Seen & Heard

It was never likely to be a meeting of minds.

That well-known carnivore, Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor, responded to a gift of vegetarian recipes from Paul McCartney by sending back a copy of his own book, which, co-authored with his wife, Hannelore, and entitled Culinary excursion through German lands, features a variety of heavy meat dishes, including the Chancellor's favourite - sow stomach stuffed with spiced pork. McCartney, a vegetarian for 20 years, returned the Kohls' book with a letter attacking the `unnecessary suffering' that occurred to create such food.