IF IT'S any consolation to Denise Rossi, the woman ordered by a California judge to hand over her $1.3m (pounds 800,000) lottery jackpot to her ex-husband for failing to declare it in the divorce courts, it won't make him happy. Honestly it won't.

IF THE prospect of two weeks in Marbella bores you and even a walking holiday in Patagonia fails to excite you, perhaps it is time to start planning a long weekend in space.

PETER TOWNEND'S first novel, Zero Always Wins, published in 1960, reflects his passion for roulette. His later thrillers, Out of Focus (1971), Zoom (1972) and Fisheye (1974), centre round another passion, photography, and feature a one-eyed photographer as hero. They attracted critical acclaim; a Daily Telegraph reviewer suggested that he might be the new Ian Fleming.

WILLIAM HAGUE infuriated hardline Tory Eurosceptics last night when he announced that his party would remained allied to a federalist centre-right grouping in the European Parliament.

THE CHIEF Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, has plunged into a dangerous liaison with Jesus Gil, the flamboyant and controversial mayor of Marbella, whose right-wing party is advancing throughout southern Spain. The two men sealed their friendship with a pact this week that will infuriate Madrid and prompt jitters in London.

Sir: Steve Devereux (letter, 23 April) omits the first part of the Second Amendment to the US constitution. The right to keep and bear arms clearly refers to the people as members of a defence force, as the full text of the amendment makes clear: "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Letter From... Madrid

AROUND THE WORLD

Marbella has plunged into debt while its mayor has grown fabulously rich, writes Elizabeth Nash

Main Claim

It's warm, cheap, easy to get to and some of Europe's best sights are on the doorstep. No wonder it's popular, writes Jeremy Atiyah

THE FIRST car I saw parked outside the front door of my hotel was a Lamborghini with a Saudi Arabian number plate, the only car in the world designed to be no thicker than a credit card. It was slung so low that it could comfortably have slipped a path underneath any normal vehicle. And yet it was wide enough to accommodate the driver and several girl-friends in the front seat.

THE LAST couple of months of each year are happy days for the travel journalist. On Thursday, many of my colleagues will be flown over to southern Spain courtesy of the Association of British Travel Agents, to attend ABTA's annual convention in the resort of Marbella.

If you like the thought of an end to rainy days on the fairway, head south to a villa with links to a course.