To Holland Park today for a delightful business lunch with an industry friend who is in the process of retiring from the biz at the age of 60. Like so many retiring eminent statesmen before him...

I'm off to Amsterdam today for the Aromatics Conference. Why Amsterdam again? Because even in boom business times, and these are not they, conference-going chemical types like to look as if they're on a business trip, and not as if they're off to the...

Acrylic hair extensions have been used in a celebrity L'Oreal advert to fake the luxuriant effects of a shampoo and conditioner range, according to an article in the Sunday Times.   Cheryl Cole, singer in Girls Aloud and all-round celebrity, is...

The petrochemical world is divided, as in so many things, on the subject of whether it is cool to wear sunglasses indoors - for example, at a conference.   Digressing for just a moment, it is almost always acceptable even mandatory to wear sunglasses...

Gift catalogues are on my doormat every evening when I return home at this time of year. Usually I put them straight into the recycling bag, because there are only so many cotton poloshirts or floral arrangements or crafty wooden toys that any family...

Peter Mandelson was confronted by an inebriated audience member as he sped away from the platform after delivering his speech at last night's Chemical Industries Association (CIA) dinner at London's Grosvenor House hotel, according to our own Will...