Former England captain desperate for Test return after break from the side

Loughborough, the university famous for sport, has suddenly acquired a reputation for academic excellence too. Lucy Hodges asks the vice-chancellor how it happened

Leo Abse's parliamentary causes, not one of which was ephemeral and most of which lasted for the three decades of his constant activity in and out of Parliament as Labour MP first for Pontypool and then for Torfaen, had one thing in common – Abse knew one heck of a lot about his subjects.

By Anthony Rose

The green league table is making universities think again. Lucy Hodges on the saints and the sinners

Accommodation for students is more costly than ever, so it pays to shop around

The varsity match traditionally conjures up images of Oxbridge students doing battle on the rugby field or the cricket pitch. But a new university league table published by The Independent reveals that the true clash of the university titans would be between Loughborough and Bath.

Our league table shows why sporty students should head for the Midlands.

It's rare to read a collection of short stories from beginning to end, but Sophie Hannah's debut in the form will leave you feeling genuinely tickled and wanting more. Better known as a poet and crime novelist, Hannah introduces some very contemporary twists into these old-fashioned tales of the unexpected. The award-winning opening entry, "The Octopus Net", sets the book's confident narrative tone. A domestic chiller about a young family's brush with an unidentified stalker, the story is menacing enough to keep the pages turning, and astute enough about rocky relationships to make even the narrator wince. Yet more terrifying are Hannah's stories of shame and humiliation. The more comic the scenario, the scarier the consequences. In "The Tub", a jilted young woman resolves to enjoy a one-night stand with a man she finds repulsive; in the title story a former deputy director of a literature festival so embarrasses herself in front of Ian McEwan, she's forced to move to Loughborough and take a job in a hotel laundry. Stories of ill-judged memos, lavatorial mishaps and petty crimes follow, related with a relish rarely matched since the outré offerings of Roald Dahl.

A train driver was seriously injured when he became trapped in his cabin after hitting a footbridge today.

Suharto's reputation, alas, is now one of corruption and vindictiveness. Twas not always so, writes Tam Dalyell [further to the obituary by Derek Davies, 28 January].

Little did we know that the gentle folk of Windsor and Maidenhead could get so upset about two innocuous letters.