her husband, George VI, in St George's Chapel, Windsor, after a funeral at Westminster Abbey attended by 25 members of European royal families. Fifty thousand people a day had...

he world condemnation of Israel for its actions on the West Bank is both disproportionate and insincere. Many of the Arab states routinely indulge in far worse atrocities...

ver since I first came here in 1965, I have loved this city. On my first visit since last September, it now strikes me that what happened then explains obliquely just why I do....

PETER OBORNE S hortly after the death of the Queen Mother a call was made from Downing Street to an official at the Palace of Westminster about the lying-in-state. The Prime...

these days is Victor Meldrew's MATTHEW PARRIS V ictor Meldrew's, apparently, is the tone the Tories want to avoid. But, even as they move in a more receptive direction, this...

Boris Johnson on the suffering of Zimbabwe's farmers and the indifference of big business Masowe, Zimbabwe FRANKLY, I am a bit nervous. Someone has said get killed, looking all...

ONE of the Israeli soldiers surrounding the Palestinian gunmen claiming asylum in the (exquisite paradox) church of Christ's nativity in Bethlehem said that they would not...

Emma Williams on the mistakes that Israel is making in its war against the terrorists Jerusalem A FEW weeks ago an Israeli cabinet minister called on his country to 'do to the...

The three monotheistic religions are in bitter conflict. Jasper Griffin wonders whether the ancients were not wiser with their polytheism TEN years ago, Soviet communism...

Mark Birley, owner of the nightclub Annabel's, says that the British don't know how to be casual SOME months ago, I made a decision to change the dress code in Annabel's. For...

A FOOTNOTE on the Queen Mother, but first: 'Someone whose opinion I respect,' writes a reader from Johannesburg, 'claims that the word few is Old English for the number eight....

Fenton Bresler says the families of the Omagh victims deserve sympathy but not support in their private case against the bombers AT 3.10 p.m. on Saturday, 15 August 1998, a...

ALL flesh is grass, of course — that goes without saying — but, round here, it is also batteries, coins, razor blades, bleach, 'wraps' of cocaine and heroin, and anything else...

Neil Clark says that the new liberal imperialism is making the world safe for terrorists and drug-runners 'WHAT is needed is a new kind of imperialism, one compatible with...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit WHY is violent crime increasing? Because there aren't enough laws? Or because existing laws are not properly enforced,...

PAUL JOHNSON T he most endearing thing about the Queen Mother, and the real index of her demotic appeal, was her association in the popular mind with gin. She thus joins a...

From Mr Amos Oz Sir: Concerning Paul Gottfried's article (Extremism in the defence of liberty', 6 April) about my 'interview with Ariel Sharon', I have one important thing to...

From Sir Albert Robinson Sir: Algy Cluffs article ('Time to deal with Mugabe', 30 March) suggests that Mugabe 'rightly or wrongly' has convinced himself that at Lancaster House...

From Mr Robert Stewart Sir: I enjoyed the article by Simon Heifer on English emigration arising largely from the policies of the Blair government (`The next great exodus', 30...

From Lord Mancroft Sir: Peter Oborne's thoughtful review (Politics, 6 April) of the battle for hunting was not entirely accurate in its every detail. It is correct that the...

From Mr Keith Scott Sir: Australia inherited the English jury system, as portrayed by Andrew Geddes (Blind justice', 23 March). However, what concerns me as a practising...

From His Excellency Gha.zi Algosaibi Sir: Mark Steyn (Say goodbye, Yasser Arafat', 6 April), the dismantler of sovereign nations and destabiliser of whole regions, strikes...

From Myrna Kleapas Sir: There is no country in the world, other than Turkey, which believes that the present status quo in Cyprus is acceptable (Roasted Turkey'. 30 March). By...

From Dr Robin Daniels Sir: Having been thoroughly depressed (and rightly so) by Theodore Dalrymple and his reflections on the passing of a Britain of honour and self-discipline...

From Mr A. Malcolm Sir: Can Michael Henderson (Arts, 6 April) explain why he thinks Wagner was a greater composer than, say, Bach, Haydn, Mozart or Schubert? Is Parsifal a...

Because you and I prop it up CHRISTOPHER FILDES H ere's something: a pension scheme which seems to be defying gravity. A finalsalary scheme, too, meaning that your pension is...

It will take more than celebrity commentators to save British couture, says Colin McDowell THE most distinguished moments in the annual fashion calendar — that frenetic...

Lucy Vickery 'ARE you here to check in, ladies?' The strict, shrill voice rang out around the reception area of The Sanctuary day spa in London's Covent Garden. My hardworking...

Sam Leith THE relationship between Britain and the United States has been concisely expressed as this: anything we got, they got one bigger. And it doesn't just apply to...

Anthony Torrance THE little harbour is crammed with unimaginably expensive yachts, the quayside is wall-to-wall Hermes and Versace boutiques, and the girls sipping Camparis in...

Gillian Scott IMAGINE sitting down to breakfast tomorrow morning to find a cheque for £3,000 in the post, with a note telling you to spend it all on yourself. Prudent folk...

Max Wakefield I WENT to Milton Abbey, a school that was attended by children who had come last in every exam they had ever taken. During rugby matches, pupils who were not...

Carol Woolton WHO would have thought that the glamorous accessory for women this year would be the same as that which adorned their great-grandmothers? In her Golden Jubilee...

Af ter Our Mutual Friend, his last completed novel, there is every reason to suppose that Dickens was essentially done. After the publication of that magnificent novel in...

