As excuses go, 'for personal reasons' is about as unforthcoming an explanation as you can get. It reveals nothing, except that the self-excuser considers that he/she is completely excused, for reasons which they do not propose to disclose.

In an age when total strangers will wander up and tell you the most intimate and lurid details about themselves, 'personal reasons' has an intriguing, old-fashioned secrecy about it. What can they be, these personal reasons?

A terminal illness, perhaps? If so, who has it? What is it? An embarrassing sore? If so, on what part of the body? A scandal that has not yet broken? If so, who are the parties involved? What is so shameful or so secret that it cannot be revealed?

The possibilities are boundless and while the imagination is working overtime, one's critical faculties are failing to consider the possibility that these 'personal reasons' are just a game of golf.

For all these reasons, and because people don't like to pry into private grief, it is an invaluable occasional weapon in your armoury of excuses. Used with restraint and discretion, it's good for a day off from work any time, and will get you off the hook with many of the people you have sinned against, providing they don't know you too personally, of course.

Bear in mind that, long after your 'personal reasons' have been accepted as an excuse and forgotten by you, people will still be wondering just what the big secret was all about. You must not disappoint them therefore when they subsequently inquire about your personal problems.

Just tell them: 'Much better, thank you - for the moment.'

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