T he widow of PC Keith Blakelock said she was considering a civil action against Winston Silcott, who, having been cleared by the Court of Appeal of the murder of the policeman...

What Pakistan needs now is a Franco or a Pinochet BRUCE ANDERSON P akistan's history is a depressing spectacle. Much more homogenous than India, it should therefore be easier...

ANDREW ROBERTS I was attacked at the Labour party con- ference and would like to show off about it. The meeting was entitled 'Delivering Mul- ticulturalism', and the speakers...

We few, we happy few BORIS JOHNSON W e were having a tough time of it at the Oxford Union the other night. The place was stifling, jammed with well over 1,000 students — some...

Kim Fletcher reports from the front line of the war between women IT took time for us to learn it, but dinner- party conversation was not so very hard. The fatal thing was to...

A nice-sounding Italian called Dr Augusto Odello, of Turin, writes to make an 'attentive and long thought- out reply', he says, to my remarks on his short pamphlet Trentatre vs...

Ken Livingstone says that he, not Tony Blair's poodle, is the only Labour candidate who can beat Archer THERE has been a lot of gnashing of teeth since the Labour party NEC...

Edward Heathcoat Amory on the humiliating intrusion of democracy into the Upper House THE Third Way bypass is about to destroy another slice of the constitutional green belt....

Michael Heath

Raymond Keene on the perils of leaving your house with someone you trust THE most gut-wrenching moments can be announced by an impersonal note. Thirty years ago a college...

Mark Steyn defends America against those who call her a rogue state New Hampshire A FRIEND in Washington called. 'Isn't it terrible.about CTBT?' he said. 'CTBT?' I echoed,...

Medecins sans Frontieres is at the heart of the modern global establishment, says Kirsten Sellars WITH perfect symmetry, the Nobel Peace Prize ends the century as it began it,...

Millenarianism is compatible with a logical reading of the evidence, says Felipe Fernandez-Annesto THE end of the world — even if it happens sooner than most of us think — is...

ON the whole, I am not impressed by the power of compensation to compensate. Even where deserved in the strictly legal sense, it is either insufficient or totally irrelevant...

The fascinating affinities between William Hague and the editor of the Sun STEPHEN GLOVER L ast week something happened which has caused Alastair Campbell, the Prime...

Dear Gordon, you've got to be able to fire them before you start hiring them CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he company chairman paid Margaret Thatcher a compliment she might have done...

From Mrs Deborah Clarke Sir: It's all very well Matthew d'Ancona going dewy-eyed and philosophical over Disney's films ('Disney is the new Shake- speare', 16 October), but he...

From Mr Desmond Briggs, JP Sir: Boris Johnson is right to draw attention to the cult of vocal correctness (Another voice, 9 October). 'Accentism' is not con- fined to the media:...

From Ms Jenny Macrory Sir: Maybe Isaac Bull (Mind your language, 9 October) was a footballer who resented his mother's attempts to prevent him from achieving his goal on the...

puz- zlement as to why we use the definite arti- cle with names of some roads and streets (16 October), I strongly suspect that the answer is as follows. Names that actually...

From Professor Reginald von Zugbach Sir: Nigel Jones's assessment of Austria's Herr Haider ('Austria's new H****r!', 16 October) is utterly wrong. Haider is anything but a...

From Dr L.C. Laming Sir: That Frank Johnson is intrigued by both the question and the answer in Ken- neth Macksey's book (Shared opinion, 2 October) is not surprising. Macksey's...

From Mr Gilead Cooper Sir: I am extremely worried that Mr Paul Johnson may be wavering in his enthusias- tic support of Tony Blair. For the past 15 or 20 years, Johnson has...

From Lt P. Egan Sir: So, Taki would rather be in Kosovo (25 September). While reading 'High life' in UN Police Substation 3 in north Pristina, I was interrupted by the noise of...

