Twentysomething love in London may be their theme, but Anita Brookner's a genius, and A A Gill is pure filth

ERA, THE retail chain, is a splendid example of the stock market's walking wounded. In two horrendous years, the company lost pounds 24.5m and seemed destined for the corporate graveyard.

CUT BACK broom when it has finished flowering, shortening the shoots that have flowered to within a couple of inches of the old wood. Do not cut into this older wood.

A WOMAN who went on a riding holiday at a ranch in Montana in the United States died after her horse bolted, dragging her along the ground.

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy shot two students at a high school in the west Canadian province of Alberta, killing one.

EVERY INVESTOR, big or small, dreams of hitting the stock market jackpot by alighting on a tiddler which grows into a giant. Very few do. Giants tend to evolve rather slowly. Many of the major groups of today were already big, or at least significant, players in the Sixties. There are exceptions. Colt Telecom, floated at 67p two years ago and 1,341.5p in January, is a splendid example of a current, sure-fire winner.

Snake assault conviction upheld

Family values in the US have taken a battering this year. But that won't reduce the significance of Thursday's Thanksgiving celebrations. By David Thomson

A new crop of restaurants is showing that the US has more to offer than burgers. By Nikki Spencer

IT IS ONLY a cabin measuring 14ft by 13, hardly a thing of beauty. Yet photographer Richard Barnes worked awfully hard to take this picture of it. He had to negotiate with government prosecutors for access to it; he had to sign a waiver promising not to look inside it; he also had to agree never to be alone with it. For the entire two-day shoot, he had minders watching his every move.

RANDY MOSS terrorised Green Bay's defense for 190 yards and two touchdowns as the Minnesota Vikings halted the Packer's 25-game home winning streak with a convincing 37-24 victory.

Oh how we laughed (in the second half anyway). Steve Coogan's new stand-up show, "The Man Who Thinks He's It", created quite a stir this week when it opened in the West End. Yours truly did her duty and went along for the opening night, along with a celebrity audience whose collective cashflow could sort out the entire Russian deficit. Plus change for bortsch all round.

Lambchop is not your average Nashville band. For a start there are 14 of them. Also, their leader thinks Nashville product sucks. By Andy Gill.

MUSICALLY, THERE was far more to Roy Rogers than "Four Legged Friend", his popular tribute to Trigger, writes Paul Wadey [further to the obituary by David Shipman, 7 July].