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I was standing in line at the bakery here in the Dordogne last week—yes, another tale from the land of crisp baguettes and existential shrugging—when an English couple ahead of me asked, in oddly precise tones, for "deux croissants et un pain au chocolat, s’il vous plaît". The woman turned to her partner with a triumphant smile, clearly proud of her linguistic victory. Then, after paying, she muttered just loud...

…they do things differently there. ‘There’ is China, where I and the Conan Doyle Estate's agent, Tim Hubbard, were on business for a week last month. Hong Kong (1 day), Guanzhou (1), Shanghai (2), Chengdu (1)...

“Unnecessary and stupid”, said Poland’s Donald Tusk of the other Donald T’s initial imposition of tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China and...

Last month I wrote to Only Connect’s editor, Richard Pooley, asking: ‘Where was the leadership and strategy plan that the EU’s Brussels...

Why do so many authors, artists, musicians, actors, sportspeople and entertainers of all kinds have agents to represent them? Why don’t...