a voicelink to the second round of hearings of the Hutton inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons. He said that the...

Unfair to the Third World o appreciate the unique affection enjoyed by the British farmer, it is necessary to look no further than the bumf put out for British Food Fortnight,...

come some rather surprising advantages, most of which are of a financial nature. My Senior Railcard, which costs £.18 a year and gives me a discount on all trains, has already...

I was being fed and watered in the House of Lords by a Tory peer some years ago when he registered surprise at the arrival in the room of one of his colleagues. 'I didn't just...

Carole Caplin raises a delightful possibility. Should it, as many have speculated, occur to Miss Caplin to write a memoir of her time at No. 10, she will have to find a way out...

The BBC is biased, and much of its programming is coarse and crude, but, says Peter Hitchens, it would be profoundly unconservative to privatise it livv hy do I now find that I,...

Theodore Dalrymple has discovered Britain's spiritual centre, and finds it ugly, aimless and noisy lyv ho says the leisure class is no more? On the contrary, as a recent...

Mother Teresa is on the verge of canonisation, only six years after her death. Anne Sebba on why the Pope is in a hurry to create new saints T ourists in downtown Calcutta (or...

a result of a multi-agency review of domestic violence services in the borough. . . . The Equalities and Diversity Unit is looking to appoint an enthusiastic, highly motivated...

My husband, when asked to buy some French beans once, came home with a tin of broad beans produced in France. So I was delighted when he got me a reprint from the Ohio State Law...

go out to work Work experience is more important than a good degree, says Rachel Johnson. That's why trendy offices are full of middle-class teenagers S o how many did you get...

Roger Scruton on the importance of Donald Davidson, the analytical philosopher who died on 30 August T here is a certain tradition in American philosophy that combines logical...

Bruce Anderson reveals the steps by which the intelligence services succumbed to the magnetic charm of Tony Blair T HE conventions of secrecy were maintained. Only , Richard...

Sven Goran Eriksson and David Beckham have launched a charity to brin g about world peace throu g h football, with Mr Beckham's immortal words: 'I think my advice to any...

terrible wine, which only the French convinced that theirs is the best, while everyone else produces mere alcoholic grape juice could enjoy or even drink. That's changed....

Ross Clark says Peeping Tom has replaced Big Brother as the chief threat to our freedom. We should stop filling in questionnaires I occasionally worry that future scholars will...

Commentators are expressing shock at the Hutton inquiry's 'revelation' that Tony Blair consults a private cabal of chums about policy. Excuse the Roman historian while he...

His story was essentially correct I t strikes me. as I follow the Hutton inquiry, that almost any human activity can be made to appear questionable, even dodgy. I think of my —...

A decade or so ago, the ITN newsreader Sandy Gall could be seen scampering about the mountains of western Peshawar wearing on his head one of those ornate and inescapably...

From Dr Robin Moffat Sir: Your excellent leader (`Rape and justice', 13 September) rightly states that many accused men need protection from being publicly branded as rapists...

From Francis Bennion Sir: In his article on the government's Sexual Offences Bill (I was 12, she was 13', 13 September), Rod Liddle writes, 'The courts will be left to decide...

From Gerald Orman Sir: Charles Moore (Politics, 13 September) is quite right to be frightened by Islam, but his reason, that 'in its current form [it] does not appear to have a...

From John Jenkins Sir: Theodore Dalrymple (second opinion, 30 August) may remember his visit to the Strand Hotel in Rangoon under the SLORC (it was 'Restoration' not...

From Richard Bowen Sir: I am glad to hear that Nicholas Farrell has fallen in with those Nazi/Fascist skinheads who behave themselves (Diary, 13 September), but there are...

From Mark Taha • Sir: I entirely share Leo McKinstry's opinion of Roy Hattersley (`I prefer the tub of lard', 13 September). To me, he's an old Labour hack whose claim to...

From John Kinsman Sir: Peter Jones's column on the justifications for suicide (Ancient & modern, 13 September) implies that Dr David Kelly's suicide may have been a result of...

From Mike Smith Sir: In his essay 'Breaking the butterfly. (30 August) Paul Johnson speculated that one of the first butterfly paintings was done by a Frenchman in the 16th...

From W. Oise Sir: Regarding the article by Paul Michael Wihbey about the Alberta oil sands (`The end of the affair', 6 September), the proven reserves are immense, but the...

From Professor Katarina Tomasevski Sir: My attention has been drawn to Ross Clark's Banned wagon of 26 July. His text used a wrong title in inverted commas. I am not 'special...

From Franz Metzger Sir: What Andrew Gimson writes ('A sad case of schadenfreude', 13 September) is correct, but you managed to turn what could have been a balanced report into a...

A charge should be laid at the door of those who urged America onward into Iraq this year, and it should come not from pacifists, United Nations groupies or Uncle Sam-baiters,...

N ow that my huge book Art: a New Histoty is in the shops, the serious part of my professional life has come to an end, and my mood is elegiac. This book, which goes from the...

lyv ell, plucky little Sweden, Its proud people were not too proud to take my advice. Rasta Nej, I told them, and they did, voting No to the euro sufficiently early and often to...

Sebastian Smee ART: A NEW HISTORY by Paul Johnson Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 125, pp. 777, ISBN 0297829289 T he further back one goes in histories of art, the more the emphasis...

Raymond Carr IRIS MURDOCH AS I KNEW HER by A. N. Wilson Hutchinson, £18.99, pp. 384, ISBN 0091742463 m r A. N. Wilson is outraged at the image of Iris Murdoch presented in the...

