Hosting a dinner party is not easy. The gut-busting hard work and the stress followed by the ingratitude of the guests – that may just be my friends – ensure it's a labour most of us don't take on regularly.

European Union leaders will tonight pledge to give greater priority to securing economic growth as they increase the pressure on Germany to do more to solve the eurozone crisis.

Surveying the dirty dishes and streaky glasses after a midweek dinner party, it would be easy to agree with the YouGov survey announced yesterday that 40 per cent of us can't face the hassle or expense. After a dash home from work to tidy up and throw together a shepherds pie (I always forget the homespun end result comes from laborious preparation), by 10.30pm I'm wishing my guests would bugger off so I could go to bed. Then there's the clearing up ...

What happens when you turn up at a gastropub at the last minute – in every sense?

Rebekah Brooks today denied using her clout to get her own way with Government ministers.

This is the list of meetings with prime ministers handed to the Leveson Inquiry by Rebekah Brooks.

You don't have to be a prince (charming or otherwise), to gain entry to Club 33, the private members' establishment at 33 Royal Street on the Disneyland estate in California, but having the deep pockets of royalty probably helps.

Chef has two restaurants in world's top 15 but Denmark's Noma wins for third year

I never wanted to be a sex symbol I wanted to be a character actor. Those are the actors I mostly admire. I think women that are curvy can be pigeonholed in that bombshell thing. It's not like I actively look for sexy roles. It's not a requirement that my character be pretty and delicate. I never think about my character being sexy, unless that's written in.

Today we are going to conduct a thought experiment. Let's imagine a giant multinational company in the field of, say, aviation – let's call it British Airways – has spent years thieving private information from people in the public domain. Somehow unnoticed by the police, whose top officers BA happens to be granting favours too, the company starts to illegally invade the privacy of the Royal Family, a serving Prime Minister of Great Britain, terrorist informers, the Governor of the Bank of England, and footballers aplenty.

Now... Plan a spring city break to the capital of New England. Virgin Holidays has three nights in Boston for £555pp, which includes flights from Heathrow on 14 May and room-only accommodation at the Midtown Hotel. Virginholidays.co.uk

Last week, Whitehall whispers suggested that David Cameron would delay his first major cabinet reshuffle until the autumn so he could promote Jeremy Hunt, who could not be moved until after the London Olympics.

Two days after Vince Cable was removed as the government minister who would be making the decision about News Corp’s full take-over of BSkyB, James Murdoch attended a meeting with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at the home of Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie Brooks. Around 15 people were at the meeting.

With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first wedding anniversary fast approaching, the publishing industry continues to wring the last drops of merchandising potential from the occasion.