It was almost too good to be true, enabling him to entertain tout Paris – Malraux, Giacometti, Sartre, Camus, not to mention star British visitors like George Orwell and Cyril Connolly. Not unquestionably a “good war” but certainly an enviable one.Nor was post-war Oxford and then London – where he was made Professor of Logic [...]

When I first left EastEnders and wasn’t as high-profile as I could have been, I still went to his restaurant and he was as attentive and kind as ever. I realised he actually liked me as a mate.It’s refreshing to have a heterosexual male friend – a lot of my men friends are gay Aldo [...]

In a week or two, the country’s first black president will stand down. He intends, so it is said, to retire to a modest house he has had built near Qunu, his birthplace in the Transkei. A beautiful but desolate part of the country, the Transkei is rich in rolling hills and tortuous rivers but [...]

But the decline of the Turkish menace meant the decline of the Turkish trade, and by the 18th century, Habsburg Transylvania was on the road to nowhere Development ceased. With the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, real Transylvania was overtaken by a fiction. Ceded by Hungary to Romania in 1920, but neglected and forgotten, Transylvania [...]

The best hotel in town, with superb views and very traditional, 19th-century decor. Benefits include air-conditioning and its own underground car park. Double room: L450,000 (pounds 156).Locanda della Posta, Corso Vannucci 97 (tel: 0039 075 5728925). Follow in the footsteps of Goethe and stop over in this four-star hotel, bang in the centre of town. [...]

Earlier in the week, there’d been only three spaces left for archery so I’d filled in my children’s names and contented myself with watching.In fact, my original plan for the holiday had been for the children to do the activities and for me to do – well, a lot of reading, relaxing and recliner-familiarisation. So [...]