I n her book on the Eichmann trial, Hannah Arendt famously, and controversially, wrote of the ‘banality of evil’. The contemporary variant is the awesome banality of much of the...

T he smoking ban approaches with terrifying speed. I fear that all my righteous indignation, my libertarian instinct, is merely the frightened whimper of an addict whose last...

T ony Blair, at least, knows how to keep his silence. When asked about David Miliband’s leadership prospects at his press conference on Tuesday, he repeatedly dodged all...

CHARLES MOORE N ext year, there will be an election for the mayoralty of London. The chance to defeat Ken Livingstone is the most important contest for the Conservatives before...

MONDAY V annoyed. Am I the only one around here who hasn’t been offered a job at Google? Not a single phone call from a headhunter in the whole time I’ve been working my little...

Anne Applebaum says that dissidents against the authoritarian regime, many of them in London, are raising the stakes. The President’s response is to get even tougher — and to...

Matt Frei reports from the scene of the US campus killings, listens to the survivors and concludes that the only question worth asking is: where next? Blacksburg, Virginia T...

Melanie Phillips talks to Dave Gaubatz, a former US Air Force special agent, who passed on vital intelligence to the Iraq Survey Group — and is dismayed that nothing happened I...

India would have fallen apart Ramachandra Guha , in this extract from his new book on the last Viceroy, says that his most important bequest has been undervalued —to save India...

Rod Liddle says that young princes in their twenties will always prefer a peroxide blonde with a non-U name to a fragrant, well-spoken English rose LIDDLE BRITAIN T his has...

Sir: David Selbourne seems to suffer from tunnel vision in his analysis of failing US imperial ambitions (‘No more Pax Americana’, 14 April). He seems to believe that Islamism...

Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 14 April) has made a quite unwarranted attack on the Royal Navy. He accuses the navy of being incompetent and lacking esprit de corps,...

Sir: I fear Rod Liddle (‘The C of E must make up its mind’, 14 April) is a little behind the times. The Church of England has already ‘made up its mind’ about homosexuality —...

Sir: The Duke of Buccleuch (‘Senator Duke?’, 7 April) is right to propose reform of the House of Commons. Compare the cost of an MP now with the corresponding figure in 1970,...

Sir: I read with great interest Montagu Curzon’s review of Patrick Bishop’s new book Bomber Boys (Books, 7 April). Unfortunately he makes the same error as most commentators do...

Sir: Paul Johnson’s list of European worst characteristics (‘French arrogance, Italian corruption ... ’) seems quite comprehensive (And another thing, 14 April). Did his...

� ngraved – or die-stamped – printing, in which the text is printed from a copper die and raised from the paper, is the very best type of printing there is. From shops in Bond...

A weary fortnight of wailing over those 15 hapless boatmen, and what have we learned? In a nutshell, nothing. Love Des Browne or loathe him, much of the criticism he has faced...

T here are certain people one is always glad to see. For instance, if I go into a room and find Henry Kissinger there, or if he comes into a party I am attending, I am...

Matthew Lynn says British business has been too limp in its response to campaigns by media-savvy trade unions on issues such as private equity and outsourcing E ven allowing for...

Joanna Pitman T he great China investment boom has many facets. A fortnight ago at a Sotheby’s sale in Hong Kong of Chinese works of art, wealthy mainland collectors and their...

Jules Evans meets Russia’s top foreign banker, who has prospered by steering clear of local politics S tephen Jennings is very tall about six feet seven. He wraps his body into...

S pring sunshine encourages us all to browse estate agents’ windows. This week’s featured property, Dumfries House, looks at first glance like a rare example of value for money...

Sam Leith J OSEPH C ONRAD by Zdzislaw Najder Boydell & Brewer, £25, pp. 808, ISBN 9789571133472 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hat a peculiar life it was: born in...

In the park in front of my place, every night A bunch of tramps sleep on the wooden porch Of the bowling green club-house. They shed no light. No policeman ever wakes them with...

Simon Sebag Montefiore R EALM OF THE B LACK M OUNTAIN by Elizabeth Roberts Hurst Publishing, £25, pp. 520, ISBN 9781850657712 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n 1766, a...

Anita Brookner H ENRY J AMES G OES TO P ARIS by Peter Brooks Princeton, £15.95, pp. 255, ISBN 9780691129549 I n October 1875 Henry James moved to Paris to advance his nascent...

Lloyd Evans D ON ’ T Y OU K NOW W HO I A M ? I NSIDER D IARIES OF F AME , P OWER AND N AKED A MBITION by Piers Morgan Ebury, £17.99, pp. 370, ISBN 9780091913915 ✆ £14.39 (plus...

Alberto Manguel MONTANO by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated by Jonathan Dunne Harvill Secker, £14.99, pp. 326, ISBN 1843432153 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S he Hey...

