Many mainstream critics misunderstood Foster Wallace while he was alive – will publication of his final novel just see them trying to work out its relation to his life story? David Foster Wallace killed himself in September 2008 , and his unfinished novel, The Pale King, which will be published posthumously on 16 April, is on top of all the buzz lists for spring. Wallace was one of my favourites, but I’m wary of reading this one. I can tell you exactly when and why I came to love his work: Octet, in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men . I was reading on the shag-carpeted floor of someone else’s house, halfway into a book that had been annoying me, but amusing and thrilling me just enough to keep me pushing ahead (this after a failed first attempt at reading Infinite Jest), and I came to the midpoint of Octet. The story is a pretty cheap post-modernist game: half-way in, it bitterly acknowledges itself as such, and then goes on for pages and pages, pleading for the reader’s love (writer to self: “you’re going to have to eat the rat and go ahead and use terms like be with and relationship, and use them sincerely”), and citing Milan Kundera. And somehow Wallace managed to suck me into this self-conscious whorl, as the story went on in tiny printed footnotes, raging at itself (“like if you just bought a fancy expensive take-out dinner from a restaurant and brought it home and were just sitting down to try to enjoy it when the phone rings and it’s the chef or restaurateur or whoever you just bought the food from now calling and bothering you in the middle of trying to eat the dinner to ask how the dinner is and whether you’re enjoying it and whether it ‘works’ as a dinner. Imagine how you’d feel about a restaurateur who did this to you”). Well, I guess 99.9% or so of the customers would hang up and stay away. But maybe 0.1% of them would recognise themselves in the restaurateur, stay on the phone to reassure and maybe befriend him, and never order from anywhere else again. That’s what I thought: here was a smarter, funnier version of my neurotic self. That’s how I felt as I read on in his work, through novels and stories, accepting the occasional ungainliness and unpleasantness because he gave me something consoling and amusing and even ecstatic. Then came the news that Wallace had hanged himself , on the patio behind his house, and the news that before hanging himself he had voluntarily submitted to electroshock therapy, and before the electroshock therapy he had been in and out of drug-rehabilitation halfway houses, and my god, all that stuff in Infinite Jest about the mental hospital and the hole of depression opening up in the floor – he had lived it! In an age when lesser writers made millions pretending to have either drug addictions or depressions half as bad as his, Wallace had made comedy of it. He had made art. And many mainstream critics reacted badly. Wallace was, if nothing else, a serious craftsman, yet Michiko Kakutani called his last book of stories, Oblivion, “crude,” “cheap,” and “self indulgent prattling” . James Wood took the book’s final story, a kind of jokey parable about an artist whose art comes out each time he sits to “poo”, and suggested that that was what Wallace was doing : crapping out his work. Despite the hint in the title and the repeated suicide motif, neither critic seemed to get that Oblivion was even slightly about depression. I don’t think they knew what it was about at all. I doubt Wallace minded. “Once the first person pronoun creeps into your agenda,” he said in an interview, “you’re dead, artwise.” He wasn’t about to plead for anyone’s pity, and turned nasty when asked if he had firsthand knowledge of drug problems. He kept rigorously to the post-modernist mode but beat against the walls of its prison, screaming loud so that readers would have to come to his work or flee it. Responses like Wood’s and Kakutani’s are in some ways testament to his power. The writing was too much for them. They couldn’t but take it personally. Now the last novel is coming out: the unfinished manuscript that sat in the study while the body swung on the patio. If the book had been going well, would he have done that? Will anyone be able to read The Pale King without thinking of his death? I know I won’t. This is my fear: that all the fun and fireworks of his prose will become pathologised. We’ll all become Woodian gastroenterologists, trying to figure out how the writing related to Wallace personally, how it came out of him. God, would that stink. David Foster Wallace Fiction Gabriel Brownstein guardian.co.uk
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The eagerly anticipated St John Hotel is open for business . Where else might you have a fabulous foodie weekend? Our reporters went looking for the best hotels and destinations • Part two: Skye to the Isle of Wight Hotel du Vin at One Devonshire Gardens, Glasgow There was a time when staying at the very posh One Devonshire Gardens required a rather un-boutique-hotel-like dash out of the front door and along the tree-lined street to the adjoining townhouse for breakfast; my cousin Carolanne reminisces about doing this in her slippers. (You might ask why she’d go to the hotel dining room in her slippers in the first place. You’d regret it.) The hotel is made up of five converted Victorian houses and the last remaining apartment owner refused to sell up for years. He’s gone now, so the stroll through to breakfast is comfier, if duller. The hotel is a pleasing mix of antique furniture, all solid dark wood, oak-panelled walls and stained glass windows, deep colours and thick carpets, mixed up with contemporary pieces and Scottish art work (which at one stage has me contemplating a slightly disconcerting oil painting of Robert Carlisle). I’m pleased to see Stornoway black pudding – and even haggis – featuring on the breakfast menu, but thanks to a far-too-enjoyable late and leisurely meal with the aforementioned cousin in that dining room the night before, I’m not quite up to either and opt for pancakes, fruit, yoghurt and maple syrup. The previous