Chemical Overload

Do you sometimes worry about the chemical cocktail that you are piling onto your skin and hair in a bid to slow down ageing/look blonder/avoid sweating/cover imperfections and so on? If so, you're not alone. The ingredients list on the average moisturiser or shampoo makes for frankly horrifying reading - cetyl alcohol, sodium acryloydimethyl, methylparaben, sodium hydroxide. Yes, you read that right. Sodium hydroxide - the active ingredient in oven cleaner! And don't imagine that all this stuff just sits inertly on our outer layer. The skin soaks things in like a sponge so many of these chemicals will make their merry way into the blood stream.

One option is to transform yourself into a dreadlock sporting, totally natural eco-woman - no make-up, no skin products, no anti-perspirant, no hair dye. Wonderful if you can do it - it deals with all those nagging worries in one hit - but not every woman's cup of tea.

So maybe we need to consider the famous 'middle way'. In other words, thinking about what we really need and what we can live without, and then looking for low-chemical, simpler alternatives to the essentials.

Here are a couple of top tips from the RT team:

• Solid shampoos and cleansing bars (as sold by LUSH) contain no preservatives, indeed no nasties at all, and work a treat. LUSH also do some fabulous lip-balms with none of those petrolatum or paraffin ingredients that make you think of cars and engines.
• Crystal' deodorant sticks, which contain only mineral salts, are great. Every bit as effective as the big brands. Holland and Barrett sell them.
• Organic products tend to contain fewer scary sounding ingredients.
• Products specifically for sensitive skin will usually have fewer, and gentler, chemicals.

Just remember - read the ingredients list as well as the promises. Happy shopping!

'Suite Francaise' by Irene Nemirosky

This is a simply astounding book. Nemirosky started to write it in 1941, completing only the first two of her planned five sections, before she was taken to Auschwitz and put to death. The manuscript was preserved by her 10 year old daughter and, 65 years later, the book was published.

The book follows the lives of a variety of acutely observed characters, all of whom are struggling to deal with the events of 1940-41 when France came under German occupation. Both tragic and comic, the story transports the reader to this chaotic and terrifying time. The writing style is extraordinarily intense and fresh, almost journalistic in flavour. Nemirosky's eye for the many foibles and human weaknesses of her characters is pitiless and yet it is impossible not to love them and to sympathise with their plight.

This is a book that you will not want to put down and, by the end, you will be in tears as you contemplate what happened next for the author. If only fate could have intervened and allowed her to finish her masterpiece - those last three sections would have been superb.