UK and Child reunion
Best-selling author Lee Child (real name James Dover Grant) has moved back to the UK from the US (“because of Trump”) and is not worried about the tax implications. Living in New York City, which has four layers of taxation, with the top marginal rate at 54%, he is finding living cheaper in England. He says he “probably earned” about $200m gross from his books, but got to see only $0.37 on the dollar by the time he’d paid income tax and agent commissions. “So it’s cheaper to work in England,” he tells The Times.
More Rolls than runs
Tim Wigmore’s new history of Test cricket (the only single volume of its kind) contains many historical gems. One is about the Maharaja of Porbandar, a cricket enthusiast but an inept player who captained India on its first tour of England. He scored only two on the tour (both leg glances against Glamorgan), but bought three Rolls-Royces, leaving with more new cars than runs.
Beer before balls
With most of the top European football leagues kicking off this week (Spain’s La Liga already started at the weekend), there has been the usual round of signings. For three Bundesliga clubs it was not so much players but beer. Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Hertha Berlin have signed deals with Budweiser (called, for legal reasons in Germany, Anheuser-Busch Bud) to be on tap in the stadiums.