evening’s dinner started with an incredibly fresh razor clam salad with cucumber fennel and black olive for me, and a cool lettuce gazpacho with king prawns, blow-torched for that unmistakable flame-thrown smokiness. As you’d expect given that the place is now owned by the Hotel du Vin group, there’s an excellent choice of wines and an amiable sommelier, sussing my timidity over punchy numbers, brought me an incredibly smooth 2008 Chablis Domaine Bernard Defaix which, light as it was, really stepped up when combined with the clams. A succulent little tower of chicken came with foie gras, caramelised shallots and a scattering of haggis that was perhaps a little too subtle for my liking – but then I’m wilder than most about haggis – and the dish did work well. This time, a slightly weightier – and immensely enjoyable – K Naia Verdejo (2009) from Reuda accompanied the food. I had a pleasant banana souffle to end with but it was as nothing compared to the stunning dessert wines that came out; Willi Opitz Beererauslesse to pair with the souffle, while the chocolate dessert called for a glorious deep red 2007 Maury by Jean Marc Lafage. If you get the munchies, room service (up till 11pm) includes a bacon bap with HP sauce and, joy of joys, beans, or cheese on toast. Bliss (although at £7.50 a bap, it should be). • Double / twin rooms start from £150, book on their website . For more information on places to eat and stay in Scotland, check out Visit Scotland Out and about If you’re staying in the West End of Glasgow for a few days, you’d do worse than to stop by the Ubiquitous Chip, an old favourite of locals just off Byres Road whose much-loved owner, Ronnie Clydesdale, died last year . I didn’t eat there in his time so can’t compare standards, but had a decent, if not perfect, meal. Scallops came fat and juicy, though I couldn’t detect the advertised garlic compote accompanying them so much as some wonderfully sharp and sweet pickled leeks. Galloway roe deer venison was beautifully cooked, meltingly tender and deep red, kailkenny croquettes, tiny cubes of beetroot and a pleasant Drambuie peppercorn sauce complemented it better than the mound of spinach purée in the centre. I had ordered a side of courgette, sugar snap peas, carrot and broccoli, and these, cooked to crisp perfection, were a much better match, though it’s a shame to order them as an extra. Staff and surroundings are pleasant. Legendary Indian restaurant, Mother India is also nearby; they do some very fine things with lamb. Susan Smillie Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham The approaches to the Restaurant Sat Bains are not that encouraging. You turn off a roundabout and down a side road by an industrial estate on the outskirts of Nottingham. And then, suddenly, you’re in some other world, quiet and rural. The place describes itself as a restaurant with rooms rather a hotel with a restaurant, and it has its idiosyncrasies. Lunch is only available at The Chef’s Table from Tuesday to Saturday if there are between 2 and 8 of you. Dinner is more flexible, and, mind you, after one of Sat Bains’ tasting menus, you don’t really want to go further than the nearest bedroom. These manage that clever balance of comfort with fashionable design which is not always the case. Mr Bains’ cooking is clever, beautiful, occasionally witty, sometimes challenging, always a delight to the eye and to eat. He has also built up a formidable list of local suppliers, who provide him with cured meats, game, salads and vegetables. It’s not cheap, but such dishes as mackerel with lardo, beetroot & horseradish; salt baked celeriac with truffle juices; pearl barley with belly pork and pickled turnip have put Sat Bains wholly in the vanguard of contemporary British cooking. • Rooms start at £129 for a double but there’s currently a mid-week offer for a room plus seven-course tasting menu and breakfast at £120 to £140 a person, selected dates in April. Book through the website Out and about Emporia such as the Cheese Shop and JT Beedham & Sons where the fabulous Johnny Pusztai, master sausage maker, maestro of the air-dried ham, mans the counter, light up the streets of Nottingham. If you’re not quite up for the full Sat Bains experience, you might like to try Harts hotel and restaurant . And while you’re there, you are about equidistant from Melton Mowbray for pie-lovers , and Burton on Trent for the National Brewery Centre . Matthew Fort The vegetarian option: Cafe Paradiso , Cork Dennis Cotter may well be the best vegetarian cookery writer in the world, although the man himself would be far too humble to claim such a title. But his three books, Cafe Paradiso, Paradiso Seasons and Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me offer warmth and wit, wonderful recipes and unusual detours – as does his restaurant Cafe Paradiso, on a quayside in Cork. Having enjoyed Cotter’s writing for the best part of a decade, I’d long wanted to visit the restaurant in the flesh – to use a phrase singularly inappropriate for a vegetarian restaurant – and it certainly lived up to its billing. Cotter is a huge fan of Irish cheeses – Knockalara sheep’s, Bluebell Fall’s goats and the famous Cashel blue all feature on the menu, and much of his produce is locally sourced. There are touches of Asia – a vegetable sushi with tempura, for example – but the menu is hearty – this is emphatically not the healthy vegetarian option. Parsnip gnocchi with maple-glazed oyster mushrooms were belt-looseningly filling and the chocolate silk cake was indeed silky. Luckily for those who plan to overindulge, there are two B&B rooms upstairs which can be booked as part of a package with the restaurant. The one I stayed in was huge, kitted out with a sofa, fridge, books and a CD player. And while dinner was excellent, the breakfast the next morning was truly superb – the fluffiest, tastiest pancakes with fresh berries I’ve ever had. And I like my pancakes. Out and about There are plenty of other options for vegetarians around Cork. Cotter gets much of his produce from the Gort Na Nain farm, where you can also stay in the B&B