The Sunday Times faces the threat of legal action for inciting racial hatred after a piece by AA Gill branded Albanians "short and ferret-faced".

The feature, headlined "The Land That Time Forgot", was published in the Sunday Times Magazine on 23 July, and detailed Gill's visit to the Balkan state.

He described the country as "a Ruritania of brigands and vendettas" and the people as "short and ferretfaced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies".