22 NOVEMBER 1997, page 32

Down On The Counter

WATERLOO is the hinge of the action in Vanity Fair, and Thackeray, writing 30 years later, is at pains to get his details right. So when old Mr Sedley is down on his luck and......

City And Suburban

Stand by for take-off and fasten your seat belts here's how to land in the soup CHRISTOPHER FILDES S oup never seems to appear on my plas- tic tray from British Airways. I have......

Fish And Chips

SIR HENRY Wood was once found staring at a fishmonger's slab and saying: 'That reminds me — I should be at the Queen's Hall.' Conductors at Covent Garden know the feeling. Once......

The Fudge Box

A KINDLY reader pleads in mitigation for Hugh Dalton, the Chancellor who 50 years ago (as I was saying last week) leaked his budget and lost his job. It was all a misun-......

Old Pony, New Tricks

TO SEE what happens when a business runs scared of its brand, study the moral tale of Laura Ashley. Ann Iverson, who was hired at great expense to revive its fortunes, has now......

Recycled Paper

I REMEMBER likening Vickers and Rolls- Royce Motors to two dukes falling upstairs out of Annabel's, propping one another up. Their merger has stumbled onwards, until now. P&O's......