guesthouse. And heading to the southwest coast we found the Good Things Cafe in the lovely town of Durrus – not a vegetarian establishment but one with plenty of veggie options – where we were extremely well-fed, and ate a glorious meal on the sunny lawn. Though my fond reminiscences of the food may be slightly tinged by the fact that it was about the only time in 10 days in Ireland where the rain stopped. • Cafe Paradiso: dinner and one night B&B €100, more info and packages on their website Gort Na Nain B&B rooms from €60 Kate Carter The fishermen’s huts on the beach , Whitstable Received wisdom has it that we should flock to Whitstable for the oyster festival in July – great for seaside weather, less so, as mollusc fans will know, for sampling native oysters whose season starts in September. Go in springtime when the weather’s warming up but the hordes have yet to descend. And if you’re in pursuit of seafood (and why else have you come?), the phenomenally popular, famously tiny Wheelers Oyster Bar is without rival. They offer take out (they only do 14 covers), best eaten on a quayside or shore. The well reviewed Pearson’s Arms has been taken over and reports of the restaurant food have since been hit and miss. It’s a lovely pub though, and you shouldn’t go wrong lounging in front of the fire with wine, oysters or some dressed crab. Samphire restaurant, popular with local food lovers, deserves to be better known, as does William and Brown tapas bar. More famous is the much-loved Jojo’s meze , which has moved to bigger premises out in Tankerton. If you can’t do the seaside without fish and chips, visit VC Jones’s . I’m the fussiest chip eater in the world and these more than passed muster on the crisp-exterior-soft-interior factor, and the 50s style dining room has its own charm. I wandered into David Brown deli , a little gem on Harbour St, and bought some phenomenally tasty sausage rolls I’d heard about from locals. Buy coffee here, for heaven’s sake, rather than the Costa coffee down the road. A few miles west, in its own league, and in very much its own peculiar setting, is The Sportsman run by the affable Stephen Harris. Catch him and he’ll rhapsodise about his beloved location, for the melancholic romance of the place, and the environmental peculiarities that inform the ingredients he uses, the salt marshes that feed the lambs on Monkshill Farm along the road, the sea air that sweeps across the landscape, the estuary full of fish, the seaweed on the shore. The Sportsman attracts punters from all over the world clutching press cuttings about the chefs making their own salt, but it’s as unpretentious a place as you’re likely to find. Book the tasting menu if you’re superorganised, preorder the sample tasting menu if you’re only a bit of a planner. Or, if you’re hopelessly disorganised, as am I, enjoy something from the daily menus chalked on the blackboard. We had steamed wild sea bass with sprout tops, a rich bisque-like crab sauce, and roast chicken, unfussy and big on flavour, from the farm up the road. Along with the home made breads, hand churned butter (with that famous salt) and roll mop herrings, it was all splendid. Oh, and whatever else you do, make sure you scarf some pork scratchings. Where to stay Forget your fancy hotel rooms, the best spot in Whitstable is in one of the former cocklers’ huts on the shore by the oyster fishery, where you can while hours away at low tide watching oil-skinned collectors pick oysters from the beds out front. They’re right in the heart of the town, a two minute stumble from the pub, just round the corner from many restaurants (and wine merchants Magma’s if you fancy getting cosy with a bottle and some oysters). A memorable place to stay. The Fisherman’s Huts have full kitchens and bathrooms, televisions and DVD players in the bedrooms and range from £130 a night to £225. Breakfast at Hotel Continental, a brisk 10 minute walk along the seafront, is included. • Book through Hotel Continental . Upcoming guide, Discover Thanet , co edited by local foodster, Marina O’Loughlin is packed full of tips for eating out in Kent (follow them now on twitter ) Susan Smillie Lords of the Manor , Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire The immodestly named Lords of the Manor country house hotel is what was once the Rectory of Upper Slaughter, a village of honey-coloured stone in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. In common with much of this remorselessly picturesque part of the world the setting makes it easy to imagine yourself living in a gentler age, and here are rich pickings indeed for the historical day-dreamer. In the first half of the 18th century the rectory was once home to Rev Francis Witts, not a particularly well-known man while he lived but almost famous today as the author of a series of diaries spanning almost 60 years and published as The Diary of a Cotswold Parson . As you might expect, the hotel is a handy base for country pursuits like horseriding, shooting and fishing, or if you just fancy a walk for working up an appetite, wellies are available. And it’s well worth the effort, for the heart of this hotel is its kitchen. Under the leadership of executive chef Matt Weedon, the restaurant has held a Michelin star for the last three years and his menu of well-conceived and impeccably presented modern British dishes is complemented by an award-winning cellar boasting some 700 wines. Sommelier Fabrice Bouffant prides himself on the range of wines matched with the food and available by the glass, not just by the bottle. After an entertaining canapé of fish, chips and mushy peas, and a surprise amuse bouche of pea velouté and coconut foam, a dinnertime starter of lightly smoked breast of wood pigeon and braised Kelmscott pork pastilla with salt baked beetroot was matched by a 2008 d’Arenberg shiraz from south Australia, the familiar fruity Aussie bounciness balancing the salty elements, and lurking tannins picking up the smoke in the pigeon. To follow, the pepper and leather of a Crozes Hermitage 2005 drew out the red wine sauce gracing a main course of