More than 50 sales at over pounds 1

More than 50 sales at over pounds 1.5m have taken place in London alone this year, but most are eclipsed by a handful of exceptional houses and estates bought by some of the richest people in the world. Christo; MadridPage 17They were reintroduced in May after more than 40 years; Sun Myung Moon; OJ Simpson found innocent; Tilda Swinton, The Serpentine Gallery, London; two monthsMonth by month1 Kobe, Japan (hit by earthquake)2 It was Nick Leeson’s “Error Account” at Barings.3 Norman Lamont4 Oklahoma5 Harold Wilson6 John Major7 Private Lee Clegg8 Saddam Hussein, whose daughters fled to Jordan.9 Douglas Hurd10 Tuning in for the OJ Simpson verdict.11 Nigeria12 The Duchess of York – from her jewels.Famous for 15 minutes1b, 2d, 3l, 4g, 5k, 6h, 7f, 8j , 9a, 10i, 11e, 12cWomen1e, 2h, 3a, 4b, 5f, 6l, 7j, 8g, 9k, 10c, 11d, 12iPolitics1 Nicholas Soames2 great crested newt3 Jonathan Aitken4 Stephen Norris5 Edwina Currie6 George Walden7 The Irish referendum on divorce8 Welsh Secretary9 Brian Mawhinney (paint-throwing victim)10 Michael Heseltine11 Lord Nolan12 Lionel JospinMarital relations1e, 2g, 3a, 4i, 5f, 6j 7d, 8c, 9h, 10bFrighten1b, 2e, 3f, 4a, 5h, 6i, 7c, 8g, 9d, 10jSport1 Donovan Bailey2 He was blind3 The ball was left in the picture.4 Oliver McCall5 Triple jump6 Duncan Ferguson7 Sardines to be thrown in the sea (according to Eric Cantona).8 One9 Red Rum10 Smiling.11 Evander Holyfield12 Bobby RiggsSadly Missed1 Peter Cook2 Marti Caine3 Lord Goodman4 Donald Pleasance5 Kenny Everett6 Harold Larwood7 Lord Lever8 Lord Kagan9 Juan Manuel Fangio10 Brigid BrophyMoney, money, money1a, 2b, 3f, 4d, 5j, 6c, 7e, 8h, 9g, 10iNumbers1-2; 2-7; 3-4; 4-8; 5-1; 6-3; 7-6; 8-10; 9-5; 10-9Where in the universe?1 Bermuda2 Frankfurt3 Warwickshire4 Dayton5 Liverpool6 Skye7 Walsall8 Argentina9 Jupiter10 BrugesMiscellaneous1 Windows 952 Jerry Garcia (of The Grateful Dead)3 Woody Allen4 The merger between the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society and Lloyds Bank.5 Alan Howarth6 The prime minister of Japan7 The beneficiary was Eton College.8 The Churchill family9 Richard Harris said it of Michael Caine.10 Jean Chretien11 The whipless Tory Euro-rebels.12 They all went to Hackney Downs School.13 Denmark14 Slavery15 Damien Hirst (the Turner Prize)16 When the Dutch Bank Ing bought Barings for a nominal pounds 1, while accepting their debts of pounds 660million.17 JamesBits and piecesClockwise from top left: Tony Blair, Divine Brown, Martin Amis, Liz Hurley, Paula Yates, Red Rum, Jonah Lomu, Michael Heseltine, Eric Cantona, Radovan KaradjicOne tale, 45 voices1 Max Bygraves’ catchphrase2 The introduction to the film Star Wars3 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens4 1984 by George Orwell5 The Waste Land by TS Eliot6 “Rip it Up” Bill Haley, Elvis, et al7 Philip Marlow in The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler8 The Sound of Music9 The Masque of Anarchy by Shelley10 Mean Streets11 Marlon Brandon in The Wild One12 Dionne Warwick song title13 Allegedly the last words of Somerset Maugham14 Jack Warner as Dixon of Dock Green15 “Road to Nowhere” by the Talking Heads16 “Doo-Wah-Diddy” by Manfred Mann17 Dick Emery’s catchphrase18 Mike by PG Wodehouse19 Rolling Stones song title20 “Alfie” by Cilla Black21 Beatles song title22 Proverbs of Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, according to Bartlett’s23 Paul Simon song title24 Bette Davis on a passing starlet25 “The Spider and the Fly” by the Rolling Stones26 Philip Marlow in The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler27 Cliche passim28 Mae West29 Frederick Molnar when asked why he became a composer30 Beatles song title31 “She Was a Sweet Little Dickie Bird” by George Beauchamp32 The Godfather33 From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming34 Elvis Presley song title35 The Bridge by Hart Crane36 Johnny Rotten in 197737 Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction38 Strother Martin, the prison boss in Cool Hand Luke39 Marlon Brandon in On the Waterfront40 Tabloid press passim41 Sigmund Freud in a letter to Marie Bonaparte42 The Monkees song title43 The catchphrase of The X-Files by Chris Carter44 Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind45 Dorothy Parker reviewing The House at Pooh Corner in the New Yorker, 20 October, 1928. There was a natural sympathy between them; McCullers, watching them, even called it love. Picture questions

