Voices: Dennis Hopper, Danny Glover, Christina Ricci, Hayden Panettiere

Writing about books that were important to him, Patrick White once said that one seems to "go on living in them for ever, possibly because they give glimpses of a heartbreaking perfection one will never achieve". Such was the case when, as a young aspiring novelist, I first read 'Voss' 50 years ago and watched its pages open like a vast geological fissure in the domesticated landscape of English fiction. Not that the book is perfect – its scale is too grand for that – and its terrain is Australian not English. But just as that continent's early explorers found its native species so strange they hardly knew how to see them, so White'saccount of a venture to the deep interior of both land and soul speaks to dimensions of experience so rarely examined that he felt hardly anybody would "understand what I am on about".

Vladimir Putin fired darts from a crossbow at a grey whale off Russia's Far East coast yesterday in the latest in a series of man-versus-nature stunts designed to cultivate the image of a macho leader.

Television comedian Dave Gorman spoke to The Independent Online about his hidden talent for rock balancing, his passion for darts and the time he saw Tony Bennett urinating. His new show 'Genius,' will air on BBC 2 in September.

- A sophisticated lunch at the Apex International Hotel to launch the 30th year of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards started well but descended into chaos when water pistols (ready loaded) were handed out to guests. Coffee was never served.

Sam Wallace gets a glimpse of life and routine under Capello's strict regime

Poignant and depressing though David Laws' resignation on Saturday night certainly was, at least it was less a shock than it might have been. The pre-emptive warning came on Saturday afternoon when a former colleague waded into the debate with a contribution headlined: "Opik: No question of Laws resigning". Ah well – we Lembit-watchers thought on seeing this – that's that for the ascetic member for Yeovil. It was Lembit who insisted Charles Kennedy would survive until the moment he resigned; Lembit who then became Mark Oaten's campaign manager (quite an accolade given that he was the only Lib Dem MP to back him); and Lembit, the seer of seers, who then switched allegiance to Simon Hughes. The sadness is that had Lembit only clung on his Montgomeryshire seat on 6 May he'd have been in line to replace Danny Alexander as Scottish Secretary ... and might from there have replicated the Alexander book by swiftly ascending to Cheek Secretary to the Treasury. But now what for the asteroid paranoiac? Lembit, it seems, has been hired by a gambling syndicate to go through the cards in difficult handicaps. His job, as you may have guessed, will be to tip all but one of the field.

Phil Taylor hailed "the proudest day of my life" after he produced two nine-dart finishes to beat James Wade and win the Whyte and Mackay Premier League Darts title.

Weird World Of Sport: After a curious series of events, it seems I am now the Kazakh darts champion

The Star Inn in Salford was to close – then its customers stepped in

Like many minor British institutions, this one used to be a lot bigger. Within living memory, almost every public house in Britain offered a darts board, with the design – doubles, trebles, bullseye and so on – and construction (of sisal) being more or less standard by the end of the 19th century.

Martin Adams claimed his second BDO World Championship as he edged a tenacious Dave Chisnall 7-5 in the final at Frimley Green last night.

The Brian Viner Interview: As he prepares to take centre stage at the Masters, the three-time world champion explains how he has learnt to deal with a complex life away from the baize, and why the sport he loves must evolve or die

Phil Taylor is set to make £2m this year after winning his 15th world title. Paul Newman on how he's taking darts to the big time