Lance Armstrong - the solution

Lance Armstrong could still make a significant contribution to the fight against drug abuse in cycle racing. The solution? Simply make a full confession - naming names, dates, and practices. Sure - he will lose a lot of supporters - but he's already doing that. He will also lose sponsors - but they are deserting the sinking ship already. And he may end up in court - but that too is already likely. Ironically, if he makes a full confession, he may get more lenient treatment because of public sympathy for someone who has fallen so far from grace.

Most importantly, he should blow the whistle on the Verbruggens and McQuaids who have done so much to damage the sport of cycle racing - in the name of defending it. The change of personnel needs to start right at the top. The process has already begun with the sacking of team managers and major dopers this week. That process should continue - and Armstrong could give one hell of a Big Push if he had the guts. But I doubt that he has.

Jimmy Savile

There was a text version transcript of a reputed out-take from "Have I Got News for You" in which Paul Merton and Angus Deayton mercilessly expose Jimmy Savile as a man who has interfered with under-aged girls and deterred investigation with threats. It circulated widely on the Internet in the 1990s and beyond. This has since proved to be a fake. But the question remains - if it was a fabrication, how come the person who wrote it knew in so much detail what now appears to be the truth?

An Island Tale

I seem to have spent ages re-reading Joseph Conrad's Victory: An Island Tale in preparation for another study guide. It's one of his longer novels, and the experience was punctuated by hot sunshine and (brief) periods of swimming. The story has all the usual complexities of Conrad's fragmented time schemes and oblique manner of narration - but the story itself is a tense thriller. The Swedish recluse Axel Heyst rescues a beautiful young woman and takes her to a remote island. He's pursued by two criminals: one wants his money, and the other wants the girl. There's a gripping showdown when he faces them (unarmed) and all hell is let loose.

Vuelta 2012

The twentieth and decisive stage of the Vuelta today. All the main contenders on another cripplingly hard day performed (reasonably) as expected. Maybe Rodriguez and Valverde should have attacked earlier - but who can blame anyone on those gradients at the finish. But Contador finished well adrift. Enough to stay in pole position for the overall win, but where was the superhuman elan he produced two stages ago? I remain conviced that his erratic performance reflects the selective use of chemical assistance. Time will tell.

English Language Quizzes

Do you know where the apostrophe should go in "My greengrocers oranges"? We've started a new series of self-assessment quizzes, so that you can test your knowledge of English language basics. There's one on Apostrophes, one on Spelling, and another on the correct use of Capital letters. More to come later

The answer to the question, by the way, is "My greengrocer's oranges".

Vuelta a Espana 2012

I'm very suspicious of Alberto Contador. For the last two weeks of the Vuelta he has been struggling to keep pace with the other leaders of the race. Then all of a sudden, today he takes off from out of nowhere and puts enormous amounts of time between himself and his nearest rivals. This is classic doping behaviour. It might take a year or two to become proven, but since he's only just emerging from a previous ban for doping, my money is on a longer term revelation.

Vuelta a Espana

Chris Froome and the Sky team released a brilliant performance on stage six of the Vuelta yesterday. It was like the Tour de France all over again. Sergio Henao, Rigoberto Urán, and Froome set a blistering pace up the final climb, and even though Joaquim Rodriguez beat Froome in the sprint, they burnt off Valverde and Contador in a way that suggested they are capable of dominating this race.

Edith Wharton - stories

My summer reading week(s) recently included two stunning texts by Edith Wharton. She's best known for her novels The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, but she was also a prolific writer of short stories. The first is a murder mystery which is loosely based on the notorious 1892 Lizzie Borden case. Confession explores a puzzling set of circumstances seen through the eyes of a decent but slightly naive narrator who meets a beautiful but enigmatic woman in a Swiss hotel and pursues her to Italy. The other tale, Roman Fever, is her best known and most frequently anthologised. It's a witty and subtle study in manners as two middle-aged American women sit overlooking Rome after lunch, reminiscing about their younger days. One of the ladies comes in for a beautifully delivered shock.

Joseph Conrad - early novels

My summer reading has included the first two novels written by Joseph Conrad - Almayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands which I had not tackled before. They mark an interesting break with the gung-ho imperialism of works such as King Solomon's Mines and the start of a modern consciousness that took a more sceptical view on the activities of European nations in the far east. They also show the early signs of Conrad's famous literary modernism - long complex sentences, non-linear narrative, shifting point of view, dramatic suspensions and an all-pervasive sense of grim irony. The two books are populated by a number of the same characters, and it doesn't really matter in which order you read them. They're not in the same league as his greatest works such as Nostromo, Heart of Darkness, and The Secret Agent, but they are well worth reading.

The Assange Escape Solution

Put him in a diplomatic car (which is immune from seizure) - drive to the docks - take car on board - sail to Ecuador - Simples!

Muse to a generation

For many years I have read biographies of artists and critical analyses of early twentieth century culture in which one name has cropped up again and again - Alma Mahler, or to give her full due, Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel. She had a fling with Gustav Klimt, and was the inspiration behind many of her lover Oskar Kokoshka's best paintings. She married composer Gustav Mahler, then architect Walter Gropius (who founded the Bauhaus) and latterly the writer Franz Werfel. You might not be surprised to hear that she managed fit quite a number of other men in as well - so to speak. She composed songs, neglected her children, drank a bottle of Benedictine a day, and thought Hitler was a superman. All these colourful details, and a lot more, come from Susan Keegan's splendid biography, The Bride of the Wind, with which I have just managed to catch up.