Changes

|title=My Life In Agony

|author=Irma Kurtz

|publisher=Alma Books Ltd

|date=February 2014

|summary=A reflection on 4 decades as an agony aunt, this is part personal memoir, part sound advice, and fully interesting

}}

I used to love the problem pages of magazines as a teenager. My friends and I would pour over the letters which invariable ended with some form of the question ''Am I normal?'' and mock the invariable Agony Aunt answer of ''Of course you’re normal'', hooting instead ''No, you’re, really, REALLY not!'' That response perhaps illustrates why none of us decided to follow that as a career plan, but Irma Kurtz did, and as agony aunt for Cosmopolitan for more than 40 years it’s safe to say she has been a fair bit more sympathetic than we ever were.