Laurence lives in Oxfordshire with his wife, Brigitte
MICHAEL PORTILLO: I first encountered Laurence when I called at his house in Southgate to canvass him for the 1984 by-election. Then towards the summer of the following year he was beginning to put together The New Statesman with Maurice [Gran]. He wrote to me, as his local [...]

An essential part is the reaction of Jerry, Brenton’s father, who has to wait anxiously while the wife and son simultaneously go under the knife.Both producers set out with preconceived ideas about how the subjects would react to being filmed; and both were proved wrong. Jane Merkin went to Philadelphia thinking that Americans would be [...]

You’ve heard of subliminal advertising? Repeat Space NK, Espa, Angel like a mantra until these brands are firmly fixed in that man’s mind.Now put down The Prince and pick-up Arena Homme Plus Shopping for a man is relatively simple Time-saving plus luxe logo equals the ultimate boy toys. A petit cadeau in a monogrammed box [...]

But just as our oysters have been outnumbered by the more commercial, faster-growing and cheaper rock variety, so fine smoked salmon has been eclipsed over the last 15 years by the growth of farmed salmon.
While farmed fish can make decent smoked salmon, the best by far is made with wild fish And for obvious reasons, [...]

The French are taking things by storm at present and it looks like they’re conquering Europe. Last weekend’s 46-3 victory by Toulouse over Swansea was pretty awesome, but I don’t think the English clubs have been getting panned by anyone. It’s too early to come to that conclusion.FRANCOIS PIENAARSARACENS PLAYER-COACHSo far, we haven’t taken our [...]

For example, if a woman rings and says her husband has just left, she might need legal advice on one hand and someone who’ll pick the kids up from school on the other. John Daly and Laura Davies (67) were five strokes back at 17-under 196, and Justin Leonard and Juli Inkster (66) topped a [...]

Next came that wonderful egg and lemon soup, avgolemono.There followed a creditable egg mayonnaise, in which the egginess of the mayonnaise was surpassed only by the extra egginess of the eggs themselves, which had been chosen from one of the best breeds of hen on one of the best, most free-ranging egg farms in the [...]

It is not the affluent who have to tolerate riots on their streets; not they who are afraid to step out of their homes for fear of violence; not they who have their public amenities vandalised; not they who have to send their children to schools made almost unmanageable by “disturbed” pupils; not even they, [...]