of his election as leader of the Labour party. During a Commons debate on the Butler report, he defended his decision to go to war against Iraq. He then turned his mind to a...

A s the 1960s drew to a close, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were walking on the Moon, pop's dopeheads were experimenting with tenminute-long guitar solos, and a mop-haired...

a Reuters debate on war and journalism. I notice John Reid, the Prime Minister's most prominent capo regime these days, lurking at the back. His minder tells me that 'the boss...

B etween the revolution and the firing squad, there is always time for a bottle of champagne. In this case, it was Sky TV's champagne at its summer party on Monday evening....

Soames, the then British ambassador in Paris, attained a d long-sought private lunch with President de Gaulle, who had earlier blocked British entry to the EEC. De Gaulle aired...

There's no plot, says Anthony Browne: Islam really does want to conquer the world. That's because Muslims, unlike many Christians, actually believe they are right, and that...

Rachel Johnson on why so many children's books are about sex (or 'shagging') and hard-core social issues sit on the toilet, pushing it all into my hand, and then I paint the...

The film Around the World in Eighty Days, though identified as a turkey by the taxonomists of the critics' circle, took more money in Britain last week than any film but one,...

We have such an easy life that we don't know how to deal with death: David Lovibond mourns the passing of widow's weeds and black-edged notepaper L ike most things (well, apart...

Aitios in ancient Greek means both 'responsible' and 'culpable'. Since Greeks were well aware of the distinction, they would have much enjoyed the nuances of the Butler report...

Pity the poor charities, says Ross Clark We are a nation of skinflints, and the rich are the least generous of all M uch as I sympathise with those caught up in petty local...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade The UK Independence Party, according to the manifesto which won it 12 seats in the recent European Parliament...

Leo McKinstry says that Tony and his cronies are rigging the ballot by restructuring the nation and lavishing money on the government's natural supporters W e're going to build...

I was discussing death with my closest friend recently, and we discovered that we had both caught ourselves envying the dead. They were lucky to be out of it; and neither of us...

From Dr Jeremy Stocker Sir: The fuss surrounding first the Hutton report and now the Butler report (Blair is forced to face the truth', 17 July) obscures the real reason for...

grievous error and lives are lost, he will not walk away grinning. If an airline pilot does the same, he will probably never fly again. If a driver is stupid enough to fall...

From Neil Hamilton Sir: Peter °borne (Politics, 17 July) implies that Butler was wrong to clear me when he investigated the allegations preceding my ministerial resignation in...

From Dominica Roberts Sir: Contrary to Bruce Anderson's state ment (Abortion is a matter of aesthetics', 17 July), there is overwhelming and increasing evidence for the harmful...

me of something I have never understood — why is it that those who insist on a woman's right to kill a viable foetus because its arrival would be inconvenient are almost always...

From Thomas Devlin Sir: I read with interest Thomas Harding's description of a newly peaceful Northern Ireland `(Peace comes dropping slow', 10 July). It is a perceptive...

From Peter.!. Murray Sir: Clarke Hayes states (Letters, 3 July) that Stalin had not been informed at the Potsdam conference that the atomic bomb was ready for use. Others...

From Robert McWhirter Sir: Mary Wakefield (Diary, 3 July) does Dick Morris and Ukip an injustice. If Romania joins the EU, it will receive fat cheques. This will benefit its...

From David Bunker Sir: 1 was pleased to learn that Michael Henderson ('Sex, hate and hypocrisy', 17 July) had more than a dozen letters published in Melody Maker when he was...

From Max King Sir: Boris Johnson absolves Tom Winsor (`Bring back Railtrack', 3 July) of the blame for the fiasco of Network Rail a little too easily. Winsor's hatred of...

From Andrew Schnaider Sir: Frank Johnson (Shared opinion, 10 July) suggests that Julian Le Grand 'sounds like an invented name'. Well, truth can be stranger than fiction. At...

W henever a new newspaper launches in any part of the world, a little voice inside one's head cheers. Naturally that voice is all the louder when the paper is in one's own...

ii f only the assassination attempted 60 years ago last Tuesday had succeeded, we have heard all this week. But what was the conspirators' idea of success? In particular, what...

as life's shadows fall ii ,rarely watch first-class cricket now, so it was a treat to go to Lord's for the one-day match between England and the West Indies. I owe it to the...

Sarah Burton THE LAMBS OF LONDON by Peter Ackroyd Chant, & Windus, .f15.99, pp. 216, ISBN 0701177446 M ark' Lamb once wrote to a female friend of 'a knack I know I have of...

John Joiliffe LAST CHAPTERS OF MY LIFE: THE LOST MEMOIR OF QUEEN MARIE OF ROMANIA edited by Diana Mandache Sutton, £20, pp. 224, ISBN 0750936916 m arie of Romania (1875-1938),...

