Brian Viner

Brian Viner

Brian Viner swapped London for the Herefordshire countryside, and his column ‘Country Life’ documents his attempts to chase the rural idyll. Chiefly a sports writer, he pens a weekly sports column and interview for the paper. He is the author of Ali, Pele, Lillee and Me: A Personal Odyssey Through the Sporting Seventies.

Like Brian Viner on Facebook for updates

Sir Thomas Beecham isn't the only celebrated figure to benefit from misattribution

Brian Viner: I've spent too long talking to TalkTalk

One of the small ironies of our peculiar age is that telephone companies are less communicative than just about any other kind of enterprise. Phone them up and it feels like a minor miracle when eventually you find yourself in dialogue with a human being after all the automated nonsense of pressing 1 if you want this, or 2 if you want that. If only the next option was, press 3 if you'd like to interact with somebody real, but it never is.

Recently by Brian Viner

Vanessa Whitburn, editor of The Archers, has drawn the wrath of fans by killing off a character in sensational style to coincide with the show's 60th anniversary

Brian Viner: The real drama in Ambridge is online

Friday, 14 January 2011

All human life is there. Love, hate, bigotry, tolerance, spite, kindness, pedantry, brevity and above all, the conviction that Ambridge is the centre of the known universe. I refer not to The Archers but to The Archers website. I have never listened to more than two consecutive minutes of The Archers, but for entertainment value, not to mention shock, hilarity and a vivid insight into the human condition, I can't believe that it holds a candle in a hayloft (if not a past storyline, then surely a future one) to the extraordinary online rants of its devotees.

Brian Viner: I spent €250 and things started looking up

Friday, 7 January 2011

Last Sunday's opening instalment of BBC1's adaptation of Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen books, about an incorruptible detective in Rome – perhaps the incorruptible detective in Rome – got careful scrutiny in our house, because we'd only just come back from three days in the Eternal City. "That's where we had the ice creams," went up the cry, causing far more excitement than Zen (Rufus Sewell) being followed by a sinister fellow on a motorbike.

Christmas Quiz: A second chance to win a beer for a year

Monday, 27 December 2010

Due to a production error, one of the questions printed in the ever-popular yet ever-fiendish annual Christmas Quiz from The Last Word would have had you scratching your head for far longer than necessary – it was printed wrongly. Apologies. So here it is again in full. As ever, I am hugely grateful to master brewers Shepherd Neame, who have once again agreed to supply a fantastic prize, namely 365 bottles of Spitfire Ale, one for every day of 2011.

Larry King: He never went straight for the jugular, but that way he found it

Brian Viner: I'm a Christmas card failure. Apologies

Friday, 24 December 2010

Every year it happens, with the utter predictability of my children saying no to the Christmas Day sprouts, and my father-in-law to the parsnips. Somewhere around 25 November my mind turns to Christmas cards, and in particular those destined for friends and relatives in the United States and Australia. This year, I assure myself, will be different. The cards travelling to distant lands, with a bespoke accompanying letter and perhaps a clutch of photographs, will be in the post by the beginning of December. And with that done, I will sit down with the dozens of cards meant for friends in the UK, and actually enjoy writing them, without the pressure of Royal Mail deadlines.

Inverted snob: Coco Sumner seems confused by posh and poor parts of London

Brian Viner: Coco thinks it's grim up north London

Friday, 17 December 2010

Rehab clinics probably don't have guest books – "lovely stay, can really recommend the cold turkey" – but if they did, the children of the rich and famous would loom large. It's no easy matter being born into the limelight, growing up with one or both parents appearing to belong as much to their fans as to you, and in some sad cases even more so.

Brian Viner: The rise and rise of pismronunciation

Friday, 10 December 2010

Not since my schooldays, when a boy in my year called Ian Hunt was cruelly nicknamed Isaac, even by some of the teachers, has the surname of the current Culture Secretary struck me as potentially comical. So three cheers for Jim Naughtie, whose now-celebrated clanger on Monday's Today programme unwittingly kindled the schoolboy humour that brought some warmth to a freezing winter's day.

More brian viner:


Columnist Comments

terence_blacker

Terence Blacker: Give them a stake in our democracy

Talking in a prison library not so long ago, I was startled to learn of the prisoners' favourite writer


Article Archive

Day In a Page

Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat

Select date
 

Partners

  • Compare Finance
    Compare hundreds of deals on top finance offers
  • Independent Dating
    Register for free to find your perfect partner with Independent Singles
  • Business Courses
    Find and compare 1000’s of business & professional Training Courses
  • Holiday Offers
    Holidays for the discerning traveller from the Independent Holiday directory
Sponsored Links