SOME novelists expect their readers to learn a new language. Clockwork Orange is challenging, and so, more recently, is Trainspotting. The Gringo Champion is equally demanding.

Unlike most previous Popes, Francis doesn’t buzz off to Castel Gandolfo for a cool holiday during these summer months, when Rome becomes a swelter of stickiness. 

When I discovered an Australian flatworm in my garden I had very mixed feelings, says Dick Warner. 

Ornithologists dislike the use of ‘birdbrain’ as shorthand for stupid, because our feathered friends are very intelligent, says Rita de Brun. The British Trust for Ornithology has called on the British public to take part in a national survey on bird intelligence

I READ recently that a man was jailed for theft.