When Paul Torday's novel begins, its protagonist is drifting through life. Richard Gaunt spends his time gambling with money he doesn't have and pushing away anyone who tries to get close to him. An ex-British Army soldier, his tours of Afghanistan and Iraq have left him discharged and disorderly. By his own admission he has lived "on the edge" far too long.
Torday wastes little time before tipping Gaunt over that precipice. Another chronic run at the card tables sends him further into the red. Desperate men do desperate things, of course, so when one of his creditors says he will cancel a debt if Gaunt can walk the not inconsequential distance between London to Oxford within a matter of hours, he manfully accepts the challenge.
Gaunt rarely sticks to the straight and narrow and later becomes ensnared by a group of terrorists who are intent on both marrying him off to Nadine Lempriere - a charming young woman with a suitably exotic heritage - and on causing havoc on London's streets. Sadly, not even a pacy ending can make the thrill of this chase much fun.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations
Edited by Sarah Cleave, Comma Press
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
The years Ramadan fell in May
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
Gulf Men's League final
Dubai Hurricanes 24-12 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
