'First class helps limit obstacles at the airport'

I came to cooking randomly My best friend entered chef school and as I didn't know what to do, I followed him. I'd never cooked in my life until then. But when the teacher asked us to cook a plate of food, rather than thinking about girls, I started thinking, what is food to me, why do I like to eat? It was my first adult thought and I fell in love with cooking.

Last week, it was Fenton the dog harassing deer in Richmond Park, London. Now the authorities are having to protect the deer from humans scavenging their food supply for conkers or to revive the Christmas tradition of chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Since the publication of her 1998 novel, The Pilot's Wife, Anita Shreve's angst-ridden romances have never been far from the bestseller lists. After a novel set in the heat of East Africa, here she returns to her native New England with a stirring story of trauma room emergency and testing times.

Generalisations about nationality are worthless. I've met plenty of extremely unpassionate Spaniards, several far-from-cowardly Italians and a few Welshmen who have no obvious tendencies to larceny. So I'm suspicious about the claim that the Office of National Statistics' annual update of the country's favourite purchases offers a true picture of the Real British. They keep a record of the 650-odd things on which we spend more than £400m, and claim that these goods and services somehow define us as a population. And if sales drop below a certain level, it means that we're just not like that any more.

Adrian Swinstead's showpiece table – a toughened glass disk resting on three gnarled and gleaming black oak pillars, broad as elephant legs – exemplifies the delight he takes in making ancient history part of contemporary furniture design. A delight that began 15 years ago when a sculptor friend introduced him to the jet dark bog oak, rarely used by other furniture makers, that has, since, become a "passion" and central focus in many of his cabinets, cupboards, benches and tables .

It is curious that the horse chestnut tree, whose nuts are useful only to small boys playing conkers, is so much better known in Britain than the sweet chestnut, whose nuts have supported whole societies.

The Black Widow of eating contests gobbled up nearly 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes, devouring the national championship record in Buffalo yesterday.

He came, he saw, he very nearly chundered. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, a 26-year-old Californian with a famously-ferocious appetite, confirmed his standing as the world's greatest professional eater when he won America's most prestigious hot dog eating contest for the fourth consecutive time.