THE most common question I'm asked whenever I give public talks is: "What's your favourite headline?"

This left me stumped a few years ago at an after-dinner speech, so I vowed to collect as many good ones as I could from then on.

It was with sheer joy then that I thought I'd come up with the classic one of all-time on Saturday after Wycombe Wanderers beat Wolves 2-1 in the FA Cup.

I had been told that parking attendants were on standby for the big game. So imagine my excitement when I discovered the winning Blues goal had been scored by Sam Parkin.

I had found out the score and the scorers on my WAP mobile phone outside Tesco in Amersham, and rushed in to tell Mrs Editor's Chair: "I've just got the greatest headline ever."

She looked fairly bored as I announced: "Positive Parkin finally gets a good result."

Sadly, my own senior staff shared the distinct lack of enthusiasm for the headline when I repeated it at morning conference on Monday.

I was at pains to explain how the scheme called Positive Parking had blighted High Wycombe for several years, and that this was a funny take on it.

But no-one got the joke and my idea was relegated to a feeble picture caption at best.

But that perhaps shows just how difficult it is to come up with compelling, funny headlines that everyone understands and that fit into the space available.

My favourite-ever headline came several years ago in The Sun newspaper.

The story was the latest development in the Westland Helicopter saga and concerned a row between politicians accusing each other of lying.

Yes, the article was far too dull for a front page of The Sun and would probably have little appeal to their readers.

But the story was brilliantly brought down to the lowest common denominator by the headline writer who simply asked: "Who told the chopper whopper?"

I also liked the one in The Sun when a passer-by rescued actress Liz Hurley who was being attacked by four young women.

The headline read: "I saved Hurley from four burly girlies."

The most provident one we ever had in The Star was when our front page story told how a deer's life had been saved.

By coincidence, it was the December 31 issue of the paper, so we were able to write: "Happy New Deer."

My probable best attempt came on deadline one late night when Stokenchurch was consumed by a sewage leak.

My chief sub-editor came to me complaining that we'd only left a space for two words in the heading. We only had five minutes left to do it, and no-one else could think of anything.

So in the circumstances, I was quite proud of my solution which read: "It's Stinkenchurch."

If you've got a favourite headline, please e-mail it to me.