Brian Viner
Brian Viner: Fiendish questions of sport... folk songs, novels and who was Mrs Bart Conner?
Published: 30 December 2006
Here, a week later than promised, is this column's annual end-of-year quiz. For many of the questions I must thank Nick Stewart of the Lord's Taverners, who set them for the dinner and balloon debate in aid of the Taverners which took place in the Long Room at Lord's earlier this month. I have also added a few of my own. And I am delighted to announce a fine first prize: a year's supply of Spitfire beer - 365 bottles - donated by the brewers Shepherd Neame. For five runners-up there will be a selection of CDs, offered by Nick Stewart, who does something important at Warner Music.
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 13 December 2006
It is almost a fortnight now since we in Herefordshire celebrated Britain's inaugural National Mistletoe Day, and we're still full of admiration for our MP, Bill Wiggin (Leominster, Con), for getting his parliamentary colleagues to agree there should be such a thing.
Brian Viner: Ryder Cup is stellar exception in year lurching from sublime to ridiculous
Published: 09 December 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 22 November 2006
Whatever happened to bird flu? This time last year, we were battening down the hatches, preparing for the worst pandemic since the Black Death. There weren't enough vaccines to go round! Up to 50,000 Britons were likely to die! Those of us with chickens were beginning to look at our Cream Legbars as the enemy, rather like the people at the start of the Second World War who became suspicious of any neighbours with a German-sounding surname.
Brian Viner: Depression is no respecter of wealth, athleticism, fame and fabulous talent
Published: 18 November 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 15 November 2006
Brian Viner: Time for football's infantile managers to learn from the example of gridiron
Published: 11 November 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 08 November 2006
With my book about country life still ticking over nicely at Books Books Books in Tenbury Wells, which is not quite the same as Hatchards in Piccadilly, but a fine establishment all the same, and with this column now in its fifth year, I have been imbued with a Z-list celebrity in these parts, which would be even more negligible if there were more letters in the alphabet.
Brian Viner: Visit of the All Blacks evokes memory of Prince Obo and the gallant Gadneys
Published: 04 November 2006
Even in the unlikely event of England's rugby union players registering only their fifth home-soil victory in 101 years against the mighty All Blacks tomorrow, and even should young debutant Anthony Allen seal a rare victory with two wonderful tries, it will probably be more or less forgotten by 2076. Not so England's inaugural victory over New Zealand. Its impact still reverberates 70 years later, not least because of the two spectacular tries scored in a 13-0 win by another Test debutant, the 19-year-old Russian émigré Prince Alexander Obolensky.
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 01 November 2006
My family and I spent five days in New York City last week and on Saturday we woke up to find lots of armed men surrounding our building, although we were back in Herefordshire then. It was a pheasant shoot and they were about to flush the birds out of our small wood.
Brian Viner: Here's a tip... don't let the witch hustle you
Published: 31 October 2006
Although I have lived in the United States, acquiring a US social security number, a clapped-out Chevrolet and an enduring affection for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and although I have crossed the Atlantic at least 50 times, either for holidays or on writing assignments, I unfailingly find myself disorientated by the way in which everything, from the language to the simple light switch, at first seems so very much the same as in Britain while, on closer acquaintance, being so very different.
Brian Viner: New York Knicks and American savvy make cheesy dream team for the fans
Published: 28 October 2006
On Tuesday evening in Manhattan I went with my wife and children to see the New York Knicks play the Philadelphia 76ers in a pre-season basketball game.
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 25 October 2006
The last time I named and attempted to shame a company guilty of what I considered to be poor service, I was almost swept away in a torrent of righteous anger. On that occasion, three years ago, the object of all the excitement was a side of smoked wild salmon, supposed to be delivered in time for Christmas Day, and I won't go into the whole sorry business again, except to say that I wrote about it and a sub- editor gave my article the melodramatic headline "How a missing salmon ruined my Christmas", which it hadn't. "Diddums" was the gist of many of the e-mails.
Brian Viner: Sex and drugs and playing away... why should politics have the best scandals?
Published: 21 October 2006
Here is a tale of two Americans, one of them a septuagenarian man, the other a sexagenarian woman. With the emphasis very much on sexagenarian's first syllable.
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 18 October 2006
On the rare occasions that I go to fancy-dress parties I like to improvise a costume from the wardrobe. This is less to do with saving the cost of hiring an outfit, more to do with appearing resourceful. I did hire an outfit once, for a 1970s disco at our children's primary school in London. I went to Angels and Bermans, the theatrical costumiers, and shelled out 80 quid on a Gary Glitter outfit, before Gary Glitter was impersonata non grata. My friend Neale, meanwhile, made himself a top hat out of cardboard, stuck two pieces of carpet to his cheeks, and went as Slade's Noddy Holder. He got far more laughs and nods of approval than I did, as I stumbled around the place in my silver platform boots.
Brian Viner: Sale of football's most poignant menu shows timeless allure of Busby Babes
Published: 14 October 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 11 October 2006
Miss Whiplash, who lives about five fields away from us, is selling off the macabre memorabilia that she collected while she was working as a dominatrix and madam in London.
Brian Viner: When Amir met Ali it was the real deal rather than reality-show ersatz
Published: 07 October 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 04 October 2006
Our friend Nancy is having a house built, and is trying to think of a suitable name for it. We had a little brainstorming session around the lunch table the other day, but couldn't come up with anything that tickled Nancy's fancy. Hey, there's a thought: Nancy's Fancy.
Brian Viner: Forget the Premiership and take me out to the ball game for a family feast
Published: 30 September 2006
It had not previously been my habit to pick up men in bars, nor indeed to hang out in bars at eight in the morning, but when you're on your own a long way from home, these things happen. This thing happened last Sunday. The bar was the Fox and Hounds in Studio City, Los Angeles. It is described in guidebooks as an English-style pub, but as so often with things in the United States described as typically English, it was about as typically English as its address: 11100 Ventura Boulevard.
Brian Viner: Inside story of Fergie, Coolmore and the Rock would be a surefire best-seller
Published: 23 September 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 20 September 2006
At the Ludlow Food Festival the Sunday before last I was introduced to Alexander Schwab, a Swiss mushroom expert who was sitting at a table behind a giant puffball, publicising his new book Mushrooming Without Fear. The giant puffball - cousin of the common puffball, or Lycoperdon perlatum to those of us who have now read Mushrooming Without Fear - has a smooth surface like suede and is, says Alex, "as good a reason as you'll get for a dinner party". When I turned up at his stall, a woman was examining the puffball with great interest. "Look," said Alex, pointing to the sky. "Up zere is a flying puffball." In fact it was a white balloon, but for a fleeting moment the woman believed him, to much general merriment.
Brian Viner: Media silence is deafening as England women contest rugby World Cup final
Published: 16 September 2006
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 13 September 2006
Bonnie the West Highland terrier has quickly made herself at home, weeing and pooing with abandon all over the house.
Brian Viner: How the footy revolution was televised many years before its time had come
Published: 09 September 2006
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