I t ends, as it began, with a political conjuring trick. The splicing together of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness must, by any standards, rank as one of the most extraordinary...

now that this gruelling 30-week US tour of Legends has finally ended. To say it’s been tough is an understatement: 25 cities in 30 weeks, eight shows in six days each week,...

CHARLES MOORE T ony Blair gives a date for his departure. Many say that he would have been able to stay if he had not supported the war in Iraq. But what would have happened in...

orders), but we are all secretly dreading this week. Most of us have never known any other Leader. I will be glad when it’s over. Feels a bit like the time we all went down to...

Fraser Nelson says that the departure of Tony Blair and the arrival of Gordon Brown will mark a clear-out of personnel and a marked change in style. The risk is that the new...

Whoever said, ‘Don’t give me problems, give me solutions’, was asking for it. Everyone seems to be claiming solutions now. I went past a children’s nursery the other day...

Irwin Stelzer says that, in spite of the huge challenges facing the Prime Minister in waiting, he has what it takes as a policymaker and a politician, but he will have to change...

Now that the Oxford, Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts Examination Board (OCR) proposes to scrap the last remaining A-level in ancient history, it is time to consider what the...

Alexander Chancellor says that George Bush was probably in two minds about dressing in white tie for the Queen: how to be polite without grovelling to the old colonial power B...

In a rare interview, Richard Leakey tells Steve King that poaching is out of control, that Kenyan parks should be privatised and that global warming has been ignored R ichard...

Rod Liddle is appalled by the implicit threat in new equality legislation to force older people to go on holiday with youngsters, singing ‘Agadoo’ on the coach T he first...

Theodore Dalrymple begins a new column — on globalisation, moronic technology and modernity in general. The environment is what we all live in, of course, but to judge by...

Sir: Reading Clemency Burton-Hill’s ‘Cameron is taking on Brown — in Rwanda’ (5 May) I felt my blood boil. I have every sympathy with the people of Rwanda but surely...

Sir: John Laughland’s pro-Europeans justify the European Union’s existence because it has created peace in Europe. But proEuropeans cannot, any longer, use the ‘peace...

Sir: Average waiting times for an operation are not two weeks longer now than they were under Mrs Thatcher as Fraser Nelson stated (‘These elections will mark the final...

Sir: Rod Liddle (‘Scottish Nationalism is compelling’, 5 May) suffers from a Londoners’ depressing delusion that West Country dwellers should demonstrate servility towards...

Sir: Andrew Taylor (Books, 5 May) writes in his review that Martin Sixsmith was right to suggest that Litvinenko’s murder was not something that Putin directly ordered. Can...

Sir: Paul Johnson’s reflections on space, time and God (And Another Thing, 28 April) are nicely summed up in the saying ‘Time and space are God’s way of stopping...

T o impart wisdom in the shape of a proverb, adults tend to adopt a trite, sing-song voice. In such a voice I was told as a child that ‘pennies add up to pounds’ and found...

T he best thing this country has ever produced is a fine-sown, closely mown and weedless lawn. You really relish it this sunny time of year, when it becomes a work of art, or as...

The real driving force in the battle for ABN Matthew Lynn says that power in the financial world has shifted to little-known hedge funds like the one that turned ABN Amro into...

Sell Madrid, buy Berlin Merryn Somerset Webb F or some years now it has been fashionable for fund managers investing in Europe to consider the entire Eurozone as one great big...

‘It’s a feeding frenzy. There’s so much money’ Judi Bevan meets a top estate agent who thinks only a terrorist bomb can stop the capital’s house prices soaring P...

T he Dow Jones Industrial Average of leading US stocks passed 13200 for the first time last week, after its strongest run (23 rises in 26 sessions) since 1955. The S&P 500, a...

David Gilmour GARIBALDI: I NVENTION OF A H ERO by Lucy Riall Yale, £25, pp. 482, ISBN 9780300112122 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 G iuseppe Garibaldi must be among...

Patrick Skene Catling S UNDAY AT THE C ROSS B ONES by John Walsh Fourth Estate, £12.99, pp. 470, ISBN 9780007139322 V £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 J ohn Walsh’s...

Anthony Daniels RUMSFELD: A N A MERICAN DISASTER by Andrew Cockburn Verso, £17.99, pp. 247, ISBN 9781844671281 T he desire to wage war as if it were keyhole surgery is, after...

