Peter Rhodes on the fight against frailty, wine by the pint and the power of prayer in a storm

Given Britain’s boozy culture, drinking wine by the pint may be welcomed not so much as a freedom but as a challenge.

How many times have we seen the havoc caused by high winds in America’s “Tornado Alley” and wondered why the Yanks persist in building their homes out of lightweight hardboard and super-thin cardboard? If only they used proper, rugged building materials as we wise old Brits do.

And then we wise old Brits suddenly get a real tornado and it rips apart the traditional brick-walled, slate-roofed houses of Greater Manchester as easily as a weatherboard shack in Oklahoma.

Tornados are rare in England but, with climate change, may become commoner. I’d like to think that someone in Whitehall is looking at improving building regulations to make homes stronger. The only alternative may be to import an American tradition from Tornado Alley. They pray a lot.

And on, inevitably, to New Year Resolutions which in my case have always included the fervent promise to lose half a stone or so. Not any more.

It is a golden rule of journalism that if you plough through enough personal-health columns in the newspapers you will eventually find one which requires zero effort and reinforces all your favourite prejudices. From the Daily Telegraph comes an item headlined: “It’s good to be a bit overweight when you’re over 65.” Now, this is more like it.

Like so many men of a certain age, I have a well-muscled body with snake-like hips and a drum-taut belly. It’s just that in order to protect and preserve this formidable machine, I keep it safely wrapped in a few stones of lard.

“Eat and enjoy” is the motto of one dietary expert in the Telegraph who says being a tad heavier than most medics recommend can “help prevent frailty.”

Of late, I have been fighting frailty with mince pies, sausage rolls and that well-known health drink, Baileys. I have every hope of a full cure.