The turf: A good read

When I told a story involving Elizabeth Taylor at a charity lunch lately my host capped it with a better one. Princess Margaret and the screen superstar once dined together in New York. Part way through the meal La Taylor thrust forward her hand, on which glittered one of the chunkiest, most famous diamonds in the world, and asked, ‘What do you think of that?’ Looking disdainfully down her nose, Princess Margaret declared, ‘Personally, I find it rather vulgar.’ At which her dining companion whisked the ring off her finger, slipped it on to one of Margaret’s and inquired challengingly, ‘So what do you think of it now?’ That comes under the heading of Good Questions.

There are others. Even after enjoying a sublimely intricate Arsenal passing movement, I can’t stop asking why Premier League footballers are paid such ridiculous sums. Not so much because I resent rich rewards for talent in what are inevitably time-limited careers but because I think every time of the jump jockeys who go out in all weathers, risking injury and even death every time they climb into the saddle, for less than £150 a ride.