Leaning right back while draining the last droplets then toppling into a heap never fails to draw the host's attention to my alcohol-deficient state."

'Mrs Mills Solves All Your Problems', available in paperback and hardback from Amazon.

Sluttery Reads: Fifty Dresses That Changed The World

For those of us who aren't hardcore fashionistas, the concept that a dress has world-changing power may seem a little far-fetched. But after reading Fifty Dresses That Changed The World, it makes quite a lot of sense. Dresses have defined whole eras (try imagining the Swingin' Sixties without the mini-dress), made international headlines (Liz Hurley; safety-pins) and even revolutionised the way women are perceived in the business world (enter the Chanel suit).

The book has been compiled by the folks at the Design Museum, so dresses aren't given inclusion based on prettiness alone. This book takes fashion seriously (something that doesn't happen enough, to be honest) and as the introduction says, "these are dresses that have encapsulated particular movements in time in a particularly powerful way." This results in the list including the wedding dresses of royalty, outfits of movie stars and dresses that are still loved decades after their debut. But don't be put off if, like me, you don't know Marni from Missoni - it's still an enjoyable read.

Though the photos of each dress in action are fantastic, I particularly enjoyed the writing itself. The history and cultural importance of each dress is written up in absorbing detail and limited to a few paragraphs per dress - any more and it would read like a textbook.

Anyone appreciative of design and fashion would find this book as fascinating as I did.

Fifty Dresses That Changed The World (£7.79) at Amazon.co.uk.