From Mr Philip C. Dent Sir: Stephen Schwartz refers to `the lying Guatemalan propagandist Rigoberta Mench' in his article 'Ignoble Nobel' (9 October). I don't know if Mr...

From Mr Allan Lloyd Sir: In his splendid review rubbishing the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs (Arts, 16 October), James Delingpole affects sur- prise that the Corporation has the...

This blessed plot, this realm, this nation of extremists, this England PAUL JOHNSON I t is a tactic of the Labour government, and of the Vichy wing of the Tory party, to call...

How psychoanalysis will solve the mystery of the Missing Tories FRANK JOHNSON L ast week's flight of Mr Michael Hesel- tine and Mr Kenneth Clarke to a platform presided over by...

Decline and fall Norman Lamont JOHN MAJOR: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY HarperCollins, £19.99, pp. 774 I am very obviously not the right person to review John Major's autobiography. Why...

Vicki Woods STREETSMART by Nicholas Coleridge Orion, f16.99, pp. 416 Y ou're not really supposed to review books by people you know in case of par- tiality, but Nicholas...

John Vincent DUTCH: A MEMOIR OF RONALD REAGAN by Edmund Morris HarperCollins, f24.99, pp. 874 I f young men no longer grow up wonder- ing if they will die in uniform, the credit...

Keith Waterhouse SECRETS OF THE PRESS edited by Stephen Glover Allen Lane, Penguin, £20, pp. 317 W ho buys books on journalism? Jour- nalists? I doubt it. The reverse, in fact...

Andrew Barrow STIFFED: THE BETRAYAL OF MODERN MAN by Susan Faludi Chatto, £15, pp. 662 T he author of this gigantic, high-flying and rather belligerent work is one of the...

John Bowen GARRICK by Ian McIntyre Penguin, £25, pp. 678 R left his home in Lichfield to study law at Lincoln's Inn and gave it up, became a wine merchant and gave it up; he...

John Jolliffe ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE by Alison Weir Cape, £20, pp. 444 W hile her achievements have always been recognised, Eleanor on the whole had an unjustly bad press until...

Charles Allen IMPERIAL WARRIORS: BRITAIN AND THE GURKHAS by Tony Gould Granta, £20, pp. 480 I n 1951 an acerbic former literary editor of The Spectator was commissioned by...

Christine Verity VACLAV HAVEL: A POLITICAL TRAGEDY IN SIX ACTS by John Keane Bloomsbury, £25, pp. 532 T here are few saints in politics and with the recent retirement of...

Jonathan Cecil IVOR NOVELLO by Paul Webb Stage Directions, f10, pp. 157 T owards the end of his lively study of the light composer and matinee idol Ivor Novella, Paul Webb all...

Tom Yandle A LAZY CONTENTMENT: THE HISTORY OF THE CARNARVON ARMS HOTEL by Sophia and Julian Watson Lonsdale Press, £20, pp. 82 M y family have lived and farmed near Dulverton...

John McEwen GROOVY BOB by Harriet Vyner Faber, f20, pp. 317 T his is not a biography in the conven- tional sense; but that is suitable because its subject was not a...

William Keen THE CUSTOM OF THE SEA by Neil Hanson Doubleday, £14.99, pp. 331 P icture this. You're on your way to Aus- tralia to deliver a yacht. A violent storm sinks her,...

THE REQUIEM SHARK by Nicholas Griffin Little, Brown, £16.99, pp. 384 THE HARVEST by Christopher Hart Faber, £9.99, pp. 232 GEOGRAPHIES OF HOME by Loida Maritza Perez Viking,...

wonderful town? Anne Chisholm THE THREE OF U.S: A NEW LIFE IN NEW YORK by Joanna Coles and Peter Godwin HarperCollins, £12.99, pp. 294 T his book opens badly. Accustomed...

C. J. Tyerman TRIAL BY FIRE: THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR, VOLUME II by Jonathan Sumption Faber, £30, pp. 704 T he Hundred Years war provides some of the most memorable and familiar...

