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From the archives

Operative Words

Behind the campaign curtain

Snuffed Torch

Can the Olympic myth survive?

Lax Americana

What happens if Donald Trump returns to the White House?

Margaret Horsfield

Margaret Horsfield turned to writing after many years with the BBC as a radio reporter. She is the author of four books, including Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework (Fourth Estate, 1997). She lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Articles by
Margaret Horsfield

Out, Damned Spot!

Concern with personal hygiene is a movable obsession. December 2007
As a child, Katherine Ashenburg spent countless hours with her maternal grandmother, a cheerful, industrious German woman. Happy domestic odours of yeast and linen surrounded her, and another odour, a “smell [that] came from my grandmother herself … whom I loved, so the smell never troubled me.” Years later, visiting Bavaria and meeting bustling German women who worked at…