alluringly pink Longhorn beef rib and a braised ox cheek with Hereford snails, parsley, cep confit and pommes anna. A dessert of prune and Armagnac soufflé was perfectly matched with a sticky 2001 vin santo del Chianti classico, tasting exactly like (you guessed it) a prune and Armagnac soufflé. If the wine list demonstrates a truly global reach, the origins of the ingredients are positively parochial; vegetables come in from Lower Oddington, Burford Brown eggs from Great Barrington, and bread from pastries from Shipton-under-Wychwood, all within 10 miles, to name but a few. Most locally of all, Simon Weaver supplies brie style cheeses (the blue is particularly fine) from his creamery at Kirkham Farm less than a mile up the road. In fact, all the cheeses on the impressive trolley (a roll-top glass affair the size of an oil drum) are from the UK. Out and about There’s plenty in the area to keep you occupied in between meals, too. A very pleasant meander of a mile and half takes you to Lower Slaughter, a champagne truffle in this chocolate-box locale, where you can saunter round the recently restored water mill (entrance to the small museum is a heady £1.25) and its souvenir and retro-clothing shop, and enjoy homemade ice-creams or a cuppa by the mill pond. In the other direction a stroll takes you to Kirkham Farm where you can buy cheeses from the creamery door. The staff at Lords, a interesting mix of European nationalities, are all encouraged to eat out locally so they can advise guests about places they might enjoy. Following their recommendation, I had a very good lunch at The Fox Inn in Lower Oddington , a pleasant, family-friendly pub down the road. The only thing missing was more time to explore. • Book via the hotel’s website . Rooms start at £195, a two course dinner costs £65pp and the 6 course tasting menu is £85pp Rick Peters • More foodie hotels tomorrow: Isle of Skye, Isle of Wight, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire Food & drink Hotels Food and drink Matthew Fort Susan Smillie Kate Carter Rick Peters guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Two Americans were shot dead in their truck early yesterday as they waited to enter the US at a border crossing near Tijuana. A gunman approached a line of vehicles waiting at the San Ysidro border crossing and fired into the men’s pickup truck, AP reports. Investigators recovered 9-mm shell…
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Dear Science was the Guardian’s favourite album of 2008 – but what do you make of the follow-up? In 2008, TV On the Radio pulled out all the stops with Dear Science, a record that did more interesting things with guitars than any other since OK Computer. We named it our album of the year and so did many other publications (MTV, Pitchfork, Horse and Hound). The follow-up, Nine Types of Light, is a more relaxed affair – possibly because it was recorded at Dave Sitek’s LA home with BBQ and ping pong every day, and possibly because this is a band who feel they’ve earned the right to take their time over an album and enjoy making it a little bit more. The classic TVOTR sound is still here – cosmic soul, falsetto, shards of guitar – but the mood is mellower and they’re not scared to tackle the humble love song. You can read a full review of the album in Friday’s Film&Music or check out an interview with the band in Saturday’s Guardian Guide. But for now, here’s the exclusive album stream – have a listen and let us know what you think in the comments section below. TV on the Radio Pop and rock Indie guardian.co.uk/music guardian.co.uk
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Libyan leader, or ‘Papa’, is also a generous employer who likes to give gold watches to staff, says Oksana Balinskaya Muammar Gaddafi is in rude health, enjoys Italian food and couscous with camel meat and likes to give gold watches to his aides, according to a nurse who worked on the Libyan leader’s personal staff. Oksana Balinskaya returned to Ukraine after war broke out in the north African country. She said “Papa” – as she calls Gaddafi – was generous, giving watches featuring his image to staff every year. “We had no complaints,” she said. “When [we] were in New York, for example, Papa gave a personal order to give us some money so we could run around the local boutiques.” She denied rumours that another, more senior nurse from Ukraine, Galyna Kolotnytskaya, was romantically involved with Gaddafi. Kolotnytskaya, 38, also returned to Kiev at the end of February but has not given any public statements. She was described in US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in December as a “voluptuous blonde”, one of Gaddafi’s closest confidantes and possibly his lover . However, Balinskaya said that was not true in an interview with the Russian daily, Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Galyna worked in the hospital that serviced Gaddafi’s family for eight years. She had the same responsibilities as the other nurses – there were five of us – but was more experienced. The things that have been written about her are made up.” Balinskaya also rubbished speculation that the Libyan leader is “not entirely well” – another claim made in a WikiLeaks cable. “Despite his age, he’s in better shape than a lot of people,” she said. “He looks after his health and has a check-up every year. As for his [blood] pressure, if only everyone could have that level.” Gaddafi was unfussy about food, she added. “He likes couscous, which is served to him with camel meat or lamb. And like all people in Libya, he loves Italian food, especially pasta.” Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Ukraine Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
