up on television to talk about Mr Alan Milburn, the new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with undefined responsibility for drawing up Labour policy before the election; 'I...

T he chief recruiting sergeant for al-Qa'eda is not George W. Bush but Frits Bolkestein, the Dutch EU internal market commissioner. Speaking last week on the possibility of...

effort, several friends said they didn't want to see me paraded on television in one of those natty orange boiler suits pleading for American and British troops to withdraw from...

Nv e have been told from time to time that one reason why the Prime Minister has been so slow in 'reforming' the House of Lords is that he feels it is important to have it....

burning straw, though I was nut convinced that people in the flat land below could read them. On Monday night, about 40 of us were up above the Long Man of Wilmington, the...

Mister McGrath says that atheism has been discredited by the collapse of communism and the postmodern need for tolerance Nv hen I was an atheist back in the 1960s, its future...

lain Duncan Smith denounces Bush-bashing Tory 'sophisticates' and says that the President offers a radical agenda of hope at home and abroad p . olitics in the United States is...

Rod Liddle on the proliferation of pointless public notices, and the loss of trust they imply y ou know that you're in a very bad place when there are lots of signs around...

David Shariatmadari on the mysterious policy that now pervades the Civil Service, creating thousands of non-jobs jr ob advertisements can be misleading. When I was just out of...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE I was in court last week, giving it large (as they say round here) to the barrister on the other side. I love the precision, or at least the logic-chopping,...

It's their way of giving small businesses a leg up. So, if you plan to venture into the VCT jungle for the first time a word to the wise: tracking down profits can be quite a...

'Gresham's Law,' said my husband unkindly, possessing himself of the zapper and hopping between channels quite unnecessarily. I had just asked him the difference between an...

Former Railtrack chairman Gerald Corbett says that Labour spin and prejudice helped to cause disaster and the deterioration of the service 0 n 1 September at 10.15 a.m. in a...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade Don't you just love those socio-economic league tables which put Britain a miserable 25th, virtually down among...

Margaret Lenton, headmistress of a leading grammar school, says that the time and money she wastes on legal action would be far better spent on teaching I love my job as a head...

The middle classes are apparently abandoning the work ethic in favour of leisure. Aristotle would have strongly approved — on condition that they knew what to do with it. 'The...

TV presenter Steve McDonnell was going bald. He tried to improve matters. He did not succeed E ach morning, when I opened my eyes, there was another clump of hair on the...

T _ he debate about P.G. Wodehouse's wartime radio broadcasts from Nazi Germany has been raging for more than 60 years. It is re-ignited by Robert McCrum's admirable new...

Iv e oppose the Iraq war. Nonetheless we believe that there is a militant Islamic threat to the West. This must be what many of us think. The two views should not be thought...

I have been thinking a lot about the moon, The reason is that I was staggered by the sheer beauty and power of the radiance of the moon when I watched it from high above Lake...

From George Bathurst Sir: Sucking up to Russia is exactly what we must do ('Why we must not appease the Kremlin', 11 September). Whatever Simon Heifer thinks, they are surely no...

From Bruce Anderson Sir: I had no intention of suggesting that General Sir Mike Jackson's eyebags were removed for cosmetic reasons. In my original article, I had cited him as...

From Sue Seabrook Sir: In her article 'Mummy can't buy you love' (4 September) on implementing the Adoption and Children Bill, Mary Kenny vividly depicts images of 'birth...

From Alice Thomas Ellis Sir: I liked Jane Gardam's review of my book God Has Not Changed (Books, 4 September). Just two points. The doctrine of the immaculate conception...

From Roger Kuin Sir: For some time now, my favourite weekly has been falling into the trap of defining 'conservative' as the American 'Bush league' Republicans define it....

From Damian Wilson Sir: The article on Keith Ward, the 'liberal theologian', interested me CA free market in religion', 11 September). I think the key statement was this one:...

From Father David Forrester Sir: I neither know nor have ever met Mrs Odile Taliani, but surely natural justice requires that her acerbic and unkind attack on Lady Powell should...

Sir: Let us give Lady Powell the benefit of the doubt, thereby allowing herself further to undermine her own argument (Letters, 4 September). Had the 400 houses built without...

From D.J. Taylor Sir: I have known your pop music critic Marcus Berkrnann for 20 years. He is the godfather of one of my sons. Together we have spent trackless hours playing...

Dominic Prince on how to create a community in the heart of London Iv hen Andrew Ashenden took over the running and day-to-day management of the Howard De Walden Estates (HDW)...

Vanessa Tyrell-Kenyon I t takes a while for the body to destress, to slow down and rid itself of its city toxins, impatience and rage. I reckon it takes about a year. That's...

Gerald Cadogan H ungary entered the EU in May, 15 years after the fall of communism. Already Budapest is a new place, and everyone has a car. But don't be put off: the city's...

Mira Bar-Hillel (1) ver the summer, television viewers were treated to a series hosted by the photogenic chief executive of English Heritage, Simon Thurley. In Lost Buildings...

Looking out at you smugly from the pages of Get a Lifesole, You Sad, Unstylish Person are lofters Rajiv and Zoe. The fashionable pair inhabit a loft-style apartment (please...

Philip Ziegler BALDWIN PAPERS edited by Philip Williamson and Edward Baldwin CUP, £75, pp. 526 ISBN 0521580803 © £70 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I f shares in the...

Alexander Chancellor MY TRADE by Andrew Marr Macmillan, £20, pp. 391, ISBN 140500536X © £16 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A ndrew Mart is a great adornment to his — our —...

