I'm half Jewish, you see, so I have guilt about family, that's par for the course. I can't imagine life without remorse, it would be thin, unconvincing You wouldn't get many novels without it. Where would the great Russian novels be ? What is Crime and Punishment about if not remorse? One's teenage posturing, how stupid one was, how one wasted that time, is a source of infinite remorse.. Shopping for men has never been easier Take Floral Street in London's Covent Garden. There's Paul Smith, the great success story of British menswear.

Just across the road there is Jigsaw for Men, the company that has brought affordable fashion to men who previously had little choice in the matter. Next door to that is Jones, the store that is guaranteed to stock the labels with the unpronounceable names that are at fashion's cutting edge. It's a rotten job but someone has to do it.Sylvia, 42I felt terrible recently because of the way I treated my brother. He has made a mess of his marriage, he had lost one job after another, then he got religion He came and told me he was a born-again Christian He wanted me to be pleased with him, but I was dismayed. Maybe I'm wrong.David, 44I feel remorse almost all the time - remorse about almost everything. I had been watching him rebounding from one thing to another, I thought this would be just another nine-day wonder, and in the meantime he seemed quite unbalanced I wasn't sure that it would do him any good. Nothing I ever did since then made me feel so bad.Jane, 29I was in Golders Green and a man dressed as a milk shake came up to me and tried to hand me a leaflet I told him to "f.. off and get a life" I felt dreadful afterwards He was only trying to earn a living.

One day I was running along, and there was a chicken pecking at the grit, and I trod on its head and killed it It was like a horror story It took me a long time to get over that. I sent a postcard from Spain to this guy at work, really to thank him for a favour he'd done me It was fully of saucy double entendres. Anyway, his wife found it and read it and jumped to the wrong conclusions. I wish I hadn't sent that card! I wanted to phone her and explain, but I was afraid I'd only make it worse. There is nothing I can do, and that's the worst of it.Colin, 60I was evacuated to a farm during the war I was miserable there I missed my parents I didn't fit in.

The hamster was Oscar, the goldfish was Clarence, the dogs were Barney and Pickles, but the guinea pig I forget. His cage was down the bottom of the garden, and being a lazy little girl I couldn't be bothered to go down there regularly. I didn't clean it out as often as I should have done and the bedding was all maggoty. We gave him away in the end to another child who wouldn't neglect him I still feel terrible about it. That guinea pig's soul is still around, somehow.More recently - last year, in fact - I did something which has caused me a lot of remorse It was meant as a joke, but it went wrong.

My reaction was totally over the top, I felt bad about it, and then I just didn't know how to reconcile it. I didn't feel remorse when my father died because I had such a good relationship with him. I do feel remorse in relation to my mother, but my regrets are all to do with the things I haven't said. When she says to me, "Look at you, you're useless, couldn't even find a woman to marry you," it's been on the tip of my tongue to say "When I look at you, it's enough to put me off marriage." My remorse is that I haven't said it.Viv, 34I always had pets, always loved them, but when I was about nine or 10 I had a guinea pig, and somehow I never really cared about him I can't even remember his name, which tells you something.