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Tens of thousands demonstrate against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the southern town a day after 15 people were killed Fresh clashes have broken out in Taiz in southern Yemen as security forces and armed men in civilian clothes fired on protesters a day after 15 people were killed . Witnesses told Reuters that several people had been hurt after hundreds of troops attacked tens of thousands of demonstrators. Men believed to be plainclothes police wielded bats and daggers as protesters responded by throwing rocks. Al-Jazeera reported that hundreds of protesters were wounded in the clashes, with dozens taken to hospital in the capital, Sana’a, 120 miles away. Amid continuing violence against the 32-year rule of the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Gulf Co-operation Council, the regional security group, invited government and opposition representatives to talks in Saudi Arabia, at a date yet to be set. Abubakr al-Qirbi, the acting foreign minister after Saleh sacked his government two weeks ago, said the government would agree to talks in Riyadh. “We welcome the GCC invitation and the government is ready to discuss any ideas from our Gulf brothers to solve the crisis,” Qirbi said. Leaders from core political opposition groups, however, said they would only answer when they received details of the proposed talks. Amid mounting diplomatic efforts to end the turmoil that has engulfed Yemen since February, US officials said Washington was increasing the pressure on Saleh to work out a transition plan with the opposition. “It looks increasingly like he needs to step aside,” one US official told Reuters, saying the US was trying to “turn up the heat” on Saleh to come to terms with the opposition. The Yemeni parties issued a statement late on Monday saying Saleh, his sons and relatives, as well as security and military apparatuses they control, are carrying out planned attacks against peaceful demonstrations with the intent to kill. Analysts said any deal would have to satisfy different layers within the opposition. “There are elements within the regime which is split, the established parliamentary opposition and there are the protesters,” said Ginny Hill, a Yemen expert with the Chatham House thinktank in London. “Any discussion would have to engage with all three levels.” More than 120 people have been killed and 5,000 injured since the protests started in early February, inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The turmoil in Yemen has led to a hardening of attitudes in the US, which now sees Saleh as a liability rather than a useful ally against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the group’s affiliate. The New York Times reported that counter-terrorism operations in Yemen had ground to a halt , allowing al-Qaida’s deadliest branch outside Pakistan to operate more freely and to step up efforts for possible attacks against Europe and the US. According to the Times, many Yemeni troops have abandoned their posts or have been called back to the capital, Sana’a, to shore up the regime, allowing al-Qaida forces to fill the power vacuum. Even before Yemen sank into the latest round of instability in February, the country was fragmenting, said Hill. “That process is accelerating,” she said. Yemen Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
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British PM tells Pakistan elite: ‘Many of your richest people are getting away without paying much tax at all – and that’s not fair’ David Cameron has told the Pakistan elite they have to start paying more tax, and cut out government waste and weakness, if the British public are to back his plans announced today to pour £650m in UK aid to Pakistani schools. Pakistan is now to become the single largest recipient of UK aid. Cameron issued his warning in a wide-ranging speech in Islamabad setting out his plans for a fresh start with the Pakistan government after a turbulent year in which he criticised them for facing both ways on terrorism. Cameron is keen to put the relationship on a more even footing, and lean away from the previous stance encapsulated in the phrase “Pakistan must do more”. He said the British people would need convincing that every penny of the aid designed to help recruit 9,000 extra teachers and put 4 million children into education was going to the right places. He added: “My job is made more difficult when people in Britain look at Pakistan, a country that receives millions of pounds of our aid money, and see weaknesses in terms of government capacity and waste.” He pointed out that Pakistan “currently spends only 1.5% of its GDP on education and what’s more, you have one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world”. He said the Pakistan was simply “not raising the resources necessary to pay for things that a modern state and people require”. The Pakistani fiscal position was a serious one because “too few people pay tax. Too many of your richest people are getting away without paying much tax at all – and that’s not fair”. He said this tax avoidance was neither fair “on ordinary Pakistanis, who suffer at the sharpest end of this weak governance or on British taxpayers, who are contributing to Pakistan’s future”. Cameron is acutely aware that he is taking a risk in increasing aid to a country that is seen as both corrupt, and the source of the biggest terrorist threat to the UK. The country is also buying six submarines from China. But he claimed the 17 million Pakistanis of school age not in education represented an emergency, adding it cost the country more per year than a flood such as the one that hit the country last year. But he claimed such an education gap also represented a breeding ground for extremism. The £650m additional aid for education over four years should put 4 million extra children into school. He also defended the war in Libya saying it was not an attack on Islam, pointing out that as in Afghanistan, Britain was there as part of a coalition and under a UN mandate. Although he praised the resilient Pakistanis for having fought so hard against terrorism, he gave a hint of his thirst for a wider crackdown in North Waziristan, saying: “It’s right that neither the Pakistan army nor Nato forces must ever tolerate sanctuaries for people plotting violence.” His remarks masked Pakistan’s anger over the use of US drones to bomb terrorist cells in North Waziristan