Tom Hiney THE QUARRY by Damon Galgut Atlantic Books, £12.99, pp. 224, ISBN 1843542935 kt , £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T here is a fading misconception in Europe that...

Francis King CLEAR by Nicola Barker Fourth Estate, L14.99, pp. 346, ISBN 000719241X (t , 112.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T his far from flimsy novel has been written and...

Frederic Raphael DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES by Peter Biskind Bloomsbury, £18.99, pp. 560, ISBN 0747565708 ? £16.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A standard question in movie...

Ed Smith MONEYBALL: THE ART OF WINNING AN UNFAIR GAME by Michael Lewis WW Norton, 19.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0393324818 T wenty years ago there were two pages of sport a day in the...

Graham Stewart THE RIGHT NATION: WHY AMERICA IS DIFFERENT by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge Penguin, £14.99, pp. 450, ISBN 0713997389 £12.99 (plus .E2.25 p&p) 0870 800...

Robert Salisbury ROY JENKINS: A RETROSPECTIVE edited by Andrew Adonis and Keith Thomas OUP, £17.99, pp. 331, ISBN 0199274878 © £15.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848...

Lloyd Evans SOMETHING ABOUT by P. J. Kavanagh Carcanet, £7.95, pp. 49, ISBN 1857546466 H e is most like a poet when writing least like one. Skim the titles of P. J. Kavanagh's...

Douglas Hurd SEVENTY TWO VIRGINS: A COMEDY OF ERRORS by Boris Johnson HarperCollins, fI7.99, pp. 400, ISBN 0007195907 I have read somewhere that the friends of this author...

Jonathan Cecil ACTING MY LIFE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Ian Holm Bantam, £18.99, pp. 330, ISBN 0593052145 © £16.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A s far as I know, there are no...

Lee Langley MAHARANIS by Lucy Moore Viking. 120, pp. 351, ISBN 0670912875 © £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 R eading Maharanis has something of the poignant pleasure of...

Michael Carlson OLD BOYS by Charles McCarry Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £16.99, pp. 476, ISBN 0297847651 ii £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 i n the days when the Cold War...

Sara Maitland MANTRAPPED by Fay Weldon Fourth Estate, 416.99, pp. 267, ISBN 0007194536 £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hat on earth is a 'high concept novel'? For the...

Stephen Abell PINKERTON'S SISTER by Peter Rushforth Simon & Schuster, 418.99, pp. 729, ISBN 0743252357 Ct.) £16.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 £16.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870...

be found in the enormous photograph accompanying a recent interview, taken, apparently, in her study at Number 11. Behind her on the bookshelves several titles are discernible....

Ariane Bankes on how Arthur Koestler's prison experiences led him to start an annual award 0 n 23 September Benjamin Zephaniah will open the 42nd annual exhibition of arts from...

Andrew Lambirth Christopher Dresser V&A until 5 December A ccusations of ignorance have been hurled. When the gentle question 'Well, who in fact is Christopher Dresser?' has...

Mark Steyn Collateral 15, selected cinemas I saw the trailer for Collateral a gazillion times in the early summer, and it did a great job of putting me off the movie. Thud. A...

Toby Young Embedded Riverside Dumb Show Royal Court Stuff Happens Olivier T was planning to devote this column to a 1 denunciation of political theatre. When a new play is...

Patrick Carnegy Pedro, the Great Pretender Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon T he creator of Don Quixote is not exactly known to the world as a dramatist. It turns out that...

Michael Tanner La Gioconda Royal Opera House Orfeo ed Euridice Opera North, Leeds I t seems a strange way for a major inter national opera house to begin a new season, with a...

James Delingpole A t dinner the other night I was sitting next to a nice young chap who helps dream up ideas for programmes like Big Brother and Something About Mary, and...

Michael Vestey Ajou can make a conspiracy out of any thing, I suppose, and a programme on Radio Four last Thursday, Club Class, had a good go but failed to convince me that...

Tristan Garel-Jones A few weeks ago a goddess died — if that is what goddesses do. Carmen Ordoriez — the Queen of Andalucia — was found dead in her apartment in Madrid. Her...

Alan Judd A ccording to the Theory of Substitute Justification, anything can be used to justify anything. You see it daily in publishing and the motor trade (though publishers...

Simon Courtauld ik t the beginning of this month, after two weeks in south-west France (where I came across several fish unknown in this country), it was good to get back in...

Taki T he story so far: on 28 August 1997, Philippine Lambert, aged 20, known as the most beautiful and enchanting girl of her generation, killed herself leaving many documents...

Jeremy Clarke T he cognoscenti will tell you that the best time to visit the south Devon coast is the autumn. The vulgar summer hordes have departed, the weather in September...

Aidan Hartley Laikipia A few days ago I stood on the earth TA.ramparts of Rangariri pa, a fortress where the Maori held out against the British in 1863. New Zealand is...

Petronella Wyatt I was watching Guys and Dolls the other night, with a young Marlon Brand° as Sky Masterson, the world's most successful gambler. Masterson/Brando says...

FRANK KEATING T hey should be playing for the Golf Illustrated trophy, which has nothing like the same purists' romantic ring about it. Not that the Ryder Cup itself, mind you,...

unhelpful. Likewise 'What does your partner do?' or, to a third party, 'Is your friend attached?' When, increasingly, the lack of a ring signifies nothing, even among the more...

order to keep up university ties, one particular old friend, who works for an agency famous for managing spunky tweenie popstars, has taken to regaling her audience with endless...

figure. The job is live-in. My boss has openly boasted of the fact that her entire family has `supernits' which are impossible to treat since nit nurses were removed from...