Saint Malachy was an Irish priest born in 1094. He became Bishop of Armagh and as such he travelled to Rome to see Pope Innocent II. While he was there he had a vision where he saw all of the future Popes in order of their election. This vision is remarkably accurate when applied to all the Popes since then up to now. If he is correct, the Pope who is elected in next week's conclave will be the penultimate Pope.

"When I give bread to the poor, they call me a Christian," someone once said. "But when I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me a communist!"

You're in the middle of a battlefield in the Middle Ages. There are dead bodies everywhere. Arrows rain down on you. You can't read and everyone is a little bit too busy to stop and chat. How do you know who your enemy is and who your friend is?

Think of a blind musical genius and you'll probably imagine Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles. But darkness was bringing forth music a long, long time before soul and the blues rocked America.

Ask anyone who was a child in England from the 1960s to the 1990s if they were ever frightened by a TV programme and 99% of them will tell you how they hid behind the sofas to escape the “Daleks”.

All the best chefs are men and in the Basque country women are not allowed to be members of the traditional gourmet societies. So why am I such a bad cook? There is an English saying that "Too many cooks spoil the broth" . Well, I can spoil it all by myself.

An eccentric is a one person sub-culture. The English, usually quite conformist, have had a famous tolerance of eccentrics.

Do you remember The Beatles' song “Across the Universe”? Do you know what ‘Jai Guru Deva Om' means? It means, more or less, ‘Thank You to the Teacher'. I like that sentiment. I like lots of Eastern things. When I was 17 I learned Transcendental Meditation.

Imagine you fall in love but your boss says you can't get married. More than that. Your boss says that if you insist on marrying, you'll have to resign. Scandalous, right?

Athletes are supposed to be role models for children. At least, when I was a child they were. They represented the triumph of will over adversity. Work hard, be faithful and you will, if not win, at least compete with dignity. That was the message.