Sam Mendes is the supreme all-rounder whose only duck has been his marriage to Kate Winslet
Wunderkind, from the German 'wonder child'. Can we say that Sam Mendes, 50 today, was one? Yes, on the face of it; a First in English from Cambridge, a cricketing Blue, directing in the West End at 24, running a theatre (the Donmar Warehouse) at 25. But his was no bright spark doomed to flare and dim; this cricketer enjoys the long game.