Serves 6-8

1. Nautical knot doorstop

Weekend preview: Godolphin riders renew rivalry at Kempton, where both should score, while Thimaar can take the Queen's Prize

Serves 4 as a starter

It's such a leap of faith, going to a completely unknown restaurant in an unfamiliar town. Rather like going on a blind date with someone you've met online (or so I would imagine, she adds hastily). Their profile photo looks appealing, they sound as though they'll be fun and they seem to like all the same things you do. Then you meet them, and you can tell at first glance it just isn't going to work out.

Slugs and snails have regained their crown as the most pesky pests to munch a destructive path through Britain's gardens. Having been toppled from their customary first place in 2010 by the viburnum beetle, they slithered back to the top of the list in 2011 as the pest gardeners most love to loathe.

You can see why these memoirs of a colonial administrator in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands were a hit in 1952. Vivid and amusing, they transport the reader to the equatorial Pacific of a century ago.

A 17-year-old boy has been remanded in custody in connection with an incident in which a four-year-old girl was hit in the face with a brick.

Paul the octopus, which won unlikely worldwide fame correctly predicting a host of World Cup matches, has died, his owners said yesterday.