We found someone to coach her, and that it was it.”Elena was bribed to learn English, aged five-and-a-half, only after agreeing a deal that would see her rewarded with a new bike. “She’d understand everything, translate it all, but wouldn’t speak,” Olga says. “When we told her she could spend as much as she wanted [...]

A discussion breaks out between two businessmen from Milan ­ one thinks the Icelander is doing a reasonable job, the other strongly disagrees Arms fly, hands gesture. Various individuals make loud ssshing noises and then Maestro Veronesi resumes tonight’s performance of Turandot. This is, unmistakably, the Festival Pucciniano; Italian opera as Italians enjoy it.It was [...]

Last season he scored 631 runs at an average of 37; over his career he has hit almost 9,000 at an average, last April, of 27. He is a far better wicketkeeper than Alec Stewart.
There is no point in nudging the selectors. They shamefully dropped him after two Tests as Stewart’s deputy and have ignored [...]

For one thing, in comparison with a manned mission to Mars, setting up a permanent manned station on the Moon is cheap. The Moon is an ideal platform for astronomical observation and for studying geological processes in the solar system. A station there would be a perfect training ground for living on other planets ­ [...]

Mr Paisley asked if the Prime Minister would call a National Day of Prayer. “The way to have healing,” he concluded, “is to call on the Sovereign God of Heaven.” Well, yes. All of us know how well it’s worked for Mr Paisley in Northern Ireland, but the Prime Minister felt he couldn’t agree.Bill Michie, [...]

When I was 16, bands were from up the road and vented their annoyance about everything. One song might be about fascism, but the next would be about the “scummy bus conductor on the 21A to Sidcup via Footscray. Here we go ­ ‘You’re a poxy pile of pus/ For kicking me off your poxy [...]