I t is now all but orthodox to say that Britain must get out of Iraq sooner rather than later. Irrespective of its constitutional propriety, the declaration by General Sir...

our new Institute a 35,000 sq. ft former coachworks in Olaf Street, W11 — the home of our foundation. For the opening we have planned an exhibition of the extraordinary light...

T he idea of cultural wars is as alien to the British nation as the word Kulturkampf is to the English language. In America, of course, such conflict is routine, as parties...

when, at the invitation of the History Matters campaign, we are all supposed to keep a diary for a day. Like Tom Lehrer on National Brotherhood Week, ‘Be grateful that it...

MONDAY DD is on a major ‘guns ’n’ ammo’ high. It was manageable while it was just General Dannatt stuff, but now it’s spread — badly. No one could make sense of his...

If Gordon Brown wants to keep David Cameron out of No. 10, he should adopt a hawkish stance towards Tehran, writes James Forsyth . That would split the Cameroons, who are...

Denis MacShane As David Cameron enjoys his Oedipal role in killing off any remnant of Thatcherism in today’s Conservative party, is he slowly revealing himself as the...

Fifty years after the Hungarian uprising, David Rennie talks to Bela Kiraly, now 94, who was urged to call for Western help — a call that could all too easily have sparked...

Two great crime writers of our time — Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith — talk about the terrible allure of bad deeds and the dark side of Edinburgh AMS : Let’s talk...

The superstar’s adoption case has shown the powerlessness of an entire African people faced with the might of a single American woman, says Melissa Kite I magine the scene....

Rod Liddle hails the English Music Festival, but laments the craven lack of sponsorship — driven by a politically correct fear of financing anything remotely ‘national’ T...

From George Monbiot Sir: I realised long ago that we environmentalists cannot win. When we draw attention to the problem, we are told we are doommongers who refuse to accept...

From Helen Johns Sir: If David Miliband’s observation that we humans are ‘interdependent’ and co-operate with others to achieve our ends is the ne plus ultra of British...

From H.O. Mounce Sir: According to Charles Moore, it is snobbish to criticise the existence of cheap flights (The Spectator’s Notes, 14 October). For it is these flights,...

From Denis Vaughan Paul Johnson’s wise demonstration that ‘no great artist leaves God out’ (And another thing, 14 October) opens the way for a widespread acceptance of...

From John Jolliffe Sir: Congratulations on the splendid article on Bernard-Henri Lévy (‘Anti-Americanism is a form of fascism’, 14 October). Fancy such excellent ideas from...

From Anthony Jennings Sir: Quinlan Terry (Letters, 30 September) is right to observe that, despite the widespread loss of conviction in the Church, there are pockets of...

H oo-ha was the term used by General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, to describe the furore provoked by his recent public dissent from the government’s...

T he most valuable people on earth are those who can make you laugh. Laughter is the great restorative and rejuvenator. I’m surprised more philosophers have not written about...

Martin Jacomb recalls Big Bang — the 1986 reforms which killed off London’s traditional ways of dealing in stocks and shares — and judges it a resounding success I t was...

Christopher Fildes 25 October 1986 M y friend the stockjobber closed his book, turned his back on his pitch, and walked with me off the Stock Exchange floor, down Throgmorton...

Richard Northedge says the LSE is an attractive catch today thanks to the transformation that began in 1986 I f it had not been for Big Bang, there would almost certainly not be...

but no way to make policy Neil Collins condemns the Chancellor’s sudden decision to give tax breaks to soldiers serving in war zones D enis Healey was the last Labour...

Ross Clark A mid the growing mutterings over his suitability to be prime minister, Gordon Brown has managed to preserve his reputation in at least one quarter. It has become...

‘W e men don’t want to wear condoms, we want the West to find a cure.’ This dilemma, faced by HIV counsellors at the Mildmay Centre near Entebbe, mirrors that experienced...

Vernon Bogdanor H AVING I T S O G OOD : B RITAIN IN THE F IFTIES by Peter Hennessy Penguin, £30, pp. 717, ISBN 0713995718 ✆ £24 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 H aving It...

Raymond Carr T HOMAS H ARDY , T HE T IME -T ORN M AN by Claire Tomalin Viking, £25, pp. 544, ISBN 0670916242 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 C laire Tomalin is an...

Justin Marozzi I N THE L INE OF F IRE by Pervez Musharraf Simon & Schuster, £18.99, pp. 335, ISBN 074329582X ✆ £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I t is a tribute to...

Anne Chisholm T IME A T W AR by Nicholas Mosley Weidenfeld, £14.99, pp. 180, ISBN 10029785240X ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hen the second world war began,...

John de Falbe T HE S TORY OF B LANCHE AND M ARIE by Per Olov Enquist Harvill Secker, £16.99, pp. 218, ISBN 1843432331 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 F or 16...

Roger Lewis T OM C RUISE : A LL THE W ORLD ’ S A S TAGE by Iain Johnstone Hodder, £18.99, pp. 344, ISBN 0340899204 ✆ £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 N ICOLE K...

He was the People’s Laureate, of course, Observing things that others disregard: Post-Toasties, Craven A and HP sauce — Unworthy subjects for a royal bard? He wrote of...

Jonathan Mirsky S EIZE THE H OUR by Margaret MacMillan John Murray, £25, pp. 400, ISBN 0719562227 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S eize the Hour is an admirable...