Diana Hendry FLIGHT by Victoria Glendinning Scribner, £16.99, pp. 260, ISBN 0743220285 T he title of Glendinning's novel has less to do with the fact that its hero, Martagon,...

Man Judd VOYAGES OF DELUSION: THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE IN THE AGE OF REASON by Glyn Williams HarperCollins, £15.99, pp. 467, ISBN 0002571811 D r Johnson was sound...

Robert Macfarlane RIGHT HAND, LEFT HAND: THE ORIGINS OF ASYMMETRY IN BRAINS, BODIES, ATOMS AND CULTURES by Chris McManus Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 412, ISBN 0297645978 I n the...

Hugh Ma ssingberd PAST FORGETTING by Veronica Maclean Review, £20, pp. 374, ISBN 0755310241 T he title of Veronica Maclean's bracing, breezy and often moving memoir comes from...

Judith Flanders THE CHILD THAT BOOKS BUILT by Francis Spofford Faber; f12.99, pp. 212, ISBN 0571191320 I sat on the second stair in our house in a Montreal suburb. The dog...

John Biffen HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW by John Nott Politico's, £20, pp. 350, ISBN 1842750305 A neurin Bevan dismissed political biography: 'I like my fiction straight.' He...

Cressida Connolly WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN? by Studs Terkel Granta, £15, pp. 407 ISBN 1862075115 T en years ago I approached a literary agent with an idea for a book; an...

Charles Mitchell N o doubt the officers of Her Majesty's Secret Service would like to weave supersubtle webs of deception and bluff to ensnare the opposition, if only for the...

Benji Wilson WHO'S WHO IN HELL by Robert Chalmers Atlantic Books, £12, pp. 272, ISBN 1903809991 N ewspaper obituary notices used to be paper gravestones until Hugh Massingberd,...

P.J. Kavanagh HEAVEN Peter Stanford HarperCollins, £1799, pp, 374, ISBN 0002571013 T his interesting book gives an odd impression of having been written by two people, and...

Kevin Myers PUBLIC SERVANT, SECRET AGENT by Paul Routledge Fourth Estate, £16.99, pp. 392, ISBN 1841152447 S o who did murder Airey Neave, Margaret Thatcher's closest political...

Alan Wall HATCHETT AND LYCETT by Nigel Williams Viking, £10.99, pp.424, ISBN 0670912557 0 ne of the problems all historical fiction confronts is usage. At its most parodic the...

Martin Gayford has some advice for the new directors of our museums M any years ago, some people I know took a long walk in Suffolk to the site of Sutton Hoo. At the end of...

Tiaras (Victoria & Albert Museum, till 14 July) What a lot of sparklers Selina Mills E dward Burne Jones once said that, if you didn't want to swallow a jewel when you saw...

Tristan und Isolde (Royal Opera House) La Vestale (Coliseum) Haitink triumph Michael Tanner T he Royal Opera's revival of its 2000 production of Tristan und Isolde is notable...

The Full Monty (Prince of Wales) South Pacific (Olivier) My One and Only (Piccadilly) American rip-off Toby Young W atching The Full Monty — a musical version of the 1997...

Live compromise Peter Phillips W hen is a live recording not a live recording? And what is gained when it is live? The answer to the second question, if it were done as the...

Voices for freedom Stuart Nicholson S oul of Things, a new album from the Munich-based ECM label, provides an answer to a question jazz fans have been debating since 1959. The...

Pauline and Paulette (PG, selected cinemas) Take four sisters Mark Steyn I t occurs to me I don't review enough films about old Flemish women. My mother happens to be an old...

At home with the Forsytes Simon Hoggart F irst things first, and so we must acknowledge that the new Granada production of The Fors - yte Saga is very good indeed. I've...

Victory against the odds Michael Vestey B roadcast at last, The Falklands Play on Radio Four last Saturday did not disappoint and was really quite gripping. The play was...

Sense of purpose Robin Oakley S tand on the top of Tom George's gallops and you can feel you own the world. You can experience, too, quite a nasty jab from the green-eyed god...

Natural friendship Taki T h New York e first friend I made when I arrived in the then merry old England during the swinging Sixties was a cherubic, incredibly pink, forever...

Looking different Jeremy Clarke I cut my face shaving the other day, quite badly, up near the cheekbone. If I'm not more careful, I'm going to cut my head off one of these...

Trouble in Marrakesh Petronelia Wyatt T he donkey and its car-load full of wood was barring the way down the narrow dust-strewn Moroccan street. We were late. Our table at...

be rubbish and not being sufficiently appreciated and all those years of training at the LSC going to waste and never getting a single fan letter or anything, I suddenly...

Matt Bannerman HENRY O'DONNELL, champion swimmer of all Donegal, took four hours to swim the ten miles to Tory Island, and six to swim back again, a disparity due more to the...

Patrick West BRENTFORD is one of those places that the press is fond of calling 'unglamorous'. Driving towards Heathrow, one can discern its presence by six grey-brown...

have to tolerate from an optician in the course of an eye-examination before feeling justified in complaining of sexual harassment? A.S., Horsham, West Sussex A. A certain...

West End exhibitions. Unfortunately. I also have a very rich sister-in-law who thinks she is helping my career by buying up quantities of rny pictures at each show, often under...

wrote about the 'mystery dog's-mess vigilante' of Wiltshire who spraypaints dogs' messes with fluorescent paint. Here is a further suggestion along the same lines. Carry a small...