Jonathan Keates A WRITER'S WORLD: TRAVELS 1950-2000 by Jan Morris Faber, £25, pp. 457, ISBN 0571215246 W hat kind of shoes. I wonder, does Jan Morris like to wear? The idea of...

Matthew Parris PRETTY STRAIGHT GUYS: THE STRANGE DEATH OF LABOUR ENGLAND by Nick Cohen Faber, £14.99, pp. 311, ISBN 057122003 7 F or this reviewer, Nick Cohen has achieved the...

Geordie Williamson LONDON CALLING: How BLACK AND ASIAN WRITERS IMAGINED A CITY by Sukhdev Sandhu HatperCollins, £20, pp. 498, ISBN 000257182X H ow appropriate that the Thames...

Alan Wall OVERTAKEN by Alexei Sayle Sceptre, £14.99, pp. 288, ISBN 0340767685 D arwin's study of human expression argued that the clenched fist was a vestigial gesture of the...

Stan Persky THE DANCER DEFECTS: THE STRUGGLE FOR CULTURAL SUPREMACY DURING THE COLD WAR by David Caute Oxford, £30, pp. 788, ISBN 0199249083 L ast week I saw 'Art in East...

Patrick Skene Catling ARTHUR THE KING by Allan Massie Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £14.99, pp. 292, ISBN 0297816780 A Ilan Massie is a tough romantic with an unflinching sense of...

Andrew Roberts THE DIARIES OF EDWARD HENRY STANLEY, 15TH EARL OF DERBY (1826-93): BETWEEN 1878 AND 1893 edited by John Vincent Leopard's Head Press, £40, pp. 954; ISBN...

Gerard Prunier A SUNDAY AT THE POOL IN KIGALI by Gil Courtemanche Canongate Books, 174.99. pp. 258, ISBN 1841954330 m r Courtemanche has made a documentary movie on Aids. I...

Penelope Lively THE NICK OF TIME by Francis King Arcadia Books, f11.99, pp. 320, ISBN 1900850788 F rancis King is 80 and this is his 28th novel; a moment of quiet respect seems...

Honor Clerk LOST SOULS by Michael Collins Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £12.99, pp. 280, ISBN 029764565X 1 t's a wonder there is anyone left in America over Hallowe'en. We have all...

Byron Rogers PITY THE SWAGMAN by Bethan Phillips Cymdeithas Lyfrau Ceredigion, .114.75, pp. 438 ISBN 1902416473 A round the middle of the 19th century the old anonymity of the...

John de Falbe MOURNING RUBY by Helen Dunmore Penguin/Viking, £16.99, pp. 307, ISBN 0670914495 T hree quarters of the way through Mourning Ruby, a character called Joe...

Bill Alexander on why he is directing the RSC's new production of Titus Andronicus T he Elizabethans must have had a completely different attitude to physical violence. For a...

Andrew Lambirth John Currin Serpentine Galley, until 2 November J ohn Currin (born 1962) has been hailed as the finest young painter to emerge from America in recent years,...

Roderic Dunnett The Ruralists: A Celebration of Three Decades Welsh Museum of Modem Art, Machynlleth, until 1 November I t was Laurie Lee, the author of Cider with Rosie, who...

Michael Tanner Don Giovanni Royal Opera rr he Royal Opera's new season has begun with a revival of Francesca Zambello's production of Don Giovanni, first seen last year, with...

Lloyd Evans Hammerklavier Jennyn Street Theatre ID Almeida The Illustrious Corpse Soho Theativ Herj e's a prediction. Yasmina Reza's ammerklavier isn't going to break any...

Mark S teyn eni Riefenstahl was a brilliant cine atographer and editor who could compose and edit anything, except, in the end, her own life. If only she'd been able to snip...

Charles Spencer W hen 'Olden but golden' began two years ago, I described Gene Clark's No Other (1974) as my current, all-time favourite album, After the column appeared, the...

Michael Vestey T often ask myself what it is about Italy that so attracts the English. There are several obvious answers: the art and architecture, the weather, the food. I...

Simon Hoggart rr he cookery programmes are back, though when you settle down in front of them with your takeaway pizza or pot noodle, you'll notice they're changed. They're no...

Alan Judd I fa spare £110,000 is burning a hole in your pocket, you'll have to wait a bit before you blow it on the new Bentley GT coupe, since they have more orders than cars...

Robin Oakley A t only 42, the amiable face of / - 1.Southwell trainer Paul Blockley carries a weight of experience. Though he doesn't fuss about it, there have been knocks...

Taki A n email from Sir Roger Moore concerningcerning two prominent Hollywood Hungarians whom I failed to mention last week. Did you know that Bernie Schwartz, aka Tony Curtis,...

Jeremy Clarke I spent last week in south Wales, staying in a cottage near the coast. On the second evening we walked to the local pub to see what it was like. We went across...

Petronella Wyatt A t dinner the other night in Washington I was sitting next to Robert Redford. Actually, this is a slight fib. I was in a restaurant called Nora's — which,...

MICHAEL HENDERSON T his is the week in sport when summer officially gives way to autumn. The cricket season ends and the football season rumbles on, relentlessly, mercilessly,...

some friends from Suffolk, my host, albeit an Englishman to his core, appeared every evening in a different pair of monogrammed velvet slippers (stags rampant on coronets, HS...

reserves for my personal use? I'd say that it extends from the back of the seat in front to the back of my own seat in one direction, and to half of the arm-rest in the other....

medical grounds. I am rather at a loss as to which direction to turn since I intensely dislike Coca-Cola and allied highcaffeine concoctions. What should I do? Name and address...