Allan Massie FATHER, DEAR FATHER: LIFE WITH WOODROW WYATT by Petronella Wyatt Hutchinson, £15.99, pp. 244 T he News of the World billed Woodrow Wyatt as 'the Voice of Reason'....

Peter Levi T hese tapes are an extraordinary series, all chosen by Sue Rodwell, who deserves a medal. It is extremely hard to describe their contents and the naming of each...

A utumn, in the English literary calen- dar, is the season of atonement. Put away all those Keatsian fantasies about mists and mellow fruitfulness, and think instead along the...

All passion spent Robert Turnbull is surprised to be asked to the reopening of Barcelona's opera house D elighted though I was to be invited by the Governor of Catalonia to...

Nicholas Powell on a series of exhibitions in Germany's new capital B erlin is in the grip of Kunstherbst or its first 'art autumn', encompassing not only the contemporary fair...

Lucio Fontana (Hayward Gallery, till 9 January) Sculpting in light Martin Gayford I n 1937 Lucio Fontana, an expatriate Argentine artist of Italian extraction, met Constantin...

Comic Potential (Lyric) Remember This (Lyttelton, National Theatre) Winning strategy Patrick Carnegy T he idiocies of television may be a soft target for a playwright like...

Rodin (Lewes Town Hall, till 30 October) Sussex surprise Mark Glazebrook T he late Sir Trenchard Cox once said, in his inimitable, high-pitched voice: The older I get, the...

1%40 , a Kabanova; La Traviata (Sadler's Wells) Behaving badly Michael Tanner O pera North arrived in London, for a brief season at Sadler's Wells, bringing a trio of works...

Tarzan (U, selected cinemas) Simply Irresistible (12, selected cinemas) King of the swingers Mark Steyn M ost of us assumed Tarzan had been buried with Johnny Weissmuller a...

What a mishmash Simon Hoggart M chael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (BBC 1) is an extraordinary mishmash. We began with PalM on a Suffolk beach, illus- trating the kind of...

Mind your language Michael Vestey T he history of the English language is a vast subject not easily explored on radio and television, but Melvyn Bragg is making a good job of...

Mercedes manners Alan Judd I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to be invited by Mercedes for a day of off- roading in their new M-Class, their entry into the...

All's right with the world Robin Oakley C haps don't make passes at girls who wear glasses, the poet once told us. But that doesn't necessarily stop the girls in glasses, as I...

A laughing matter Taki New York I write this slightly under the weather having just attended Barry Humphries's Broadway opening of Dame Edna Everage — The Royal Tour. We're at...

Leanda de Lisle Y ou can't counsel cows. They have to work their way through their feelings and that's what 50-odd cows are doing right now in a field near Lutterworth. Not so...

Happiness is . . . Petronella Wyatt P eople keep asking me about my pain. A very nice woman from the Observer, Nicci Gerrard, came to interview me about a book I have written,...

Not Hobson's Andrew Robson HAVE YOU heard the Rolls-Royce prob- lem? You are told that there is a Rolls behind one of three doors. You select Door A (at random). Someone who...

a pigtailed waitress with a picture of a guard dog on her lapel, I found myself humming the tune to 'Springtime for Hitler'. It comes from the Mel Brooks film, The Producers, in...

Great tradition Raymond Keene THIS week I conclude my four-week survey of the best of current UK chess publishing. There is little doubt in my mind that Dr John Nunn, having...

The final solution Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2107 you were invited to write a poem or piece of prose entitled 'The End of the Detective', either beginning or ending with...

1436: Ups and downs by Dumpynose A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Six Grapes Port for the first correct solution opened on 8 November, with two run- ners-up prizes...

The temptations of Paul Simon Barnes IF you happen to be a racehorse, you train for about an hour and a half every day. The rest of the time you hang about in your box,...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I recently moved into a new flat to begin the university year. I discovered on arrival that one of my flatmates had opened the entire mail mountain formed...