His first ever piece for a newspaper was, in fact, a front-page report for The Daily Telegraph on the bloody Romanian revolution, as their Budapest correspondent had gone on holiday.”I was driving the BBC correspondent John Simpson around in my Mazda,” laughs Denton “He had this amazing way of getting through checkpoints. As we got [...]

Earlier yesterday, the Taliban said Ms Curry had been ill over the weekend after what appeared to have been an asthma attack.. President Robert Mugabe’s status suffered a further blow on Monday when southern African leaders ­ seen as crucial to diplomatic progress in Zimbabwe ­ called him to a meeting and insisted on a [...]

However, to the extent that Europe hasn’t “borrowed from the future” or “mortgaged the present”, it may be able to shake off the hangover from the earlier euphoria much more quickly than the US. Europe’s tortoise may still be no match for the best that the US has to offer but America’s over-confident hare may [...]

Cult movies are always popular, and if the picture is rare it is certain to fetch more.Sarah Hodgson, of Christie’s in London, said: “It’s only recently people have been drawn into collecting, although it’s an older hobby in the States, where there were obviously more to choose from in the past Now, people recognise British [...]

Andy Martin has managed just this, by discovering a side of Napoleon Bonaparte that has been little explored: his literary imagination and ambitions. From adolescence, Bonaparte was a bibliophile, squandering his meagre funds on books At 16, he wrote a melancholy essay, “On Suicide”. A few years later, as the French Revolution raged, he shut [...]

He was doubly fortunate because he had the real book, not the counterfeit Chinese version where the Hogwart’s magic is lost in the translation.”My heart was beating so fast,” Lui said “When Harry was in the tunnel by himself, he was so brave. As soon as I read it, I wanted to read number two [...]

Diawara could benefit from playing alongside Paolo Di Canio and Joe Cole with the prospect of having more chances created for him.Paris St-Germain want around £3m for Diawara but West Ham will gladly pay that if he repeats the success of Frédéric Kanouté when he arrived in similar circumstances last season.Meanwhile, Rovers’ new signing, Lucien [...]

“I have been on a diet and lost three stones,” he says proudly as the tailor looks pale. “There is a bit of tension under the arms, ja?”The production designer John Gunter watches. He loves Glyndebourne, but as a man who made his reputation in the subsidised sector, he has ambivalent feelings “I love to [...]

Many questioned the wisdom of calling up a young driver who had almost lost his feet in a Formula 3000 accident only months before. Alas, subsequent races confirmed he was not fit enough for the rigours of Formula One and Benetton dropped him mid-season. He returned, with Lotus, late the following year and, although he [...]

And contrary to popular opinion police officers are getting older, not younger.The drop in the number of policemen and women comes as chief constables are predicting a further decline following the Home Office’s new funding formula. The study also shows how the level of police cover fluctuates greatly throughout the country. London has the highest [...]