As part of the work of writing about paradise in the former East Germany, I am back in Europe, looking for traces of Goethe, the mad poet, Napoleon, the mad Emperor, and the paradise they were both chasing, by book, edict, and sword. Today I am in Manchester, and who did I find early this morning wearing the English flag for her beleaguered team, the flag of St George, but the Queen herself, in all her weather- and pigeon-stained glory.

Friday night, I had a beer can up there, too

Should all fans of football be so demure.