Sport
Barometer
Available for parties Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said that leaving his party to join the Liberal Democrats would be…
The right track
Sebastian Coe’s new job as head of world athletics will be a heck of a lot easier thanks to the…
Best of enemies
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
The ugly game
I’ve spent years defending football from middle-class disdain. But I can’t do it any more
Champions of absurdity
Jumping the shark isn’t yet an Olympic sport, but if it were the International Olympic Committee would be a shoo-in…
Big ask
‘That’s unnecessarily crude,’ said my husband, turning momentarily from the television and improving the shining minute by setting the whisky…
Barometer
Safe house Lord Sewel is unique in leaving the House of Lords in disgrace. Until the House of Lords Reform…
Australia’s comeback kids
I have never met an Aussie I didn’t like, but, crikey, their sporting indefatigability is exhausting. Don’t they ever give…
Long life
I have always been what I suppose one could call a weed, and a cowardly one at that. I never…
Fun runs
At long last, the England cricket team have rediscovered their love of the game
Diary
My husband says I only write books in order to have a launch party. Not so. I also write books…
Champions of hypocrisy
Why sport and sham morality go so well together
Your problems solved
Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory.…
Confessions of a Fedhead
Good writing about sport is rare — and good writing about tennis is that much rarer — so it’s conspicuous…
Pliny the Younger on Fifa
In any huge enterprise (like Fifa), where does the rot begin? Pliny the Younger mused on this question in a…
A few tips for Straussie
If you watched England’s three-day Test defeat by the West Indies in Barbados the other day to the bitter end…
The hazards of being a good sport
Not a day passes when I don’t look on my father’s record with shock and awe. I’m not talking about…
Grand National Notebook
‘How’s your shoulder?’ someone asked recently, and it was only then I realised, for the first time in a while,…
New heights
For anyone who knows or cares about rock climbing — a minority sport if ever there was one, albeit pretty…
Worshipping the body beautiful
My favourite fact about gyms before reading this book was that the average British gym member covers 468 miles per…
Sacré Bleus! At least the food is good
It used to be such a treat of a winter weekend, sitting down to watch France against Wales in Paris…
Why I won’t cry for Harry
I can’t say I’m surprised by the departure of Harry Redknapp. Since I started supporting Queens Park Rangers in 2008…
A cheerleader to swear by
It wasn’t that long ago when the most exciting event in any British tennis fan’s life was whether Jeremy Bates…
Myths and legends
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
The bill that keeps on building
Giving London’s Olympic stadium a ‘legacy’ is proving to be a very costly business
