Full disclosure, I’m a Norwich fan. But having had the pleasure of watching Grant Holt for three seasons now actually makes me more and more convinced that he could do a job for England this summer… if given the chance. I seriously doubt whether he will be, because Hodgson probably...

It’s not the most high-profile of literary awards, but it must surely be the most esoteric. The Ondaatje Prize is awarded each year to the “book of the highest literary merit – fiction, non-fiction, poetry – evoking the spirit of a place”. This can mean almost...

Copy: The National, Gulf Life, Vision,  The Observer This spring I’ve been busy with the International Prize For Arabic Fiction – colloquially known as the Arabic Booker - for a number of publications. First I spoke with one of the nominees, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere for Gulf...

Copy: Sports Illustrated, May 2012 Tonight, the annual bunfight to get into “the best league in the world” begins with the Championship playoffs. But, actually, how good is the Premier League? This is what I investigated for Sports Illustrated this month – I went to see...

Copy: Sports Illustrated, March 2012 >> Such are the vagaries of publishing deadlines that writing about Manchester City’s chances of winning the Premier League title in February was always likely to have an element of risk attached to it. Still, this week I was pretty pleased that...