region on the border with Afghanistan and the lack of action by the army to send troops in. David Cameron Pakistan Foreign policy Global terrorism UK security and terrorism Terrorism policy Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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StartUp Britain and Better Business Finance offer help to small businesses and entrepreneurs, but teething problems and a lack of genuine advice has left some users cold The launch of StartUp Britain (Sub) last week, a website for UK entrepreneurs, has been dogged by a row over its content, with accusations it has been plugging US firms over British ones and that its content is of little use to UK businesses. The site, which has the aim of “helping Britain’s future entrepreneurial talent by providing links to the web’s best business resources, along with offers from some of the biggest brands in the country”, has been put together by a number of private-sector entrepreneurs, including Jamie Murray Wells, founder of internet retailer Glasses Direct . But despite the fact Sub is a not-for-profit company a huge picture of a perfectly-coiffured David Cameron adorns the masthead, indicating it has the support of government if not funding, which makes the decision to point Brits in need of design help to a US design directory all the more baffling. Gareth Coxon of Dot Design said Sub had made a “massive mistake” in sending users who wanted to “create a logo” to a US-based design crowdsourcing site, 99designs , and said the site in its current form is merely a bunch of links rather than a site containing valuable resources. “The site looks useful if you need something and don’t know where to get it, but at the moment it’s just a lot of links to large companies that don’t need the help,” Coxon said. “It feels like a reasonably designed spam site full of affiliate links for large corporates.” Another British designer on the UK Business Labs forum said he was “incandescent with rage” at the error. But after the error was pointed out on Twitter, Sub changed the link to the UK-based Design Business Association (DBA) directory within 24 hours, receiving praise for its speedy correction. One designer tweeted: “Would that happen with a government-owned site?” Sub itself tweeted: “You spoke – we listened; replaced the 99designs link with a link to designers from the DBA”. But the site also contains a bewildering number of links to external companies offering advice or products for sale, such as Smarta.com’s business plan advice or Brightword Publishing’s small business start-up kit. Coxon said: “I hope it’s the start of something that really helps smaller firms, but it just seems to point to resources rather than provide them.” He also highlighted the quality of some of the advice. “Helping users by telling them to ‘find a great idea’ and then merely point them to an ideas blog is not going to help many people,” he said. Sub is one of two recent launches designed to support small business in the UK that have received praise from the government – both are part of the coalition’s aim to foster Britain’s entrepreneurial talent, support businesses looking to raise finance, and “create the right conditions for businesses to succeed”. Better Business Finance (BBF) was also launched in early-March and promised a suite of tools and factsheets to help smaller firms gain access to finance. It was developed by the British Bankers’ Association along with Barclays, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds and Santander, and promises to support business customers looking to raise finance. Despite Sub’s teething problems, Prue Watson of the Federation of Small Business said her organisation welcomed the launches: “Both of these websites offer good, practical advice – whether [people] are looking at starting up a business or if they are looking for the best type of finance or what to do if they get into financial difficulty. “At such a difficult time for existing small businesses and start-ups, information like this is precious and can help save time and money. It is now important that these invaluable resources are promoted and advertised to the small business community and budding entrepreneurs.” BBF had a less troubled reception than Sub. At its launch, Lord Sassoon said: “The BBF site provides a one-stop-shop for businesses from which they could get impartial information about how to secure finance and consider the best options available for their business. It also includes a series of factsheets about many of the issues that matter most to them, so I urge businesses to visit the site.” BBA chief executive Angela Knight said: “Making the right impression is as vital for business as for individuals. BBF is designed to put businesses in touch with the kind of practical help they need to help make any application for credit a winner. It will also let people know where they can go for additional help and support, including our calendar of regional roadshows.” But some SME owners might balk at the quality of advice offered for those struggling financially. Under the header: “What can I do if I have been refused lending?”, users are told they should appeal to the bank that turned them down, consider alternative sources of finance, or seek support from a business mentor. For most SMEs that advice is either glaringly obvious or just plain unhelpful. Both websites will surely evolve into offering more effective resources for smaller firms in the future, and are a step in the right direction for those looking to launch or improve a business, but have you found them useful? What help do you really need to launch or boost your firm? Work & careers Small business Mark King guardian.co.uk
