IT'S TIME TO come clean (dread phrase!). Over the years, quite a number of Fleet Street's inkiest scriveners have worked for our intelligence services. I trust I'm giving away no secrets when I reveal that I myself was first approached by MI6 when writing the "Cutting a Dash" column on Man About Town magazine in the early 1950s.

THE DEFINING moment of John Hunt's life was his leadership of the 1953 Everest expedition when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of the world's highest peak. Hunt will always be remembered for Everest, but his qualities of warmth, humour and kindness, tempered by shrewd judgement and prodigious organisational skills, left their mark far beyond the world of mountaineering, in a long, distinguished career as soldier, explorer and statesman.

LORD HUNT, the man who led the first team to conquer Everest, has died aged 88. His daughter, Sally Nesbitt, announced yesterday that the peer, who had been ill for a short time, died peacefully at home in Henley, Oxfordshire, on Saturday night.

LORD HUNT, the man who led the first team to conquer Everest, has died aged 88. His daughter, Sally Nesbitt, announced yesterday that the peer, who had been ill for a short time, died peacefully at home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on Saturday night.

SEE THE honeymoon beds of four royal marriages (all disasters). Marvel at the Queen's taste in Sixties plastic-weave basket chairs. Walk the same decks as the Clintons, Mandela, Yeltsin, Eisenhower, various sheiks, potentates and the Swedish Royal Family.

THE QUEEN is to lead mourners at a formal service in memory of the victims of the Omagh bombing outrage, Downing Street announced yesterday.

THE Duke of Edinburgh yesterday issued a strong denial that he spoke out against the Queen's decision to award Britain's highest order of chivalry to the Emperor of Japan.

The Agreeable World of Wallace Arnold

THE controversy over the use of pesticides has been revived after it emerged that the Duke of Edinburgh has been pressing the Government for seven years to explain why it authorises the use of organo-phosphates, writes Mark Rowe.

THREE leading royals - the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York - are to keep their hereditary rights to sit in the House of Lords, as part of a government compromise to get Lords reform through the Upper Chamber, writes Colin Brown.

Producer and composer Sir George Martin, 72, studied at the Guildhall School of Music. In 1962 he signed the Beatles to EMI, producing every record they made until they disbanded in 1970. With 'Candle in the Wind', Elton John's tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, he achieved his 30th No 1 single, the most of any producer. George lives in Wiltshire with his second wife, Judy; he has four children. Singer and television personality Cilla Black OBE, 54, served her apprenticeship on the Merseyside music scene. Her collaboration with George Martin produced a string of Top 10 hits, including 'Anyone Who Had a Heart'. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband and manager, Bobby Willis

YOUR "In the News" article on Prince Philip (9 March) commented: "It is unlikely he will ever have a memorial named after him." He already has - the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme.

Plans to reform the Royal Family led to claims yesterday that Prince Philip is obstructing change, and counter-claims that MPs leaked details of the plan prematurely and embarrassed Buckingham Palace.

Canoeing is a sport that is not too expensive to take up, and beginners' classes are widely available. So, what are you waiting for?