M. R. D. Foot THE PUPPET MASTERS: SPIES, TRAITORS AND THE REAL FORCES BEHIND WORLD EVENTS by John Hughes - Wilson Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 120, pp. 478, ISBN 0297846159 C olonel...

Anthony Sampson THE WORLD THAT WAS OURS by Hilda Bernstein Persephone, £10, pp. 394, ISBN 1903155401 T his book, republished after almost 40 years, has survived as a South...

Roy Kerridge THE LIKES OF US: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE WHITE WORKING CLASS by Michael Collins Granta, £12, pp. 274, ISBN 1862076006 m ichael Collins, he tells us, was brought up in a...

Byron Rogers FEET IN THE CLOUDS: A TALE OF FELL-RUNNING AND OBSESSION by Richard Askwith Aurum, 416.99, pp. 339, ISBN 1854109898 S ome years ago, while climbing the track...

Alan Campbell INTERVENTION IN RUSSIA, 1918-1920 by Miles Hudson Leo Cooper, £19.95, pp. 210, ISBN 184415033X m iles Hudson is a military historian with several interestin g...

Stephen Abell THIS BLINDING ABSENCE OF LIGHT by Tahar Ben Jelloun The New Press, £14.99, pp. 195, ISBN 156584723 7 TI ie chillin g facts of the matter are soon told: on 10 July...

Allan Mallinson WELLINGTON'S SMALLEST VICTORY by Peter Hofschreer Faber, 0 4.99, pp. 340, ISBN 0571217680 4 T ' e victor writes the history,' says i eter Hofschroer n his...

D. J. Taylor TIME IN CARNBEG by Ronald Frame Polygon, .f8.99, pp. 293, ISBN 0954407555 T will cheerfully own to having struggled in the past with Ronald Frame's novels....

Louis Bade believes that record companies have only themselves to blame for falling sales E. xtraordinary how potent cheap music is,' says the newly-wed Amanda Prynne in Noel...

Andrew Lambirth Jacques Henri Lartique: Photographs 1901-86 About Face: Photography and the Death of the Portrait Hayward Gallay, South Bank Centre, until 5 September ("Nine...

Michael Tanner Viler Young Artists Royal Opera House I t seems a very good idea to give the Vitar Young Artists, singers who throughout the season appear in walk-on parts in...

Mark Steyn Anything Else 15, selected cmemas T realised the other day I couldn't 1 remember the last Woody Allen movie I'd seen. I mean, I remember I've seen several in the...

Rachel Halliburton Old Times Donmat The Old Masters Comedy W hen an extremely young Alan Ayckbourn asked Harold Pinter for biographical details of Stanley in The Birthday...

Patrick Carnegy House of Desires Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon T he face of a Spanish nun, her unhappy face encrusted with pustules characteristic of the plague, is the...

Michael Vestey U nder the new chairman and directorgeneral, the BBC, we are led to believe, intends to cut costs and waste. The problem with the corporation is that in the past...

James Delingpole lthough I've never personally smug gled 5,000 Ecstasy tablets or a belly bag full of heroin through an international airport, I can well conceive of...

Alan Judd 4 ut, my dear, the noise and the people,' I) exclaimed the apocryphal first world war cavalry officer when asked why he cut short his London leave to return to the...

Simon Courtauld D o we keep enough British lobsters for ourselves? I was pondering this question a couple of weeks ago as I watched a container lorry leaving the Hebridean...

Taki Gstaad N ow I understand why Ella, the Oxford Union treasurer, turned down my marriage proposal. According to research, one woman in four has a younger husband. Ella is...

Jeremy Clarke I was looking for the Palace of the Kings of Mallorca, and lost my bearings in the maze of narrow side streets that comprises the old quarter of Perpignan. In a...

Aldan Hartley Laikipia L ast week I was in my clapped-out old Range Rover on a supply run to Nairobi with Celestina riding shotgun. We were stuck in a ghastly traffic jam...

PetroneIla Wyatt E very year I receive a letter from my insurance company with regard to the cost of protecting my rented house in St John's Wood. Generally the insurance...

FRANK KEATING H owever the Test match pans out, it is a treat to have the West Indies back at Lord's. Their matches there have provided unforgettably resonant trumpet...

and, unlike Charles Dunstone, am an 'Easy' rather than a 'Net' jet user. What do you suggest I do when without asking the passenger in front tips his seat back into my face? I...

the country where we collect more 'friends' during the summer months. The company for which I work (remotely) is based in the Midlands. Just recently our company accountant...

great many letters of condolence, many of them from strangers. I would like to pass on a tip to readers who, like me, may occasionally have been at a loss as to how to reply to...