THE GOVERNMENT is to back controversial "town extensions" to make it easier to build on greenfield land and solve the country's housebuilding crisis.

An afternoon at the Savoy is the perfect solution to the thorny problem of kids and smart cuisine, says Simon O'Hagan

IN THE PAST I wasn't nearly as health-conscious as I am now, but these days I work out and take a lot of care of my diet. I stopped eating red meat eight years ago after seeing a programme about the strange things injected into cows destined for the table. Now I stick to white meat and fish, and al-ways ask whether things are free-range when I eat out. It's not always possible to stick to your principles, but I have a conscience and I do the best I can. I adore seafood, and recall a memorable lobster mornay at a hotel in South Africa some years ago. It was absolutely gigantic, which is my idea of heaven as it's my favourite dish.

THE CURTAIN came down on one of the high street's longest running disaster stories yesterday when Sears, the struggling retail group, succumbed to an agreed pounds 548m bid which is likely to see the once-sprawling conglomerate broken up into its constituent parts.

Why donate your seed to an anonymous woman who wants children? Andrew Gordon is a man who knows the answer

ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE discovered a 300 metre long dam, one of Roman Britain's largest feats of civil engineering.

`The most frightening film ever' is re-released next week. What turned an everyday tale of demonic possession into a classic? Ask its director William Friedkin

Jenny Lewis was pleased when Roger McGough praised her poem at a masterclass. Then she discovered he had borrowed her idea.

ELDRIDGE Pope, the Dorchester-based pubs operator which sold its brewing interests last year and enfranchised its non-voting shares a couple of months ago, has won a few more friends in the City since it became a more modern and focused company.

Awards such as the Orange Prize for women's fiction create a ghetto mentality, its critics carp. Boyd Tonkin disagrees

If you're in need of a special treat or a pick-me-up, why not visit a spa? Self-confessed addict Carol Wright reveals her best get-away- from-it-all healthy retreats

A day at a spa can be as rejuvenating as a week's holiday. But choose badly and the result can be an expensive waste of time. Our panel sorts the rough from the soothe

Rummaging is undoubtedly a great British tradition and many of us are never happier than when we're up to our neck in bric-a-brac at the local car boot sale. Generations have been reared on the historic jumble sale tradition. It's all part of the something for nothing, could- be-worth-a-few-million-in-a-couple-of-thousand-years, Antiques Roadshow mentality.

THE most expensive civil action in English legal history, between Prince Jefri of Brunei and two of his closest emissaries, has been settled out of court.