T he Korean nuclear crisis marks the bankruptcy of one style of post-Cold War diplomacy and should be the midwife of wholly new methods. It is not only essential that Pyongyang...

‘H istory in the making can be most exhausting.’ When I first read these words — by Noël Coward — I immediately assumed they applied to the writing of it. Having just...

T he House of Commons has scarcely been back a week and already opportunities are falling from the sky for David Cameron. Government failures are spectacular and ubiquitous....

CHARLES MOORE F rom time to time, the parliamentary lobby journalists invite us to admire a particular politician. Minister X or shadow minister Y is suddenly presented as...

By Tamzin Lightwater MONDAY NIGHT Am in spare room at Dave and Sam’s! On ‘webcameron’ duty which means I have to follow leader everywhere, and help with that internet...

Rian Malan , acclaimed author of My Traitor’s Heart , says that the rise of Jacob Zuma as a serious presidential contender is a terrible symbol of his country’s inexorable...

Stephen Schwartz says that we should be more frightened of Pyongyang than of Tehran, and that Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear ambitions could awaken the Japanese giant Washington N...

Narrow nationalism, hatred of Jews, and chauvinism find their meeting place in anti-Americanism, the acclaimed French thinker Bernard-Henri Lévy tells Allister Heath W hat is...

Mr George Osborne was criticised for calling Mr Gordon Brown autistic. Osborne had mentioned in a public meeting that his brothers nicknamed him Knowledge as a boy. Miss Mary...

David Miliband says that the Tory leader’s core idea of social responsibility is a hopeless muddle of state action and individual duty. If Labour gets its act together, he is...

Rod Liddle says we should not be challenging Muslim women, but displaying the courage to ask why they cover their faces in the first place. All else is appeasement H ere’s how...

As Spamalot opens, Iain Johnstone recalls his experiences with the Monty Python team over the years, and hails their enduring legacy S ome years ago I was writing a script with...

From Lord Lawson of Blaby Sir: Pressed to promise tax cuts during the recent Conservative party conference, both Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne were anxious to point out that...

From Robert Walls Sir: The recent tendency for the British press to admire the American system of law enforcement puzzles me. Allister Heath (‘The mean streets of Britain...

From Graham Barnes Sir: Charles Moore should be praised for his generous critique of Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion (Books, 7 October), including the brief passages of...

From James McEvoy Sir: Congratulations to Frank Johnson (Shared opinion, 30 September) for spotting that William Dalrymple has turned into something of a bully. I like...

From Alan Riley

Roberts makes about misrepresentation and the liberal/left cast of history teaching (‘The History Boys film gets me all wrong’, 7 October). But I and one of two others...

From Gillian Harrison Sir: Sandra Howard is quite right. Within the Civil Service at least, Parliamentary undersecretaries of state (the most junior ministers) are often...

From Duncan Blake Sir: Matthew Parris may want to put his hair affair behind him (Another voice, 23 September), but I would like to take the opportunity of confirming what he...

W orld-wide condemnation has followed this week’s report that Notting Hill — the last Eton-governed state on earth — has tested a Conservative policy. Western intelligence...

I can perfectly well understand why someone should be an agnostic. But to be an atheist — to deny flatly and without qualification the existence of God — is to me wholly...

Judi Bevan assesses the qualities of Allan Leighton, the former supermarket boss who is determined to make Royal Mail a first-class service despite fierce competition I f you...

Merryn Somerset Webb If you were 100 per cent certain that global warming was for real, it wouldn’t be hard to think of ways of making money out of it. You could buy a farm...

Matthew Vincent says advertising revenues hold the key to picking shares in the media sector ‘H ave you had an accident at work that’s led to a loss of income?’ ‘Would...

John Andrews says investing is like motoring: it’s not the vehicle that’s dangerous but the way it’s driven D ave wins millions on the lottery, and the first thing he does...

tend not to behave in the same way as traditional investments. This is possibly the single most important aspect of hedge funds, and one that is often overlooked: having both...

Ian Cowie says the simplest ways of avoiding inheritance tax are the best — especially when the law keeps changing I f there is one thing worse than paying inheritance tax, it...

easier it will be to achieve the desired effect. Without wishing to offer a counsel of despair, the ideal time to have started IHT planning is always seven years ago. The reason...

I have been following with interest not to say glee — the spat between the government of Kazakhstan and ‘Borat Sagdiyev’, the latest alter ego of the comedian Sacha Baron...

Sam Leith M URDER IN A MSTERDAM : T HE D EATH OF T HEO V AN G OGH AND THE L IMITS OF T OLERANCE by Ian Buruma Atlantic, £12.99, pp. 278, ISBN 1843543191 V £10.39 (plus £2.45...

David Crane C ALUM ’ S R OAD by Roger Hutchinson Berlinn, £9.99, pp. 196, ISBN 1841584479 ✆ £7.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O n a good day there can be no finer...

Tom Fort HEAT by George Monbiot Penguin, £17.99, pp. 276, ISBN 0713999233 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I have never met George Monbiot, and I know nothing...

D. J. Taylor B EST AND E DWARDS by Gordon Burn Faber, £16.99, pp. 255, ISBN 0571215807 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he most affecting moment in Gordon...

Philip Womack T HE L ADIES OF G RACE A DIEU A ND O THER S TORIES by Susanna Clarke Bloomsbury, £25, pp. 256, ISBN 0747587035 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S usanna...

Patrick Skene Catling T HE L IGHT OF E VENING by Edna O’Brien Weidenfeld, £14.99, pp. 272, ISBN 0297851330 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T hat beautiful,...

Jonathan Sumption L IONHEART AND L ACKLAND by Frank McLynn Cape, £20, pp. 592, ISBN 0224062441 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n the great prize-giving of history,...

