For Kribensis, the Champion Hurdle hero of 1990, and Travado, winner of the Arkle Trophy three years later, manners and decorum, rather than might and derring-do, are their stock in trade. Each now earns his corn as a trainer’s hack and these unsung heroes of the industry are to be celebrated in a pre-racing [...]

Cities around Baghdad like Fallujah and Samarra are under the control of Islamic militants. In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, local police patrol this city of 400,000 people between 8am and 2pm. At all other times Ramadi is run by the insurgents.The struggle for Iraq is in its early stages. The Shia and Sunni Arabs [...]

After an especially outspoken television performance, a Cheshire vicar denounced him in his parish magazine as a “thick-lipped Jewboy”.Levin never identified wholly with any political party, and ultimately he left the Mail, just after the 1970 election, because he was not sufficiently conservative for the proprietor, Viscount Rothermere. He was soon hired as a [...]

I’m lovestruck again: The Sopranos starts tonight.b.viner independent.co.uk
More from Brian Viner. Thirty years ago, American television was dismissed in this country as garbage Which much of it was, and is, of course. But there’s nowhere near enough fantastic stuff, and there’s way too much rubbish, and consequently I hardly ever bother to reach for [...]

(Tim) Neighbour and Hugh Cobbe, bidding for the library at auction, acting for it in appraising the estate of Benjamin Britten and enriching its holdings through his involvement with the Tippett Foundation.He had as many friends among the great libraries and universities in the US, with whom he built up the same special relationship. [...]