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VE Day 50th anniversary celebrations; Peter McNeeley; Ronnie Kray’s funeral; In 1953, he went to America, did a summer course at Harvard and worked as a bell-hop at a Howard Johnson hotelPage 10Hindu gods; protesting after Chechen rebels marched into the Russian town of Budennorvsk and took the town hostage; Kobe, Japan; BeijingPage 12Bill Clinton in his speech at Yitzhak Rabin’s funeralPage 14American astronauts meet up with Russian cosmonauts in June; Muroroa Atol; The Reichstag, Berlin.

Tanya, who weighted eighty-odd pounds, wore an elegantly grey suit, her head swathed in a turban. After lunch, she told one of her tales – about being young in Kenya and killing her first lion and sending the skin to the King of Denmark It was a hard act to follow. But Marilyn had a story, too, if a less heroic one: she was giving a dinner party, using her mother-in-law’s recipe for noodles, but it got late, the guests arrived and she had to finish off the noddles with a hair dryer Marilyn was always best in comic parts. Then Carson, as she told it later, put a record on the phonograph, and she, Tanya and Marilyn danced together – on top of the black marble dining table, she said.Blame it on the oysters and champagne. Illusion prevailed that day: Karen Blixen and Norma Jean Baker were submerged in the myths of Dinesen and Monroe. Marilyn had not disappointed Dinesen, who compared her to a lion cub, all unbounded vitality and innocence. She knew Marilyn and there was Arthur Miller at the next table; she would ask a few old friends as well.

It was a little disconcerting to learn that “Tanya”, as Dinesen preferred being called, lived on oysters and white grapes, washed down with champagne – so perhaps a souffle, too, McCullers told her cook, in case the other guests found that fare meagre.
On the day, the Millers called for Dinesen in their car, late – when was it otherwise with Marilyn? But Monroe did look luscious in her black sheath with the pronounced decolletage and fur collar. Dinesen mentioned this to McCullers when they were introduced at a literary function, and Carson said nothing could be easier. The truth is out there (43), but frankly , my dear, I don’t give a damn (44) And it is that word … my darlings, that marks the first place where Tonstant Weader Fwowed Up (45) Jonathon Green. On the fifth of February, 1959, Carson McCullers gave a luncheon.

She seldom entertained any more, her health was so precarious, but Isak Dinesen was in town – New York, that is – for the first (and only) time, and there were two women she wanted to meet McCullers was one The other was Marilyn Monroe. But there was still the great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer in my 30 years of research into the feminine soul: what does a woman want? (41) I’m a believer (42). “Do it to me,” she said, “do it to me now: everything you’ve always wanted to do to a woman.” (33) “I want you, I need you, I love you (34), I murmured. “Love,” she said “is just a burnt match skating on a urinal (35), it’s two minutes thirty seconds of squishing noises.” (36) “Oh,” I said, “this doesn’t sound like the usual mindless chit-chat.” (37) “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” (38) I could have been a contender (39), but I made my excuses and left (40). “You can call me Al.” (23) She was the original good time that was had by all (24); she was common, flirty, she looked about 30 (25), but she gave me a look I could feel in my hip pocket (26). “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” (27) I asked “I used to be Sn ow White .. but I drifted (28).