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Adharanand Finn gets a lift while training with the world-class athletes at an elite camp in Iten There’s a quiet knock on my door. I roll over and look at the time on my phone. 4:40am. “OK,” I say, swinging my legs out of the bed. I haven’t slept that well. The bed was comfortable enough, but I was missing my pillow. I ended up wrapping my towel in a sheet, but it wasn’t quite the same. It’s still dark outside, so I switch on the harsh strip light. A small, bare room. My clothes piled on a white plastic chair. My trainers on the floor. I sit on the edge of the bed for a moment, trying to wake up, but it’s cold so I start to get dressed. In ten minutes we have to leave. I’m spending two days in an elite training camp here in Kenya. Although the country’s Rift Valley area and particularly the town of Iten is full of amazing athletes, the very best usually live and train in camps like this one, run by a Dutch company. It’s a small, grassy square surrounded by dormitories where the athletes sleep. When I first arrive, a few of them are lying on old mattresses on the grass chatting. Another man is washing running shoes in a bucket of water. I go over and sit next to him. His name is Emmanuel Mutai . He came second in both the New York and London marathons last year. The year before he was second in the world championships. In a few weeks he’ll be lining up in London again as one of the favourites. He chats to me politely while working away on his shoes, scrubbing them until they’re spotless. Then he leaves them on the grass to dry and disappears into his room. Also staying in the camp are two of the world’s fastest 1,500m runners, Nixon Chepseba and William Biwott . The day I arrive I get to head out with them for a slow recovery run through the nearby forest. They’re both long and sinewy, gliding along through the trees. I try to run relaxed and smooth, but I feel like a clown trotting along beside them. These are two of Kenya’s most promising athletes and they’re full of confident smiles. As well as being training partners, they’re room-mates at the camp, and between them they won a host of big races on the European indoor circuit this winter. “He won one, then I won one, then him, then me,” William tells me. That evening we eat a supper of ugali and chopped greens while watching a Jackie Chan film in the camp’s sparse common room. Most people turn in before the film ends, ready for the early start the next morning. We leave through the gate just before 5am and walk under the stars to the main road. Athletes stand around in the shadows not speaking while we wait for a bus to come and pick us up. A young man of barely 20 with a big smile asks me how far I will run. Most of the runners are planning to run 38km, which is almost a marathon. The bus will follow us handing out water and giving us our time splits every 5km. “It depends on the pace,” I say. “How fast will you run each 5km?” “Probably 16 minutes, maybe 17,” he says, casually, as though that’s a normal pace for a 38km run. At 6am. At 8,000ft. My fastest ever 5km time, run on a flat course in Exeter, is over 18 minutes. Suddenly I’m worried. A minibus pulls up and the door opens. Sleepy faces peer back at us. The bus is already full and there are about ten of us waiting outside. Somehow we all squeeze in, with people sitting on each others’ laps, or standing bent over, heads squashed against the ceiling. I manage to get a window seat and peer out at the passing verge as the driver cranks up the skipping Kalenjin music. Nobody speaks. Just before 6am the bus stops on a lonely dirt road in the middle of nowhere. A few people walk by in the darkness, looking over at us, as some of the athletes disappear into the blackness to use the loo. The rest of us stand around like early morning workers about to start a shift. I’m still fretting about the pace. A thin, sickle moon hangs in the sky as an orange glow starts to seep in from the east. It’s a beautiful, still morning. We seem to be waiting for something, I realise. “What’s going on?” I ask one of the other runners. “We’re waiting for the ladies,” he says, nodding over to the road where three women are standing holding their watches, getting some last-minute instructions from the two coaches. “They get a 10 minute head start.” A head start is what I need. I run over. “Perhaps I should go with them?” I say to the coaches. “Sure,” they say, and a few seconds later I’m running, gently at first, but soon moving steadily along. Kenyans are brilliant at slowly cranking up the pace on long runs so you almost don’t notice you’re getting faster. By 5km we’re passing bicycles, as streams of people make their way to work. At each corner the road stretches off again far into the distance, but we keep going, without speaking, our feet pat patting, the miles passing as the day rises into the sky. At about 17km the men come past us. First the sound of rushing feet, like something sprinting up from behind. Then they go by, their stride strong, their shoulders leaning forward, little puffs of dust kicked up by their feet. One by one they go. At the front are Emmanuel Mutai and a Ugandan athlete called Stephen Kiprotich who came 6th at the recent world cross country championships. The others are not far behind. As they race past I feel suddenly worse, as though the harsh contrast in speed has stripped away the belief that I was feeling strong, has shone glaring headlights on the folly of my efforts. The women are getting away from me now. They too are running 38km, but the pace is still picking up. Behind me I hear the motor of the bus. As it passes me the side door slides open. The coach, Patrick Sang, a former Olympic silver medallist, grins at me. “You want a ride?” he asks. It’s a beautiful offer. I leap in through the door and sit down on a long empty seat. My heart is pumping, my body tingling to have stopped. “You know,” says Patrick, “It is very high up here.” He’s giving me an excuse, which is generous of him. But it’s for him too. The offer of a lift was more of a command than a question. The bus has to keep moving from the back of the group to the front, handing out drinks, giving out times and offering encouragement. The further behind I get, the harder that is to do. But it’s OK, I’ve done enough. In fact, I’m exhausted. Back at the camp, the athletes are in chirpy spirits. The day’s work is done. All that is left now is to rest. Tea is served by the cook, but hardly