Middle age holds no fears for me: I have just seen the fabulous Catherine Deneuve in the equally fabulous French comedy film Potiche - a screen offering to make us all look forward to our early dotage... more
This week's decision to abolish the UK Film Council makes me long for the days when David Cameron cared so much about being seen to value culture that he clutched a shiny new copy of On Chesil Beach on the Tube... more
Gok Wan is riding high - but its public school piranhas Trinny and Susannah whose judgments on what not to wear are needed on the party circuit... more
Hero of the Sixties counter-culture Michael Horovitz tells Tim Willis why it would take uncommon sense for him to be appointed Oxford professor of Poetry on Friday.... more
After more than 100 years selling books about witchcraft, astrology and black magic, London’s oldest esoteric bookshop, Watkins, has gone out of business... more
In Waterstone’s I found 10 love poems in a pristine white envelope. Though mostly contemporary, they seem almost sweetly Victorian in the context of the modern "F**k off, he's mine" Valentine’s card... more
Even Frankie Dettori can't get it right all of the time and Friston Forest could just prove the point by landing a surprise success in the Goodwood Cup at 3.25.... more
Horse racing: Forget racing's latest initiative to promote the sport, there is no better advertisement for the Flat than its equine stars - and few come much bigger than Yeats... more
Horse racing: Sir Michael Stoute is expected to make a decision by the weekend on whether unbeaten filly Leocorno will run in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot... more
With its token £5,750-a-year salary and case of wine for your trouble, our Poet Laureateship has long been what the outgoing laureate Andrew Motion has affectionately termed an "honorary joke"... more
"All things can tempt me from this craft of verse," said WB Yeats. "There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall," judged Cyril Connolly. "Distracted from distraction by distraction," wrote TS Eliot. Boy, oh boy, did they have a handle on the freelance life.... more
While Aidan O'Brien, Johnny Murtagh and the Coolmore team sweep all before them at Ascot this week, arch rivals Godolphin are left wondering what has happened to their fortunes at the Royal meeting... more
Carla Bruni's first English album is more of a dinner-party soundtrack than a record that will have an impact on the music scene. Then again, it doesn't make any promises.... more
Afternoon:
7°c
