Maybe there's something in his pedigree - the fact that his father was a maths teacher who did music and sound recording - that explains how he can finish six hard sudokus in only 22 and a half minutes.He doesn't have a secret plan. "You just look at groups of numbers and work out what's missing," he said He practises by timing himself at work. "Carol Vorderman says she can do a pretty fiendish one in 19 minutes. I can manage it in about 10." He seemed a little stunned by success.

"My head's hurting a bit now," said The Independent Sudoku Grand Master 2005, as he left, bearing his Waterford crystal trophy, his champagne and other paraphernalia of victory. "I think something's broken inside it." I'm hardly surprised.. The news that Jude Law had an affair with Daisy, the weekend nanny to his three children by ex-wife Sadie Frost, only serves to reinforce my long-held views: that nannies are the enemy. Celebrities may have slews of publicists to keep their image in check, but still many couples have had their private lives brandished across the headlines thanks to a disloyal and greedy nanny. Nannies are a different breed altogether: they're usually young, passing through and, despite what the agencies may promise, very little is known about them when they pitch up at your front door. By and large, the nannies who get sent out to the homes of the rich and famous tend to be qualified and experienced, but the smarter the nanny, the more likely she is to know how to milk the celebrity for everything they are worth. This can be financial (making ever more ridiculous demands because, like Law's nanny Daisy, you quickly get used to the good life); it can be because they fancy you (actor Robin Williams ended up marrying his); or it can be to advance their career.Just as dangerous is the nanny with the big mouth who ignores the confidentiality agreement she signed and promptly tells her next employer and what's more, all of her nanny chums, all the lurid details. My maternity nurse, hired at great expense from an agency, had arrived directly from Rod Stewart's house in Los Angeles.

For two painful months, I was talked through every detail of their lives - and I never even asked.My husband and I both work, we have two boys, aged 11 and nine, and over the past 10 years we have employed nannies. Though none of mine has actually slept with my husband (at least that's what I think), they have made my life hell. At one point, my husband didn't want to come home for fear of another emotional deluge from me about what the nanny did or didn't do that day.Most I have employed have not only been indiscreet, disloyal and lazy, but also resentful of our lifestyle, which happened to be subsidising theirs. After all, how many entry-level professionals are offered free accommodation in some of the best parts of town with the use of a new BMW and with their food, taxes, insurance and telephones all paid for? Come to think of it, how many uneducated professionals with no real experience to speak of can hope to take home the equivalent of £40k at the age of 23? One of my nannies bought herself a five-bedroom house with her earnings. I reckon she had more than I did.Our first nanny, The Australian, was beautiful but seemed to have factor 20 between the ears.