When the reigning Miss World appeared on stage in 1969 in war-torn Saigon, alongside comedian Bob Hope, she received a rapturous reception from thousands of salivating US troops recovering from their brutal battles in Vietnam. Just weeks earlier more than 100 million viewers worldwide watched on TV as Eva Rueber-Staier, Miss Austria, was crowned as … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK WHEN TIME STOPPED: A MEMOIR OF MY FATHER’S WAR by Ariana Neumann (Scribner £16.99, 368pp) In the opening pages of this beautifully written, heart-wrenching memoir of love and family and war is a detailed family tree of the author’s Czech heritage. It seems dauntingly complex as family trees often do, littered … Read more
Richard Layard, an economist, has written a study into how society can be happier. He has long promoted happiness as a better measure of society’s progress than GDP.
MEMOIR ROOTBOUND: REWILDING A LIFE by Alice Vincent (Canongate, £14.99, 368pp) How do you mend a broken heart? The dumped often find solace in getting drunk, gorging on ice cream or stalking their ex on Facebook. For journalist Alice Vincent, salvation came in the form of a tiny balcony. When this memoir begins, she is … Read more
‘God must have smiled at me,’ says Craig Charles. ‘They got me to hospital in time.’ The BBC Radio 6 funk and soul DJ and star of sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf is talking about the heart attack he suffered in his home two years ago, which he is speaking of publicly for the first time. … Read more
House Of Glass Hadley Freeman Fourth Estate £16.99 Rating: The dedication at the front of this remarkable book is short and sweet. ‘For my father, Ron Freeman,’ it reads, ‘and my Grandma Sala.’ But like so much else in House Of Glass, those simple words contain a universe. Twelve years after her grandmother’s death in … Read more
Annie Gray’s delicious Victory In The Kitchen, a biography of Georgina Landemare, Winston Churchill’s cook, is ‘popular history at its very best’ By Kathryn Hughes Published: 22:01 BST, 22 February 2020 | Updated: 16:53 BST, 26 February 2020 Victory In The Kitchen: The Life Of Churchill’s Cook Annie Gray … Read more
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 Woke in Los Angeles to the shocking news that Caroline Flack has taken her own life at just 40 years old. After decades working in the news business, I don’t shock easily but this left me, like everyone who knew her, absolutely reeling. Caroline was a mate of mine. We weren’t close … Read more
Rob Brydon is getting ready to take a big risk. ‘I will be nervous on the first night,’ says the comedian and actor as he prepares to change style and go out on the road as a singer like his hero Sammy Davis Jr, performing straight songs alongside jokes with a highly accomplished eight-piece band. … Read more
Greed Cert: 15, 1hr 44mins Rating: By and … Read more