I n January 1923 Aldous Huxley signed a contract with Chatto & Windus, which would guarantee him a regular income for three years. He would be paid £500 per annum and in return...

James Joll MEDIEVALISM by Michael Alexander Yale, £25, pp. 306, ISBN 9780300110616 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W inston Churchill once famously declared, ‘this...

Edward Norman ISLAM: P AST , P RESENT AND F UTURE by Hans Küng Oneworld Publications, £29.99, pp. 752, ISBN 978185684717 ✆ £23.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n...

Byron Rogers I MPOTENCE by Angus McLaren University of Chicago Press, £19, pp. 332, ISBN 9780226500768 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O ne of the most interesting...

Jonathan Mirsky Y OUNG S TALIN by Simon Sebag Montefiore Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 397, ISBN 9780297850687 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O ne day in 1915, when Stalin...

Tom Fleming T HE D IG by John Preston Viking, £16.99, pp. 230, ISBN 9780670914913 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 J ohn Preston’s fourth novel is a quiet...

Justin Marozzi M ISADVENTURE IN THE M IDDLE E AST : T RAVELS AS T RAMP , A RTIST AND S PY by Henry Hemming Nicholas Brealey, £10.99, pp. 298, ISBN 9781857883954 ✆ £8.79...

Helena Drysdale T HE K HYBER P ASS : A H ISTORY OF E MPIRE AND I NVASION by Paddy Docherty Faber, £17.99, pp. 261, ISBN 9780571219773 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Mary Wakefield talks to Julien Temple about Joe Strummer and his latest film S ometimes you absolutely know, beyond the gentlest breath of a doubt, that you’re not going to...

Timber treatment Andrew Lambirth With the Grain: Wood Sculpture by David Nash Lewes Town Hall, Sussex, until 10 June Jeffery Camp — Rubicon Art Space Gallery, 84 St...

In the labyrinth Richard Cork Garden of Love, created by Yinka Shonibare Musée du quai Branly, Paris, until 8 July N othing might seem more idyllic than Fragonard’s large,...

Polar exploration Michael Tanner Katya Kabanova Opera North Imeneo Cambridge Handel Opera Group O pera North’s new production of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova is the most...

Distant days Charles Spencer A s the super soaraway Spectator becomes ever more style-conscious and glossy, I like to think of ‘Olden but golden’ as a monthly oasis for...

The misfits Lloyd Evans Elling Bush Kiss of the Spiderwoman Donmar Feelgood Rosemary Branch J ohn Simm is one of the biggest names on TV. If he wanted a West End contract...

Miracle worker Simon Hoggart N ow and again someone recommends a programme, and you’re very glad they did because it’s the kind of show that television ought to make often...

Sound barrier Kate Chisholm ‘T he poem has become a byword for truth-telling,’ is how Eliot Weinberger’s epic list of quotations from politicians and military personnel...

Falling at the first Robin Oakley F esse versus grit. Split-second timing in in going for a gap versus imparting conviction to an inexperienced jumper that he can do it. Sheer...

Winning streak Taki Southampton, New York I received a gift necktie from the King of Greece at the lunch I threw in his honour here in the Bagel. The design on the tie gave...

Leading light Jeremy Clarke O n Thursday last there were two guided twilight walks on offer to the Dartmoor tourist. One was A Bat and Moth Walk, the other Antiquities of...

Love thy neighbour Roy Hattersley M y mother, who put a high value on formal respectability, was deeply opposed to what she called ‘neighbouring’ — the habit of...

Talking heads Susanna Gross I f you don’t play bridge, I strongly suggest you avoid spending time with a group of people who do: you’ll be bored out of your mind. When...

Chips with everything Casinos, like Take That and TB, are making a comeback, says Oscar Humphries I turned 26 last week. In this age of mobile phones, text messages and emails,...

Joanna Pitman talks to Lord McAlpine about his passion for collecting L ast November a de Kooning sold at auction in New York for $137.5 million. A few days earlier, a Jackson...

So near and yet so far Geordie Greig catches an unexpected shag in the idyllic Scilly Isles T he perfect shag. She was wild and alluringly beautiful. She was alone and...

FRANK KEATING I t seems barmy that the first cricket Test match of the summer begins as early as next Thursday. The madcap trawl for profits obliterates all the old established...