In a story that’s part of journalistic folklore, the sub-editors of The Times once had a competition to devise the most boring yet accurate headline. Claud Cockburn won with “Small earthquake in Chile, not many dead”. Were they competing again yesterday? In today’s paper, on page 70, there’s another cracker: “Discreet renovation of one of [...]

My wife was sent a link to the trailer for TT3D: Closer to the Edge, and immediately wanted to see the film. I watched the trailer a while later and wasn’t convinced, but I went with her. I’m convinced now. It’s a wonderful film, a pillion ride into the mind of the motorcyclist. And I [...]

One of the pieces I’m using in my next Telegraph anthology of train journeys is by Dervla Murphy, reporting on a couple of journeys she made in Cuba. Given the controversy over Steinbeck’s “inventions”, what she has to say about travel writing is worth passing on: Later, writing my diary, I recalled a stimulating debate [...]

John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley has long been one of my favourite travel books. But is it a reliable one? Steinbeck himself was vague in it about times and places. Now a journalist who has been following in the great man’s footsteps suggests that “Virtually nothing he wrote . . .  about where he slept [...]