The owner of Hawkin's Bazaar today became the latest victim of the squeeze in consumer spending when it collapsed into administration, putting nearly 400 jobs at risk.

The private equity owner of the troubled lingerie retailer La Senza has floated plans to close a number of under-performing shops in a bid to turn around its performance and slash costs.

"You would make my foot itch, mate. I am not amused. I'm angry." An amusing Northern variation on Queen Victoria's words, delivered by Hilary Devey in gravelly Lancashire tones and accompanied by an angry tremble of vast white shoulder-pads.

Years after the fact, what survives of these great royal occasions are the sideshows. What must have seemed, during the festivities, something to tickle the onlookers and fill a few hours between parties comes in time to seem the thing which lasts best.

It seemed like a good idea on paper, but 'Britain's New Big Thing' failed to live up to its title

They're getting hot between the covers

Richard Weston turned his hobby of scanning rocks into a unique range of vibrant scarves

Victoria's Secret, one of the world's most famous lingerie brands, is in early talks to buy La Senza in the UK.

The Surrey borough has just been named the best place to live in the country, for the third year in a row. Now, footballers and celebrities are rushing to buy there. Oliver Bennett finds out why

Business mogul Theo Paphitis has defended Lord Young's comments that most people have "never had it so good", claiming Prime Minister David Cameron's former enterprise tsar was "technically correct".

Slackbelly

Bono – singer, activist, hotelier, sometime newspaper editor and investor in "arguably the worst run institutional fund of any size in the United States" – is mired in controversies over his anti-poverty foundation, ONE, and ethical fashion house, Edun.

Too powerful for Forbes

Risky business as yeast meets West