the Exchequer, was jolly annoyed when Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, decided not to step down in his favour last year after all, according to a new book by Mr Robert Peston;...

O ne of the less worthy reasons cited for going to war in Iraq is that it would increase Britain’s influence in the White House. If this was on the Prime Minister’s mind...

New York A merica is supposed to be the can-do society, where you can order up pizza at three o’clock in the morning and refinance your mortgage with one click of a mouse....

G ordon Brown’s defects are under scrutiny. His critics identify petulance, vanity and vaulting ambition. Much of Westminster, including many Labour MPs, several Cabinet...

John on 6 November 2003, that he (Tony) was going to relinquish the Labour leadership in 2004, he (Tony) said, ‘I know I must leave, but I need your help to get through the...

Douglas Davis reveals new evidence that Tehran intends to use nuclear weapons against Israel, and argues that the mullahs’ nuclear facilities must be destroyed T he Middle...

Irwin Stelzer says that by adopting neocon economic principles, the Tories could give Labour a fight at the election W hen my comments on tax policy appeared among the essays in...

Simon Heffer deplores the fashion for dressing down. It’s ugly and disrespectful and leaves men looking like idiots W e all know that life under the Blair Terror can be pretty...

Mark Steyn admits he was wrong to say that al-Qa’eda’s commander-in-chief was dead, but not very wrong. Osama has been rendered powerless by America New Hampshire J ust...

Robert Gore-Langton on R.C. Sherriff, the deeply untrendy author of Journey’s End, whose run finishes next month O ne of the more bizarre sights of last year must have been at...

It might seem a little early to say so, but if there’s one word this year can do without, it is edgy . It has become a cliché and people seem to use it without any...

Ross Clark says that the existing law allows us to defend ourselves robustly against burglars. We don’t need a licence to murder them T his week sees an event about as common...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE Is there, or could there be, anything more sacred than human life? How precious is our brief flowering or interlude between two eternities of oblivion. That...

O n 20 December bank robbers stole £26.5 million from the Northern Bank in Belfast. They kidnapped two employees in the process. Most people who know anything about Northern...

O h, look. In response to widespread lack of public request, the people at North Colonnade have found something new to regulate. A sequence of count-down advertisements — only...

‘T he photographs that stay with us, haunt us, are always those of particular faces.... ’ Thus the Archbishop of Canterbury on the pictures of the Asian disaster’s...

T hings are stirring on the God front. A leading atheist recants his disbelief, provoking cries of anguish from the Darwinian fundamentalists crowded on to their isolated...

From Robin Harris Sir: My old friend Bruce Anderson doubtless wishes to do his friends in the Notting Hill set some good by blaming the continued poor Conservative showing upon...

Anderson’s final flourish did not embody accurately the chilling image of ‘the feathers of death’. An anonymous seaman writing to tell Queen Elizabeth I of his eagerness...

From Denis MacShane MP Sir: I read with interest Peter Jones’s argument that as ‘tribalism finished Rome it will finish Brussels too’ (Ancient & modern, 1 January). As an...

From Ian Barber Sir: Stephen Glover’s glib dismissal of the three-minute silence for victims of the Asian tsunami was a study in Eurosceptic inaccuracy (Media studies, 8...

From Marguerite Maddox Sir: By chance I read Martin Vander Weyer’s article on the impotence of China as a putative superpower (‘China won’t be a superpower’, 8 January)...

From Carol Cooper Sir: Victor Black’s letter (1 January) referring to David Blunkett’s disgraceful manipulation of his so-called parental rights over William reminded me of...

From Tom Sutcliffe Sir: Paul Sutton, editor of Lindsay Anderson’s Diaries , replied to my review by suggesting I had invented a letter from Lindsay to him (Letters, 18/25...

A s a child, Northern Ireland was for me a place of magic and legend. I was born in Belfast and even after my family moved to London when I was three years old, we returned...

Sophia Hesselgren E arly last year — in February, if we’re going to be precise — I moved to a sunny mountainous village on the Balearic island of Mallorca. It was going...

Ben Sheppard A fter its Olympic success, new improved Athens is still one of Europe’s most chaotic capitals and anyone in town for more than a few days will soon crave some...

Teresa Howard I sraeli teenagers race around draped with flags, middle-aged Americans discuss house extensions, smartly dressed Italians shout and gesticulate wildly and...

