Crinal is absent from the warring dictionaries: our wash-and-go era has no need of a word, from Latin, for concerning the hair It could make a brand name.. He discusses the history of the blonde and says that hers “remains a slangy face, essentially plebeian” As for Bette Davis, she “has no crinal memorability”. BY THE desk is Eve Arnold’s photograph of Marilyn Monroe. She is in a striped swimsuit on the bench of a climbing frame, knees supporting a hefty edition of Joyce’s Ulysses. She is at the last pages, which makes one wonder whether she had read it all and what she could learn from Molly Bloom’s soliloquy. She would certainly puzzle over Anthony Burgess’s tribute to her, at the end of One Man’s Chorus (still not published in Britain). I loved him and I think he loved me, but he was not physically affectionate (nor was my mother), and I feel the lack of cuddles and warmth has to do with how I feel now.Neither of my parents ever said they loved me.

I have two grown-up children and a loving husband, but I still think about the past. My husband says I’ve just got to get on with life, but of course that’s easy to say.Yours sincerely, Cheryl. My parents divorced when I was 10, and I lived with my mother. She got married again to a man I didn’t like, so I went to live with my father, seeing my mother every weekend. When Mr Fox, not knowing his fiance is hiding behind the sofa, drags a shrieking female up the stairs, lopping extremities off her on the way, her hand falling next to the bride-to-be behind the sofa caused great joy.

My daughter has grown up completely normal but I couldn’t see Silence of the Lambs if you paid me It just depends on the personality of the child. Mark’s daughter sounds fine.DAWN MUIRHEADLlanwrtyd Wells, PowysNext Week’s DilemmaDear Virginia, I keep thinking about the past, and feeling so sad about it. Such an outing might also give him the opportunity to meet their parents and perhaps even to bring up the subject of the unsuitable videos.When Mark has done this, then, if he is still worried, and, having discussed it with his daughter, he should consider talking to his ex-wife.FRAN YORKETewkesbury, GloucestershireThe girl sounds normalPoor Mark. If his daughter is looking forward to more of the same, perhaps 50 years ago she’d have been reading Edgar Allen Poe or MR James.

I nearly died, aged seven, when I saw Snow White’s wicked witch at the movies, but 30 years later my daughter’s favourite old English fairy tale was Mr Fox, aka Bluebeard. What else do these friends do about which he should be anxious? When are they watching these videos? Who is obtaining them, and from where?Why not suggest meeting the friends? Perhaps Mark could take them all to a film. He would then be in a better position to talk to his daughter about them. Or if she wants to go on seeing them, she can simply continue, as thousands and thousands of underage teenagers do, remembering to keep her mouth shut in future.Either way, Mark has treated the girl as an adult, put his case and asked for hers, and he hasn’t broken her trust.

She’ll respect him for being honest with her.And when she gets pregnant at 15 – God forbid – he’ll be the first person she’ll come running to.READERS’ SUGGESTIONSTry to meet her friendsMark should ask himself why his daughter told him about these videos. She obviously knows she should not be watching them, otherwise she would not wish him to keep it secret from her mother.If he is so sure that his ex-wife would stop her daughter seeing these girls, why is he not concerned about them?Respect her confidence by all means, but Mark must be a responsible parent. It could be that she told him because she’s longing for a “daddish” reaction from Mark, rather than that of a complicit pal. Or it could be that it was a way of telling him that she’s more grown-up than he thinks, and that he must stop treating her as a child. If she can’t come up with an answer as to why she told him, he could put these suggestions to her.Now, he can’t stop her from seeing these movies, in fact. But he could say he’d much prefer it if she didn’t watch them.