A German swimmer aborted an attempt today to reclaim the world record for the fastest swim across the English Channel.

River Island has gone. So has M&S. And of course Woolworths. In fact, shops on Margate's high street are closing at a faster rate than anywhere else, it was revealed this week. Michael Savage finds out why

Childhood holidays by the seaside are the source of some of our most enduring memories.Tracey Emin, Esther Freud, John Burnside, DJ Taylor and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown take a trip down memory lane

Father of hitchhiker listens as jury is told of grisly find in sex attacker's garden

A man accused of murdering a teenager in 1991 has convictions for the murder of another young woman and sex attacks on two schoolgirls, a court heard today.

Common law holidays, such as Christmas Day, have been celebrated for centuries, but it was not until 1871 that the British bank holiday was formally codified in law. This was principally the work of Sir John Lubbock, a politician who had a romantic belief in the rights of Englishmen to play village cricket on their statutory days off.

Roll up! Roll up! The carnival freak show's back from retirement to shock and amaze, but all done in the best possible taste, says Jonathan Brown

A disused high-street store is the setting for a study in 'prettiness with intent'

The mystery of Vicky Hamilton's disappearance in 1991 has finally been solved after a convicted murderer was found guilty of killing her

Convicted sex killer Peter Tobin was jailed for a minimum of 30 years today for the "barbaric" murder of schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton.

My Life In A Column

Despite Lucian Freud's reputation as Britain's most celebrated portrait painter, the reclusive artist prefers to keep himself to himself. Still, diners at The Wolseley restaurant were surprised to see Freud eating alone at the chic Piccadilly eatery last week.

An Oscar winner for his ravishing photography of Sidney Pollack's film Out of Africa (1985), David Watkin was one of the finest and most innovative of British cinematographers, his work ranging from the unconventional pyrotechnics of Richard Lester's offbeat comedies to the magisterial sweep of Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981) and the surreal flavour of life on an army camp in Mike Nichols's Catch-22 (1970).

Bob Geldof has vented his anger at politicians and lamented the West's policies towards Africa. But the latest target for the outspoken anti-poverty campaigner is not a national leader or a failed state. It's much closer to home than that. He thinks Margate is ugly.