Zenga Longmore L OVE FOR S ALE : A G LOBAL H ISTORY OF P ROSTITUTION by Nils Ringdal Atlantic, £17.99, pp. 435, ISBN 1843543141 ✆ £15.99(plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T HE...

Robert Macfarlane T HE W AYWARD M IND : A N I NTIMATE H ISTORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS by Guy Claxton LittleBrown, £20, pp. 401, ISBN 0316724513 ✆ £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800...

Piers Paul Read F ATHER J OE : T HE M AN WHO S AVED MY S OUL by Tony Hendra Hamish Hamilton, £16.99, pp. 288, ISBN 0241143144 V £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A s a...

Anthony Daniels D ON ’ T F ENCE M E I N by Tony Gould Bloomsbury, £20, pp. 420, ISBN 074757510X ✆ £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he leprosarium of the Pacific...

Matthew Dennison I S T HERE A NYTHING Y OU W ANT ? by Margaret Forster Chatto, £16.99, pp. 244, ISBN 0701177454 ✆ £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he ordinariness...

Alberto Manguel T HE E NCYCLOPEDIA OF EXPLORATION, V OLUME I: T O 1800, V OLUME II: 1800-1850 by Raymond John Howgego Hordern House Rare Books PTY Ltd, Potts Point, Australia,...

Andrew Taylor T HE T URKISH G AMBIT by Boris Akunin, translated by Andrew Bromfield Weidenfeld, £12.99, pp. 230, ISBN 029764551X ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A...

Byron Rogers 25 Y EARS OF V I z by William Cook Boxtree, £20, pp. 220, ISBN 0752225251 ✆ £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 R UDE K IDS by Chris Donald HarperCollins,...

T he presentation of this year’s Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize — an annual literary award given, in alternate years, to a volume of poetry and a novel — was an occasion...

T he psychopathology of Wagnerism is a well-explored area, launched in a major way by Nietzsche in 1888 with The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche contra Wagner , and rereading those...

Andrew Lambirth Faces in the Crowd — Picturing Modern Life from Manet to Today Whitechapel Art Gallery, until 6 March T he first part of the title of the Whitechapel’s...

Angela Summerfield Seeing is Believing: Faith in the Tate Collection Tate Liverpool, until 2 May T his is a brave and thoughtful exhibition, for it addresses the needs both of...

Roger Kimball A ndy Warhol once remarked that ‘art is what you can get away with’. And how. Just ask Christo, the Bulgarian-born entrepreneur who wraps things in cloth,...

Toby Young The Producers Drury Lane Mary Poppins Prince Edward Sex Addict The Royal Court S ince 25 October, I’ve been appearing seven times a week on stage, so getting to...

Michael Henderson I t isn’t often that an artist can celebrate a personal triumph when the audience is mystified, and the critics hostile, but that was the measure of Daniel...

Marcus Berkmann ‘ hy do you buy so many CDs?’ asked W my girlfriend. It was not an unreasonable question, although obviously I wasn’t going to admit that. There are all...

Ursula Buchan V Fen gardeners don’t believe that there le is a closed season for gardening and plants. For plant enthusiasts, the ‘Lenten Rose’, Helleborus orientalis ,...

Mark Steyn Team America: World Police 15, selected cinemas T he first thing to be said is that, if you object to swearing, copious fecal matter and vigorously inventive...

Michael Vestey F or many, the workhouse, particularly the Victorian variety, still conjures up in the popular imagination an image of dread and fear. I remember being taught...

James Delingpole I can’t quite decide which scene from the opening episode of Rescue Me (Sky One, Thursday) — the supposedly controversial, gritty and authentic new drama...

Taki Gstaad N othing like the flu to remind one of life’s priorities. It’s health, stupid, with everything else a very distant second. No woman, not even Ashley Judd or...

Jeremy Clarke M y date from the Heavenly Bodies agency certainly looks all right. The combination of protuberances and concavities isn’t half bad, in fact. But when I go up...

Petronella Wyatt S pending any length of time in South Africa is both an uplifting and sobering experience. Uplifting because for an English visitor the days are an unbroken...

One step back FRANK KEATING E ngland’s cricketers are up on the High Veldt, not only taking on South Africa in the fourth Test match, but also their own demons as they...

having made it absolutely clear that she should never unplug my son’s computer, she keeps doing it, even when she has not used the Hoover in the room in question. I do not...

Q. What should a host do when two sets of guests are at daggers drawn? It was supposed to be a jolly house party last weekend but my sister plus family of four got on very badly...