America is a warm and welcoming country – once you’ve managed to break into the place.  At Miami International Airport this takes us about two…

I love to travel.  It’s the traveling I can’t stand. M and I are off to the United States on Thursday – to Florida, Arizona…

Gloom seems to have become Hollywood’s ambience du jour.  The last two films I saw, Les Miserables and Lincoln, were both bathed in sepulchral tones. …

A fox in a London suburb having bitten off a baby’s finger, we can now expect an outbreak of tabloid hysteria about the pointy-nosed menace…

The phrase ‘proportionate response’ – once used almost exclusively in a military context – nowadays gets bandied about in all kinds of situations.  And increasingly,…

What happens to a pope when he retires? Nobody knows, of course, as no pope has left office alive for 600 years.  The Vatican doesn’t…

Lunching with friends on Saturday, and ignoring the screaming headlines about beef products infused with horsemeat, I ordered a hamburger. I should point out that,…

Too many Englishmen spoil the broth.  Well, apparently in world rugby circles they do. Or such is the view of Warren Gatland, a New Zealander…