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.

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Brian Viner: No one holidays quite like the British

With a bank holiday weekend almost upon us, followed in most schools by a week of half-term, tens of thousands of British families will, Icelandic ash clouds permitting, be jetting off today and tomorrow for some guaranteed Mediterranean or perhaps more distant sunshine. At the same time, tens of thousands of others will be risking the vagaries of the British weather, and setting off for hotels, rented houses, B&Bs, caravans and campsites in our own islands. The latest edition of The Good Beach Guide, published yesterday, shows that no fewer than 461 British beaches now meet the guide's gold standard, so unpolluted seas at least await those brave enough to wade in.

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Brian Viner: 2012 legacy will come a poor last after rush for gold

Saturday, 21 May 2011

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Brian Viner: A vision in terracotta and cypress trees

Friday, 20 May 2011

Last weekend I was taken to southern Tuscany on what MPs and civil servants like to call fact-finding trips, what journalists call press trips, and what everyone else rudely calls freebies. I had never been to Tuscany before, put off partly by a cartoon in a long-ago summer edition of Private Eye, which showed empty Georgian streets, a sign saying Hampstead and underneath it a notice saying "Closed – Gone to Tuscany".

Brian Viner: City's fantasy football success leaves their veteran supporters with empty dreams

Saturday, 14 May 2011

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Brian Viner: It is thuggery, not sectarianism

Friday, 13 May 2011

It has been a good week for those who believe that the game of football is unequivocally and irredeemably rotten to the core. According to Lord Triesman, who as former chairman of the Football Association has to be considered a pretty reliable witness, the corridors of power stink with corruption. And the stench is not exactly masked by sweet smells of harmony rising from the turf.

Brian Viner: Warne and his fellow masters of spin know how to weave myths around their fine art

Saturday, 7 May 2011

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Brian Viner: A bit of restraint, please Hazel

Friday, 6 May 2011

The BBC sports presenter Hazel Irvine is a reliable broadcaster who generally makes a good job of anchoring golf and snooker tournaments. On Monday evening, however, she shamed herself by none too subtly trying to make snooker's new world champion, John Higgins, blub live on television.

Brian Viner: Life on the road is just about bearable when they show the footie in the hotel bar

Saturday, 30 April 2011

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Brian Viner: The stars who remain off-camera

Friday, 29 April 2011

The death of John Sullivan last weekend passed without much comment away from the obituary pages, which seemed an oversight to me, not that the creator of Only Fools and Horses would have wanted any fuss. He was a softly spoken, gentle, rather humble fellow, as comedy writers so often are, and wryly witty in conversation rather than raucously funny, unlike many of his scripts.

Brian Viner: Laconic Laker left me light on O levels but forever in awe of his Old Trafford heroics

Saturday, 23 April 2011

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Brian Viner: Cheesy royalism is worth drinking to

Friday, 22 April 2011

My local auction house, Brightwells of Leominster, held a wine and spirits auction on Wednesday that included a remarkable collection of whisky, put up for sale by a man who had been acquiring rare bottles for decades.

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