Jane Rye T RACEY E MIN : W ORKS , 1963-2006 by Carl Freedman Rizzoli, £40, pp. 413, ISBN 0 847828778 ✆ £32 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I t’s difficult not to warm to...

Carole Angier A USCHWITZ R EPORT by Primo Levi, with Leonardo De Benedetti, edited by Robert S.C. Gordon, translated by Judith Woolf Verso, £9.99, pp. 97, ISBN 1844670929 ✆...

W ho did Evelyn Waugh call ‘the only living studio-master under whom one can study with profit’? Answer: Somerset Maugham. Surprising answer? Perhaps. Others judged him more...

T here are many who might consider it an absolute crime that someone who would look so entirely delectable in a dirndl is instead about to hit the stage of the London Palladium...

Ariane Bankes Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour V&A, to 17 December T wilight, the witching hour — that tantalising moment on the cusp of day and night when...

Andrew Lambirth David Hockney Portraits National Portrait Gallery, until 21 January 2007 Sponsored by Burberry David Hockney: A Year in Yorkshire Annely Juda Fine Art, 23...

Alan Powers E arlier this year, a book appeared celebrating the first ten years of the Stirling Prize for architecture. Back in 1996, recession was only just ending and the...

Tiffany Jenkins ‘M useums are the new United Nations.’ So says Jack Loman, the director of the Museum of London. He is one of many professionals, and increasingly...

Michael Tanner Rigoletto Opera North Simon Boccanegra; Merry Widow Opera UK O pera North’s home at the Grand Theatre Leeds now boasts a resplendent auditorium, with lacquered...

Lloyd Evans King Lear Barbican Waiting For Godot New Ambassadors A heavy week in the theatre. Seriously heav-eeee. Lear in Russian at the Barbican, then Godot by Peter Hall....

Deborah Ross Marie Antoinette 12a, nationwide F rom its very opening scene this film is exquisitely, lavishly gorgeous and on and on it goes, being exquisitely and lavishly...

Kate Chisholm I t was a clever ruse by John Dryden, the director of Sunday’s Classic Serial (Radio Four), to record The Cairo Trilogy on location in Egypt with an Egyptian...

Simon Hoggart A t the Cheltenham Festival last week, Professor John Sutherland was on a panel discussing Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea — which on this occasion won the...

Alan Judd H ad I a mistress she would be Dorsetshire, that lush, chalk streamed, motorway-free county. Childhood holidays with an aunt near the Frome in Dorchester eventually...

Robin Oakley R equired by the day job to be in St Andrews on Friday night, reporting the latest example of governmental hope over experience in the Northern Ireland...

Taki New York S ometimes I wonder about Americans in general and Noo Yawkers in particular. Especially while watching war films. In Saving Private Ryan , GIs seem as cool...

Jeremy Clarke M y boy has got this extraordinary idea into his head that if a man wears something pink he must be gay. He voiced this strange prejudice again the other day, in...

Roy Hattersley W e celebrated harvest home last Sunday — late in the season by conventional standards, but postponed from the early days of autumn for the best of reasons. In...

the West End. This is unusual as he is a teenager and, usually, he wouldn’t be seen dead with me, not even after I’ve given him my word not to do funny dances in front of...

W hen we said we were thinking of moving to Urbino, our friends ooh-ed and aah-ed with envy. Urbino is a perfectly preserved mediaeval and Renaissance fortified town which sits...

Rachel Johnson S ome people dream of Palladian mansions in Wiltshire, of third homes in undiscovered parts of Puglia, of ozone pools in the basement. Others dream less...

Ross Clark W hile Tony Blair was making his valedictory speech to the Labour party conference in Manchester on 27 September, 60-year-old Elizabeth Pascoe was ecstatic. Not...

Mira Bar-Hillel P olicy without principle is like a house without foundations’, David Cameron said in his ‘Bring me sunshine’ conference speech in Bournemouth. Well, he...

When transferring money overseas, don’t think you will get the best exchange rate from your high street bank. There is an alternative and it will save you money. Changing and...

Low prices are attracting UK buyers to Berlin Terry Meakin, an accountant from Bath, wanted to broaden his portfolio of investments and decided to invest in residential property...

One experienced mariner found a better way to exchange and transfer funds overseas. Keen Sailor, Graham Coleman, found his particular choice of yacht, a Beneteau Clipper, at a...

Rachel Johnson looks to Debrett’s for tips on modern etiquette I hate to ask such a question of Spectator readers, but we must all move with the times. What, I ask, does a...

Dylan Jones says it’s vital that men dress their age I t was April 1994, my first proper date with the woman who later would become my wife and, judging by the number of times...

Simon Heffer gives Amsterdam the green light I t is sad for Amsterdam that it should have acquired a reputation first and foremost for the sort of tourism that revolves around...

FRANK KEATING N o nde of hot air already surrounds next month’s rugby internationals in which each of the ‘home’ countries look to repel boarders from the southern...

Q. I have received an email from a long-term dear acquaintance who lacks certain social graces because of long hours spent alone in his studio — he is a glass sculptor. It is...

often have guests to stay and they all, with one exception, offer to take us out to a restaurant at least once during their visit. This offer is gratefully received by the cook...

I own seems to have only the one hole — at navel level. Are moths malicious? If they are going to eat only one bite out of a jumper, why can’t it be in the armpit or...