However, the guard said that he was only able to sell him the ticket because Mr Gash knew the price. The ticket was handwritten and Mr Gash says that the bus and the Bluebell Railway both needed persuading to accept it."The Independent on Sunday's Great British Rail Disaster" by Christian Wolmar, which includes more than 60 items from this column, is published by Ian Allan at pounds 5 99. I am South West Trains, you want Network SouthCentral."Mr Gash was offered a ticket to Balham, but refused, since East Grinstead trains do not even stop there. There, the clerk showed Mr Gash a brochure saying the fare was only available from Network SouthCentral and intermediate stations between Victoria and East Grinstead. "But," protested Mr Gash, "Clapham Junction is an intermediate station." The clerk pointed to his badge and said: "I can't sell you a ticket. But at Hounslow station, Mr Gash was told the through ticket could not be purchased and he could only get a return to Clapham Junction. It manages sites for local councils, mostly in the north of England, sometimes under licence. Mr Smith has been its president since 1973.One article that forms part of the action appeared in the Northern Gypsy Voice magazine in 1993 It is quoted as saying: "Hughie Smith.

appears to be only interested in his own business."Mr Smith is also suing over a letter, said to be from the Society of Travelling People. It is quoted as saying: "There have been many reported instances of mismanagement by Mr Smith, when he has taken over a licence for a site. Bully tactics and threats are often used by Mr Smith to replace wardens and to evict families whom he doesn't want on the site."The case, for which no date has yet been set, could be lengthy, with more than 50 libels detailed.. Brendan Gash, cheered by the warm weather, decided to travel from his home in Hounslow, west London, to the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. He rang Waterloo's enquiry service to ask the fare and the train time: 10 30am from Clapham Junction to East Grinstead with a fare of pounds 12.30 including the bus journey to the railway from the station and the Bluebell run So far so good. They include officers of the Gypsy Council for Education, Culture, Welfare and Civil Rights, and members of the Society of Travelling People and the National Romani Rights Association.The Cheshire-based National Gypsy Council has been the only traveller group regularly to receive a grant from the Department of the Environment.

"But even the best cook couldn't prepare our specialities in London and make them taste the same."Armando Venezia, owner of the Vecchia Lanterna in Turin, added: "I don't like talking about one restaurant being better than another, because the only way to produce really great cuisine is with humility and love. But you can't say which Italian restaurant is the best because there is no one thing called Italian cooking There are a hundred different types.''. Britain's gypsy community is to be split by a large-scale court battle, with the president of the National Gypsy Council, Hughie Smith, suing members of rival traveller associations for libel. Writs have been served by lawyers acting for Mr Smith, who has been upset by claims that he has mismanaged travellers' sites that his group runs for local authorities. In his statement of claim, Mr Smith has alleged that articles and letters written about himimplied that he profited personally from these operations.Eight defendants deny libel. Paris food they rate as among the worst - heavy, lazy, lacking in imagination.

They do not rate the Marco Pierre White school: "He has great creative ideas," Ms Gray says dismissively, "but we just take the best fish on earth and do as little as possible to it."In the nine years of the River Cafe, their influence has been extraordinary. They share the cooking themselves which is why they have no intention of opening any more restaurants. The New Yorker endorsement is gratifying - but the tables are already booked.n Indignation at the New Yorker's suggestion was much in evidence yesterday among Italy's greatest chefs, writes Andrew Gumbel in Rome. "Whoever wrote the article in the New Yorker obviously doesn't know our restaurants very well," tut-tutted Ezio Santin, owner of the Antica Osteria del Ponte just outside Milan, which boasts three Michelin stars for dishes such as risotto with saffron and zucchini flowers, or almond-garnished crepes filled with kid's meat."I'm sure there are Italian restaurants abroad where you eat well, especially since Mediterranean cooking has spread pretty much everywhere," said Riccardo Monco, a second chef at the Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence. Bramanata polenta is an organic mixture of three types of maize kernels...."The good food in Italy is all in private houses with good cooks, they say.