Life

This lethal golden elixir

12th September, 2007

It used to be the taste of shame. Something that could induce nightmare Proustian flashbacks to teenage years of furtive pub trips and buying jumbo supermarket two-litre bottles.

Don’t follow the herd

12th September, 2007

Ten days ago I went to one of London’s finest restaurants, the Lahore in Whitechapel. The place was packed with hundreds of eager punters.

A British revival

12th September, 2007

There was an episode in the latest series of The Apprentice in which a bungling ex-army man was commissioned with selling the best of British produce in a French market.

In search of perfection

12th September, 2007

The 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) gave his name to the snack of meat encased between two slabs of bread. The story goes that it was designed so that it could be eaten at the gaming table without hands getting greasy.

Fare’s fair

12th September, 2007

There’s a fair glut of food festivals going on all across the country in the coming weeks, reflecting — and rightly so — the harvest.

Status anxiety

12th September, 2007

Sport

12th September, 2007

Was last weekend the most stirringly chock-full and eventful ever in sports broadcasting history?

Your problems solved

12th September, 2007

During the summer I worked in my step-father’s office. I discovered that while he is generally well liked his (25) employees do have one gripe.

High life

5th September, 2007

High life

Low life

5th September, 2007

Low life

Wild life

5th September, 2007

I am in Beijing making a film about the Olympic city...

The table

5th September, 2007

The game season is upon us, and game is rather shaming.

your problems solved

5th September, 2007

Your problems solved

Who is going to win it?

5th September, 2007

During this summer of catastrophic floods, a good news story washed up on one or two newspaper sports desks.

'A game devoid of skill’

5th September, 2007

The morning after England’s Rugby World Cup triumph over Australia four years ago I walked down my local high street and saw two boys doing something which deeply disturbed me.

A World Cup retrospective

5th September, 2007

Twenty teams turn up for rugby union’s World Cup but, realistically, less than half a dozen can ever possibly win it — the heavyweight trio from the southern seas, New Zealand, South Africa or Australia and, from the north, 2007’s hosts France and, in any given year, one of the four from the British Isles.

Happy as Larry

5th September, 2007

Rugby players come in all shapes and sizes, even if the small ones are now big, strapping and muscle-bound, but when it comes to characters most are only two-dimensional at best.

Rugby problems solved

5th September, 2007

Q. My son is a member of a rugby team at his university. They are a lovely bunch of chaps during daylight hours but some sort of group hysteria seems to take hold during post-match victory celebrations and they behave more like cavemen than gentlemen.

Spectator sport

5th September, 2007

Spectator sport

The turf

29th August, 2007

Rider Mick Fitzgerald was asked by his careers master when still at school what he wanted to be.