Rupert Christiansen W AGNER AND THE A RT OF THE T HEATRE by Patrick Carnegy Yale, £29.95, pp. 461, ISBN 0300106955 ✆ £23.96 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S hakespeare...

James Delingpole N ORTH F ACE OF S OHO : U NRELIABLE M EMOIRS , V OLUME IV by Clive James Picador, £17.99, pp. 264, ISBN 0330481282 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Rod Liddle S ACRED C AUSES : R ELIGION AND P OLITICS FROM THE E UROPEAN D ICTATORS TO A L Q AEDA by Michael Burleigh HarperPress, £25, pp. 557, ISBN 0007195745 ✆ £20 (plus...

Andrew Taylor C HRISTINE F ALLS by John Banville writing as Benjamin Black Picador, £12.99, pp. 411, ISBN 0330445316 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S omebody,...

Victoria Glendinning T HE F RIENDSHIP : W ORDSWORTH AND C OLERIDGE by Adam Sisman HarperPress, £20, pp. 480, ISBN 0007160526 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A dam...

Raymond Carr A B OOK A DDICT ’ S T REASURY by Julie Rugg and Lynda Murphy Frances Lincoln, £9.99, pp. 236, ISBN 0711226857 ✆ £7.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T his...

Jane Gardam N O ! I D ON ’ T W ANT TO J OIN A BOOKCLUB by Virginia Ironside Penguin/Fig Tree, £12.99, pp. 247, ISBN 057122637X ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T...

Andro Linklater P ATHFINDERS : A G LOBAL H ISTORY OF E XPLORATION by Felipe Fernández-Armesto OUP, £25, pp. 428, ISBN 0199295905 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Adam Zamoyski E UROPE E AST AND W EST by Norman Davies Cape, £20, pp. 318 , ISBN 0224069241 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 N orman Davies is always at his best...

A T IME B EFORE G ENESIS (1986) by Les Dawson The rare book shown above (try getting hold of a copy) is Les Dawson’s only serious work of fiction. It provides a disturbing...

Rosamund Pike, starring in the West End, exposes the dramatic depths of Tennessee Williams I t is a Monday morning, after a week’s run of Summer and Smoke , and following the...

Andrew Lambirth Adam Elsheimer: Devil in the Detail Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 3 December Richard Wilson The Curve, Barbican, until 14 January 2007 R egular readers of this...

Roderick Conway Morris Mantegna Padua, Verona, Mantua, until 14 January 2007 I n 1944 an Allied bomb fell into the circular courtyard of the ancient Romaninspired house that...

Mark Glazebrook talks to the curator of the National Gallery’s Velázquez exhibition D awson Carr is the approachable but authoritative curator of Later Italian and Spanish...

Giannandrea Poesio Triple Bill Royal Ballet T here are many different ways to start a ballet season, but an artistically disjointed triple bill is not the ideal one. Even on...

Deborah Ross The History Boys (15, nationwide) I love Alan Bennett. I seriously do. I once saw him in Marks & Spencer (Camden) and it was all I could do not to throw myself...

Toby Young A Moon for the Misbegotten Old Vic The Seafarer Cottesloe The 39 Steps Criterion L ike most of my colleagues, I’ve been fairly critical of Kevin Spacey’s reign...

Marcus Berkmann M y friend Mitch rings up. ‘Guess what my album of the year is?’ He is trying to fool me into suggesting Donald Fagen’s Morph the Cat , for Mitch and I...

Ursula Buchan F or a number of years now, hardy perennials have outsold and outshone trees and shrubs in British garden centres and nurseries. Their relatively small size and...

Michael Tanner Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Royal Opera House of the Gods Linbury Studio E ach time I see Shostakovich’s once controversial opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk I am...

Peter Phillips T he recently concluded Kandinsky exhibition at Tate Modern was widely appreciated for showing how music influenced the artist’s move towards abstraction. Two...

James Delingpole I think I may have worked out what’s wrong with TV. Not just TV but newspapers, films, publishing, everything. It’s that no one can accept things for what...

Kate Chisholm I t’s a great time now to be a woman of that certain age — better health care, with more chance of fulfilment at work (and in bed), and more money to spend on...

Taki T he telephone rings and a downmarket voice greets me with a cheery hello. ‘This is Peter McKay, your old friend,’ says the bubbly one. ‘We hear that Vanity Fair...

Jeremy Clarke I ’ve forgotten who I am. I’ve got loads of personalities and could I suppose become entirely convincing to myself in any one of them if I tried. But I’ve...

S tone, Vine & Sun of Winchester is one of my very favourite wine merchants. I’ve never tried any thing of theirs that wasn’t first rate, and I was not remotely surprised...

Jemima Sissons on where you can meet 55 million friends online P arents’ mortifying behaviour has long been an unfortunate but inevitable part of adolescence. Recently,...

Sarah Sands on a birthday battle of will and wits A few weeks ago, a city trainee called Lucy Gao was widely mocked for sending out an extremely detailed email invitation to her...

Sarah Standing reflects on Venice — a city of operatic magnitude G oing to Venice with someone you don’t really love is as recklessly short-sighted as intentionally losing...

Trailer trash FRANK KEATING F ootball is intrusive, all right; but mightily persuasive as well. It is impossible to steer clear of football, but at the same time — I speak...

Q. I am now working from home and am therefore in situ when my Korean cleaners arrive each week. What is the correct way to behave in this situation? Although their English is...

when it comes to wearing their woolly shooting socks, but which is the correct style of dress? Some guns wear their plus-fours tucked into the top of their socks, secured by a...

strip my bed after staying with people they often say either ‘Oh leave it, you’re perfectly clean’ or ‘Oh no, we’ve just got young coming next’. Is it not essential...