Michael Gove T HE P RESIDENT , THE P OPE AND THE P RIME M INISTER by John O’Sullivan Trade Select, £14.99, pp. 360, ISBN 1596980168 J ohn O’Sullivan has done much more with...

William Boyd M EDUSA : T HE S HIPWRECK , T HE S CANDAL , T HE M ASTERPIECE by Jonathan Miles Cape, £17.99, pp. 334, ISBN 9780224073035 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Eric Christiansen I SOLARION : A D IFFERENT O XFORD J OURNEY by James Attlee University of Chicago Press, $22.50, pp. 278, ISBN 9780226030937 T his book is about the Cowley...

Helena Drysdale F AMILY R OMANCE by John Lanchester Faber, £16.99, pp. 394, ISBN 9780571234400 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n my capacity as editor for a writers’...

Toby Young T HE A NGRY Y EARS : A L ITERARY C HRONICLE by Colin Wilson Robson, £16.99, pp. 216, ISBN 9781861059727 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 P oor Colin Wilson....

Tom Holland R OME , I NC . by Stanley Bing W. W. Norton, $14.95, pp. 197, ISBN 9780393060263 P rotests against international business are nothing new. Probably the wittiest,...

The RSC’s Complete Works Festival was high risk but hugely successful, says Patrick Carnegy ‘C ompletism’ has become a bit of a mania in the arts world, but there’s no question...

Andrew Lambirth The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection: Renaissance and Baroque The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until 20 January 2008 T he treasures of the Royal...

Stephen Pettitt on what makes a great tenor B efore getting down to some hard iconoclasm, let me first declare that to me all tenors, no matter what music they sing, nor even...

Deborah Ross Fracture 15, nationwide T his film is all right, actually. I sound surprised? I am surprised. I could only be more surprised if the doorbell went and it was Daniel...

Ursula Buchan A feature of the gardening world, which probably strikes me rather more forcibly than it does you, is the number of amateur plant specialists there are. These are...

Lloyd Evans Landscape with Weapon Cottesloe Wake Up and Smell the Coffee New End, Hampstead Blame Arcola Q uestions are easy, answers less so. That’s the conclusion of Joe...

Michael Tanner Khovanshchina, Carmen WNO, Birmingham Koanga Sadler’s Wells I caught up with Welsh National Opera’s production of Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina only in Birmingham,...

Kate Chisholm N o fanfare proclaimed the Radio Four First on Sunday. Odd, when advertising its wares takes up so much of its schedules these days, even, I suspect, cutting...

James Delingpole W hat’s the best way of killing a London fox? A pair of wire-haired fox terriers, apparently. A friend of mine who lives down the road from me in Peckham says...

Alan Judd New York T wo men prostrated themselves before the new Freelander — in gratitude, presumably, for anything more reliable than the previous model — but it turned out...

Taki New York R ace is to American politics what nudity is to the porn industry. It is relentless, ubiquitous, and not a day goes by without some so-called preacher,...

Jeremy Clarke T he intricate cunning with which the rebel faction of my mind tries to convince Captain Conscience that alcohol and me are the greatest of pals, and that we must...

Alex Bilmes visits the US organic superstore coming to Kensington I bumped into my friend Katie in Whole Foods Market in West Hollywood the other day. Katie embodies all the...

Sarah Sands takes the bed debate lying down o, you are an advertising creative asked to evoke the glamour and liberation of air travel. Would you suggest a shot of the Indian...

Simon Heffer loved Sicily, but he was relieved to find his car where he left it ‘Y ou’ll love Sicily’, or so everyone said before we went there. And they were right: we did. But...

Michael Henderson says Chicago is a beautiful, thriving city F ew cities have so thoroughly altered the world’s perception of them as Chicago. In the past half-century,...

Travels with Don Juan Christina Patterson C ertain cities, like certain men, have the instant power to seduce. Seville, I’ve discovered, is one. Romantic, classically handsome...

Neil Clark H ow would you like to celebrate your 40th birthday? my wife asked me one morning at breakfast. How about going to our favourite city in Europe? I replied. So we...

Dominic Midgely P orsche and Aston Martin haven’t been the only beneficiaries of the recent boom in City bonuses. There’s a new generation of customers at Holland and Holland,...

SIMON HOGGART S ummer is almost upon us. Ah, the cancerous barbecue smoke drifting from next door’s garden, the stinking, sweaty trains and buses, the yobs with stomachs...

FRANK KEATING C helsea vs Manchester United: the long-running grudge which has defined English football’s Premiership for most of the winter (and last) could yet be extended to...

Dear Mary Q. A young man from Oz, the son of a friend of my wife, has been staying for several weeks. He walks into the house and helps himself to a beer or a banana or a...