The temperature soared in London to 33.7°Celsius. Last week, it broke the recent record high of 33.5°C and even made the city hotter than Mumbai. Bets are now being offered that the previous high of 2003 of 38.3°C might just be beaten this year.

So sweat pouring down their brows, happy Londoners are shedding clothes, sprawling on Hyde Park deck chairs, and any available patch of grass, perfecting tans. They are also cooling their parched throats with endless amounts of alcohol. Pubs are full to capacity as the summer binge drinkers flood the premises. It is a very British passion: an obsession with booze in which one drinks to near annihilation. Till some years ago, many in Europe, especially France, frowned upon this activity.
Used to refined drinking with their meals, the French often felt that the British were rather uncouth, indulging in senseless drinking —when they could be delicately sipping their Bordeaux. But alas, the binging bug has sped across the English Channel and is now resident in France as well.
According to a recent study, the number of 17-year-olds who gulp down at least five units of alcohol in one evening has leapt up from 46 per cent eight years ago to over 53 per cent. The number of students who get drunk regularly has also doubled in that period. So even if the French have tried to resist the British lifestyle (which they have always been snooty about) and even the English language, they are now struggling to find a French equivalent of saying “binge drinking”. The closest they have (officially) come to call it is le beuverie express loosely translated as a “fast booze-up”. Linguistics apart, obviously the French will soon have another kind of liquidity problem, because the British have found that this binge-drinking culture has been impossible to reverse.

Meanwhile, millionaire Charles Saatchi (who could also be drowning his sorrows in booze, for all we know) is finding a new way to deal with his post-Nigella Lawson blues by selling off some of the larger pieces of his legendary art collection. While it has now been revealed that he even allegedly threatened to commit suicide if the celebrity chef left him, there are some who suspect this timing of his “art auction” is a thinly disguised means to remain in the public eye, but for better reasons than the ones we have seen in recent months when he reportedly held Nigella Lawson rather warmly around the throat.
Among the “masterpieces” (there are many who dismiss some of this kind of modern art as clever stunts, rather than actual art) is a full size four poster bed with embroidered hangings created by Tracy Emin. But this sudden sale is making the art world worried: while Saatchi might not need the money to fuel his divorce, he has not put any reserve price on many of the pieces.
According to the cognoscenti, this could lead to an embarrassment for artists if the prices fall below an expected level. But nothing that Saatchi does is usually without a shrewd motive. A former public relations guru, he is said to be upset with his recent makeover as a possible domestic abuser. Could a high-profile, slightly controversial art sale redeem his former glory?
At the very least, it will change the conversation about him. So while Nigella who is due to launch her American TV show, hits the publicity bandwagon once again, Saatchi won’t exactly be lurking in the shadows.

And then guess who was mentioned in Time magazine recently? Another man who does not shy away from publicity but insists that he is very “humble”.
In a hilarious and tongue-in-cheek interview titled “Bigger Than Tom Cruise, but have you heard of him”, Time meets the Bollywood star, only to be baffled by Shah Rukh-isms when he keeps claiming to be “personally extremely humble” but also lets drop (perhaps with the tired air of a ruling monarch) that he often steps out of his house on weekends just to wave to crowds gathered outside to watch him.
The Time correspondent was also mystified when she learnt that he is nearing 50 but continues to play a Mumbai “boy” in Chennai Express. And so she actually asks him if he ever gets tired of being the most famous actor you’ve never heard of... “Superstar” Shah Rukh then abandons his “humble” avatar and lets her know that Harvey Weinstein has called him the biggest star in the world. So there! She also seems distinctly underwhelmed by the fact that he keeps his dark glasses on during most of the interview and smokes indoors... Oh, dear, dear! Perhaps, Shah Rukh, when you are in London next time, you might try to learn a little about the British art of self-deprecation. It might make for a slightly more flattering portrait of an “extremely” humble man... He has even claimed, apparently, that Mrs Sonia Gandhi distributes his DVDs, and that he is the most “loved” by the press in India. Really?

Humility, perhaps, could be learnt by someone whose book had been rejected by 47 publishers... only to find that it received such passionate support from one intern in a publishing house that it is now on the Booker Prize long list. Fairytales are made of this!
It has thus been, finally, a great start for Donal Ryan, a civil servant , who wrote The Spinning Heart, about recessionary Ireland from the point of view of 21 different narrators. It is already ahead of most other contenders such as Roddy Doyle and Margaret Atwood. And meanwhile, that intern Sarah Davis-Goff, has gone onto to launch her own imprint. So, well deserved, happy endings all around.

The writer can be contacted at www.kishwardesai.com