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/li> 2 comments 10 things to look out for at the London Olympics Olympian: John Prescott will be making his third attempt on the World Pie-Eating record 1. Among those taking part in Friday’s Opening Ceremony is Labour veteran John Prescott. Dressed in a specially-designed wipe-clean tracksuit, the former Deputy Prime Minister will be making his third attempt on the World Pie-Eating record.  ‘I’ve always liked me pies,’ said Lord Prescott last night. ‘And I’m going for gold by downing 17 lard pies in under 30 seconds. ‘To get my appetite going, I’ve vowed not to eat a single thing for at least 20 minutes before it starts. Well, perhaps more like ten minutes or maybe eight, if I’m really peckish. OK, call that five minutes, just to be sure.’ Lord Prescott added that he was ‘very proud to be part of the degeneration of East London’. 2. Designed to offer a portrait of Britain, the Opening Ceremony will also feature a cameo of Village Britain, complete with village pond,

/li> 2 comments Lord Archer's latest book title 'best Kept Secret' has been employed by at least 14 other novelists in the past few years How many more ‘best kept secrets’ can there possibly be? I ask this question because wherever I go, best kept secrets keep raining down on me. The streets are awash with them. In the past week, I’ve read that Nelson Mandela’s personal chef is the family’s best kept secret, that Portugal is Europe’s best kept secret and that the Museum Of Archaeology is Cambridge’s best kept secret. ‘Is Jessica Chastain Hollywood’s best kept secret?’ asked the BBC entertainment and arts correspondent Tim Masters. It is a question with no sensible answer. If I had already heard of Jessica Chastain, then that would prove she wasn’t any sort of secret, best kept or otherwise. On the other hand, if I had never heard of her (which, incidentally, I hadn’t), then the BBC’s revelation that she does, in fact, exist would mean her existence is no

/li> 18 comments The Republican candidate Mitt Romney answers all your holiday problems... Q&A: Mitt is determined to answer the most vexing of questions Dear Mitt, My family and I are thinking of vacationing in Paris, France. Just one thing: no one can tell us which country it’s in. Please help! Jeff Bickle, Idaho. MITT SAYS: That’s one question that I’m absolutely determined to address, Jeff. You ask: where is Paris, France? Good question. Well, I tell you this, Jeff. The strength of our nation lies in challenging the challenges that continue to challenge us, and challenging them honestly, and with all the force at our disposal. So let us be strong, because a strong America is our only assurance that prosperity will follow hardship. I hope that answers your question, Jeff. Dear Mitt, What was your favourite part of your recent vacation in London, England? Sally-Ann Travis, New Hampshire. MITT SAYS: Don’t listen to the cynics, Sally-Ann. Never believe them when

/li> 4 comments Gore Vidal and Dame Barbara Cartland: one of them a muck-raking cynic, the other a fluffy fantasist. But which was which? When Gore Vidal was told of the death of his old rival Truman Capote in 1984, he famously said: ‘Good career move.’ Exactly the same might now be said of Vidal, who has just died. Over the past quarter-century, his pronouncements had been growing ever more silly and off-target. His reputation was in decline. Death may prove his salvation. In 1987, Vidal insisted that President Reagan was preparing for a world war, ‘a war, to be specific, between the United States and Russia, to take place in Israel’. Later that year Reagan and Gorbachev signed a missile treaty, and two years later, the Berlin wall came down. Gore Vidal and Dame Barbara Cartland: one of them a muck-raking cynic, the other a fluffy fantasist In 1998, Vidal claimed that Monica Lewinsky had been pushed into making her sex allegations against President Clinton

/li> 0 shares 0 comments RAYMOND CHANDLER: A LIFE by Tom Williams Aurum £20 ☎ £15.99 inc p&p Rating: Authors are seldom like their creations, but few are quite so different as Raymond Chandler. His hero, Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep, is the brave, crumpled, world-weary realist who, sometimes a little worse for wear, single-handedly takes on the corruption of Los Angeles while femmes fatales throw themselves at him. As a private detective, he is the embodiment of Chandler’s beautiful sentence, ‘Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.’ Chandler himself was quite the opposite. J. B. Priestley described him as looking like a boffin in an Ealing Comedy. Unlike his hero, he was both tarnished and afraid. ‘Am I comfortable? No.’ he once wrote. ‘Am I happy? No. Am I weak, depressed, no good, and of no social value to the community? Yes.’ Worlds apart: Humphrey Bogart

/li> 0 shares 0 comments BROTHER MENDEL'S PERFECT HORSE by Frank Westerman Harvill Secker £16.99 ☎ £14.99 inc p&p Rating: The very word ‘dressage’ makes me feel a little queasy. It seems perverse to turn a bold horse into a fancy-pants song-and-dance man, a sort  of Lionel Blair with hooves and a saddle. The Lipizzaner is the breed that prances about at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. It is apparently the creme de la creme, the Rolls-Royce of horses. Like the Rolls-Royce, it has long been the transport of choice for some of the world’s most unsavoury despots and tycoons. Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia presented Lipizzaners to Nehru, Nasser and our own dear Queen, as well as selling a job lot  of 30 to Emperor Haile Selassie for his imperial stud at Addis Ababa. Thoroughly bred: Lipizzaners are the result of four centuries of selective breeding and training Nicolae Ceausescu and his equally grim wife Elena jointly owned a Lipizzaner stud farm

/li> 1 comments Now that the 2012 Olympics are over, the question must be asked: how do our present sporting heroes compare with those of the past? How were they regarded by their contemporary fans? For the past few weeks, I have been trying to find an answer to this question in the little-known Historical Online Archive at Kew, where hundreds of thousands of internet comments and tweets from ordinary Britons down the centuries are lovingly preserved. Here is a small selection: How do heroes of the past match up to our newest sporting giants? ATLAS: ‘What a big head that guy is. I really don’t think Atlas is half as good as he would be even if he was twice as good. I mean, any1 could hold up the world, given half a chance I would, but my back is playing up and my doctor has advised against, worst luck.’ Geoff, Nuneaton. BANNISTER, Roger: ‘Why the big rush?’ Simon, Gateshead. ‘Check out those running shoes. Zut alors! They must be against the rules, otherwise no o