government was not ‘dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous’. Mr Mikhail Saakashvili, who had led popular demonstrations in Georgia against Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, won the...

S ince 1 January is traditionally the moment for facing grim reality, and since we are now only 14 weeks from the official opening of the general election campaign, it is time...

after another disastrous American book tour. Difficult to pick the most abject humiliation. Dallas, where just one person showed up for the event? Boston, where it was twice...

W henever the subject of the EU comes up, someone is bound to compare it to the Roman empire. If the comparison relates to the beginning and subsequent development of that...

A s another year looms, I cannot remember such despondency in what used to be called Fleet Street. It is not just that several newspaper groups are losing money: it was ever...

The BNP may be odious but, says Rod Liddle , there is something fishy about the arrest of its leader I n the middle of December last year, five police officers turned up at the...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade The favourite fatuous gesture of loony councils in the 1980s was to declare themselves ‘nuclear-free zones’ — a...

Mark Steyn says that big government — whether in the form of ID cards or gun bans — makes life more dangerous for everyone New Hampshire W ired magazine ran an interesting...

Neil Kinnock tells Julia Langdon that he wishes he had never become leader of the Labour party T he rooftop view from the sixthfloor office of the chairman of the British...

For the New Year, let’s begin at A. I’ve been nursing a little bundle of newspaper cuttings sent from Majorca by Mr Terence Dunn. They got into the bucket for the compost heap...

Conditions in Iraq are far worse now than they were three months ago, says Patrick Cockburn , and the 30 January elections are unlikely to reduce the violence Baghdad A month...

Mary Kenny says that now she is getting older she finds she is taking fewer baths — and is none the worse for it W e all notice those little signs of the passing years: the...

T wo weeks ago, quite a few of us in London were at a religious occasion. On the face of it, this was unsurprising since it was just before Christmas. But few competing...

W hen the new year is young I always have the impulse to do something sensationally novel in writing. But what? Is there anything which has not been done before? I answer: yes —...

From the Revd Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP Sir: I am sorry that Steve (‘We are all Pagans now’, 18/25 December) believes that we Dominicans are evil. I expect he thinks that we are...

From Sheridan Morley Sir: Could somebody give Toby Young a reliable theatrical history, preferably one of mine? One minor example, taken at random from your otherwise superb...

From John Halford Sir: I have long been an admirer of the work of Professor Norman Stone, so it was with disbelief that I noted his denial of the Armenian genocide (‘Vote Turkey...

From Victor Black Sir: I was surprised to see Matthew Parris (Another voice, 18/25 December), normally so perceptive and original, following other commentators in missing the...

From Joyce Walker Sir: With reference to the article ‘Help mothers by cutting taxes’ (11 December) I have the perfect answer to all the problems in this article: Don’t have...

Philip Hensher K AFKA ON THE S HORE by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel Harvill, £12.99, pp. 656, ISBN 1843431106 ® £11.99(plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 H aruki...

Robert Cooper T hey don’t make them like ‘Fiery’ Fred Trueman any more. Asked how he wanted to be remembered he replied, ‘as t’finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath’...

John Shand T HE A RT OF A LWAYS B EING R IGHT : T HIRTY E IGHT W AYS TO W IN W HEN YOU A RE D EFEATED by Arthur Schopenhauer Gibson Square Books, £9.99, pp. 204, ISBN1903933617...

William Brett T HE L AST D UEL by Eric Jager Century, £14.99, pp. 242, ISBN 0712661905 ® £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A ccording to a Yale professor, Eric Jager has...

Simon Poë G. F. W ATTS : T HE L AST G REAT V ICTORIAN by Veronica Franklin Gould Yale, £40, pp. 458, ISBN0300105770 ® £38 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 G eorge Frederic Watts...

Anita Brookner O n 30 August 2004 a woman wrote a letter to Le Figaro registering her dismay at the number of novels scheduled for publication in the three months that...

Lee Langley PIANO by Jean Echenoz, translated by Mark Polizzotti Harvill, £12, pp. 179, ISBN 1843431807 ® £11 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T his is a French novel, a very...

Andrew Lambirth finds much to enjoy on his gallery trawl round London B y no means all commercial galleries run their Christmas exhibitions on into the New Year, but several...

John McEwen Boom Boom Clusters Southampton City Art Gallery, until 9 January A tragic love story lies behind the jovial title to this delightful exhibition, which unveils the...

Charles Spencer T he so-called festive season is the time of year all serious drinkers dread. Their favourite pubs are filled with amateurs, largely consisting of braying...

Mark Steyn National Treasure 12A, selected cinemas I always like it when some fellow has a kid late in life and two centuries later you wind up talking to some l’il ol’ lady...

Lloyd Evans Fix Up Cottesloe Aladdin Old Vic F ix Up is a sitcom. The traditional formula is honoured in all its structural details. There’s a single location, a black bookshop...

Michael Vestey S tephen Fry was on jovial form when he appeared on Private Passions on Radio Three on Boxing Day, approaching music with an unstuffy blend of reverence and...

That’s Rich Taki New York L est there be some of you that missed it, a lifelong dirty dealer is walking around us free as a bird, and there’s nothing any of us who don’t flout...

Jeremy Clarke L ast February, our last resident died and the house reverted from a Residential Home for the Elderly to a private house. On Christmas Day, there were just two of...

Petronella Wyatt S o many outfits in so many shapes and colours; so many ruched tight trousers, or legs encased in flowing chiffon; sharp jackets in claret or blue velvet;...

FRANK KEATING W ith 2004’s multinational motley done, dusted and delivered, other activities can bloom. The jingojangle palaver and babel of the Olympics, European soccer, and...

works in the same building as I do, but on a different floor. He lives quite near me but, although I have bumped into him on the Tube from time to time and in the lobby of our...

me with the following conundrum. I recently attended a wedding of two great friends of mine. As the day of the event approached, and no call from the groom — hitherto an almost...