anybody eats anything. For those who are hungry, like me, there are slices of dry, white bread. The camp is a strange mix of frugality and wealth. As well as washing their own clothes and shoes in buckets of water, the athletes sleep in small rooms, eat with their fingers, and sit on the floor or on plastic garden chairs. After the run I ask where the showers are. I’m pointed to a cold tap and a pile of buckets. Yet some of these are wealthy men. A row of large, shiny 4×4 cars are parked just inside the gate like a dealer’s showroom. They all own houses and farms elsewhere, often more than one. But they choose to live an almost monastic life here, with running their daily practice. “It’s what we’re used to,” Emannuel tells me, referring to the basic conditions. But also, there is a belief that those who leave, who chose to train at home and live a more normal life, will lose their edge. And with so much competition in this one tiny corner of the world, edge is something that once lost, is hard to get back. • The book Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn will be published in 2012 Running Fitness Adharanand Finn guardian.co.uk
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Life sentence without parole for double murderer who killed girlfriends and left dismembered body parts in canals A carpenter who murdered and dismembered two former girlfriends before dumping their remains in canals in Rotterdam and London has been told he will die in prison. John Sweeney, 54, from Liverpool, was given a whole life tariff at the Old Bailey after being convicted on Monday of murdering Melissa Halstead, 33, a former model from Ohio in the US, and Paula Fields, 31, a mother-of-three living in north London. The women’s remains were found a decade apart, and detectives fear three other women known to Sweeney may also be victims. Sweeney, already serving a life sentence for the attempted murder of a third girlfriend whom he attacked with an axe and a knife, refused to leave his prison cell at Belmarsh prison to hear his sentence. Judge Mr Justice Saunders, sentencing him in his absence, said the gravity of the offences was exceptional and only a whole life term was appropriate. “These were terrible, wicked crimes. The heads of the victims having been removed, it is impossible to be certain how they were killed. The mutilation of the bodies is a serious aggravating feature of the murders. “Not only does it reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killer, but it has added greatly to the distress of the families to know that parts of their loved ones have never been recovered.” The remains of Halstead, whose head and hands were missing, were found in the Westersingel canal in Rotterdam after she vanished from her Amsterdam flat in 1990. She was only identified in 2008 after Dutch detectives carried out a cold case review and matched familial DNA. A freelance photographer, she met Sweeney in London and embarked on a tempestuous relationship, with him following her to Europe when she was deported from the UK for overstaying her work visa. Fields, originally from Liverpool, a crack cocaine user leading a chaotic life in north London that involved working as a prostitute, met him in 2000. She vanished three months later and 10 body parts were found in six holdalls in the Regent’s Canal near King’s Cross in February 2001. Her head, hands and feet were missing. Saunders said the killings had been planned. “The method of disposal of the bodies demonstrates that there was a substantial amount of planning. “Why the killings occurred, I cannot be sure, but I am satisfied that this defendant is controlling in his relationships with women and, chillingly, that control extends to deciding whether they should live or die.” The jobbing carpenter, who worked under assumed names on construction sites around mainland Europe and south-east England, had denied both murders. But, the jury heard, he had a hatred of women and turned violent when they tried to reject him. In 1994 he went on the run living under assumed aliases following the attack in Camden on Delia Balmer, a nurse, with whom he had a relationship. He was finally arrested six years later at a central London building site after the discovery of Fields’s remains. Police then realised there was a connection. The identification of Halstead then allowed them to place crucial pieces in a gruesome jigsaw they fear may not yet be complete. Detectives are appealing for information about three other women, about whom they only have sketchy information, who may also have been killed by him. One is a trainee nurse called Sue, from Derbyshire, who was said to have left for Switzerland in the late 1970s or early 80s. Two former girlfriends of Sweeney, a Brazilian known as Irani, and a Colombian called Maria, have not been seen since the late 1990s, when they knew Sweeney in north London. Asked if the three women were thought to have been murdered, Detective Chief Inspector Howard Groves said outside court: “We have some information which would suggest that is a possibility.” Clues to Sweeney’s visceral hatred of women were found in a hoard of more than 300 violent and lurid paintings and poems found at his home, with one, entitled the Scalp Hunter, depicting a female victim and a bloody axe. On the back of a scratchcard he had written a poem: “Poor old Melissa, chopped her up in bits, food to feed the fish, Am*dam was the pits.” They also found a calendar on the back of a minicab receipt with 16 December 2000 circled and then “9 1/2 weeks” and the letter “P” written under it which within three days was the period before Paula’s body was discovered on 19 February 2001. The jury heard that while on the run Sweeney had told his best friend that he found Melissa in bed with two German men and had killed them all. He also told his former wife, with whom he has two children, that the police were looking for him and he had “done something really bad which would make her hair stand on end”. Crime Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
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