The lodge

This stylish residence is the perfect base for a day at the races or a ramble in the Cotswolds, says James Litston

The glamour of a "plot" horse has so rubbed off on the Cheltenham Festival handicaps that trainers nowadays need all the artistry of old merely to guarantee a run. Of no fewer than 195 entries for the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Hurdle, for instance, even some rated within 5lb of the weights ceiling are not yet certain to make the final cut of 24 runners.

Musselburgh trials day does not quite have the same ring to it as Cheltenham trials day, but racing is nevertheless most grateful to the enterprise shown at the Scottish racecourse and those at other venues responsible for keeping the jumping show properly on the road over the next few days.

Now... Escape to the Canaries for a dose of last-minute winter sun. Departing on 9 December, Sovereign Luxury Travel has a week's stay at the Hotel Jardin Tecina in Tenerife for £599pp, including breakfast, Thomson Airways flights from Gatwick and private transfers. Sovereign.com

He has spent 12 years making RightMove the country's top website for househunters and the property-porn obsessed, but Ed Williams, who co-founded the site in 2000, has decided it's time to cash in his chips and spend more time with his £52m fortune.

Rumours that the Spice Girls will be reuniting to perform at the Olympic Games closing ceremony look to be true after the band were pictured apparently rehearsing for Sunday's extravaganza.

Following up on their Diamond Jubilee performance Madness will be taking centre stage at the Olympics closing ceremony.

London mayor Boris Johnson stole the show from the Royal Ballet and opera stars such as Placido Domingo as the International Olympic Committee were welcomed to London last night.

In the Red

'I squatted in a derelict cinema in Berlin ... it was quite an adventure'

Grayson Perry, the Turner Prize-winning artist, famed for his ceramic vases and penchant for cross-dressing, has signed an exclusive deal with Channel 4 which will see him acting as an on-screen social anthropologist.

Those phone calls weren't about influence. They were about friendship.

My parents were... My mum was a grafter and my dad very imaginative. I hope I've inherited both those qualities.