You're standing in the Tube on the way to work. No-one looks like they've seen a blue sky or breathed fresh air for weeks. Joe Average beside you reaches for the strap, revealing a chunky watch the size of a dinner plate bristling with buttons. You look at him again and see the real man within - no mere desk jockey, but a rugged, outward-bound hero who spends weekends thrashing around rivers in canoes and being kind to donkeys on mountain tops.

Toyah Wilcox, 39, is the actress and singer who plays the hero in `Jack and the Beanstalk', opening today at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley. Her film work includes `Quadrophenia', `Jubilee' and `The Anchoress' and she has appeared in `Sugar and Spice' at the Royal Court, `Whale' at the National and `A Midsummer Night's Dream' at Regent's Park Theatre. Her albums include `Sheep Farming in Barnet' and `Toyah, Toyah, Toyah!' and for three years she toured with her husband, guitarist Robert Fripp, in the band Sunday All Over the World. Her album of `Cabaret' with Nigel Planer was released in May. She presents `The Holiday Programme' and `Fasten Your Seatbelts' on BBC1.

Deborah Ross talks to Martin Bell

Leadership and managerial decision-making ability, while often confused, are not the same thing. Never was this more true than in war: the Earl of Cardigan must have had extremely good motivation and communications skills to lead his 600 troops in the Charge of the Light Brigade, but in retrospect it was a truly awful management decision.

The RSPCA is not trying to take donkeys off British beachers, merely irresponsible owners ("Drop the hot donkey...", 24 August). While there are good owners, we are concerned about operators who take too little care in ensuring that their animals have sufficient shade, water and rest in hot weather.

One Of The last remaining traditions of the Victorian seaside - the donkey ride - is under threat of extinction from the RSPCA.

I do not usually have much time for townspeople who come out to live in villages and then complain about the noise and smells. Immigrants to the country must expect cows to bellow, donkeys to bray, tractors to roar, chain-saws to scream and silage clamps to stink like the effluent from hell.

David Usborne on the latest treatment offered to troubled Americans

Donkeys are abused the world over. But in a corner of Devon lives a lady who kicks back on their behalf.

In the past, Labour and the Tories could rely on legions of loyal supporters in their traditional heartlands. But now the electoral bedrock is starting to erode. How will the parties cope, asks Peter Popham

Saint Jack the Evangelist, high priest of 21st century "inter- active rugby", turned turtle in dramatic fashion yesterday and reinvented himself as a born-again pragmatist by recalling Rob Andrew to England colours at the age of 34. Quite what coach Rowell's extraordinary decision might do for his side's chances of beating Wales in Cardiff, on Saturday, was rather less clear than the effect it was likely to have on young Alex King.

The bombs in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang in recent weeks have hit the world headlines. But the violence and tensions - including the latest blast, reported yesterday - are nothing new in this volatile region.

Sir: An article about "zebrass" ("What happens when a donkey meets a zebra", 6 February) stated that the two zebrass in Britain, Zed and Zee, were believed to be the only ones in the world outside the United States.

They look like two halves of a jigsaw puzzle. The stripey legs of a zebra combined with the head and body of a donkey. But Zed and Zee, who are almost three-years-old and stand 14 hands high, are Britain's first zebrass, one of the rarest hybrids in the world. Two donkeys called Penny Jenny and Zengara gave birth to the half-sisters whose dad was a black and white grey zebra called Cracker Zack.