‘A Budget for business’ was how — as usual — it was spun beforehand. ‘A Budget to expand prosperity and fairness for Britain’s families’ was how the speech...

to plug my A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 . Prepare yourself for a veritable carpetbombing of name-dropping, on the basis that if you can’t boast...

E ven when she slips into a room half an hour late, The Lady can still inspire a standing ovation. ‘Can I welcome Baroness Thatcher who has just joined us,’ said Lord Lamont...

of our age. He is the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which was originally set up by John Major as what he (Mr Major) called ‘an ethical workshop called...

MONDAY Forty-one per cent! Would be nice to celebrate, but of course we know this is out of the question. Mr Maude is in bad enough mood already, since his attempt at optimism...

the untold story of the Lebanese war Edward Stourton has had unrivalled access to the protagonists in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Here, on the eve of the Winograd...

Ross Clark says that, after all the sponsored pub crawls and enforced jollity of Red Nose Day, the money raised is going to some very surprising causes: caveat donor T he...

When the tyrant falls, there will be much glib talk of Zimbabwe’s future as ‘Africa’s One Bright Spot’. History suggests a bleaker fate for the nation, says Rod Liddle...

The unbeatable duo of Judas Iscariot and Jeffrey Archer have teamed up to bring the world The Gospel According to Judas , published this week at a mere £9.99. The scholastic...

The beloved ‘third dame’ of British theatre tells Tim Walker about the ‘self-help group’ she formed with Linda McCartney when they were both suffering from cancer D ame...

At Cleo Watson ’s school, the weight-obsessed pupils have only water for breakfast and avoid swimming in case they develop muscle. It’s as competitive as their exams A fter...

revolution has be g un Piers Paul Read says that Benedict XVI’s new statement on the Eucharist shows how conservative the Pope truly is and how irreconcilable he is to...

Sir: Austen Ivereigh (‘Let’s sort out the migration mess’, 17 March) argues that giving an amnesty to the 500,000-odd illegal immigrants in Britain offers a practical...

is an insult not only to the indigenous citizens of Britain but also to the millions of immigrant citizens who have entered this country legally and who work hard and pay their...

Sir: In his piece ‘Churchill was “too fond of the Jews”’ (17 March), Sir Martin Gilbert suggests that Winston Churchill should not be held responsible for the article...

Sir: As Charles Moore points out, the government’s plans to reform the House of Lords seem as uncertain as ever (The Spectator’s Notes, 17 March). But one point seems to...

Sir: It would appear that the relationship between cats and mice is more symbiotic than Paul Johnson suggests (And another thing, 17 March). We never had mice until we got our...

Sir: Emma Tennant’s letter on 17 March reminds me of a further retort by my uncle, John Scott, to Hugh Trevor-Roper. This occurred on the hunting field, when John greeted the...

A rt is not going to the dogs in every field. Take flower painting. The Ancient Egyptians were depicting garden scenes from about 2000 BC , especially in private tombs, painting...

Joanna Pitman meets Jussi Pylkkanen, president of Christie’s Europe, who says buyers from Russia, China and the Middle East are driving art prices to record highs I n 1987,...

Matthew Vincent E ver wanted to kill your boss? Well, now you can — and, as long as it doesn’t become a regular occurrence, you won’t even have to pay tax on the cost of...

Judi Bevan sees no reason to fear for the future of Boots and Sainsbury’s: they may even become businesses T hose who fear that privateequity bidders, if they secure control,...

T he Luftwaffe blitzed Plymouth for two months in 1941 and destroyed 20,000 houses, 100 pubs, 42 churches, 24 schools, eight cinemas and six hotels. In a symbolic act of...

Philip Hensher O N C HESIL B EACH by Ian McEwan Cape, £12.99, pp. 166, ISBN 9780224081184 T he title of Ian McEwan’s previous novel, Saturday , awoke in at least one reader...

Charlotte Hobson T WO C ARAVANS : A N OVEL by Marina Lewycka Penguin/ Fig Tree, £16.99, pp. 310, ISBN 9780670916375 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S ummer,...

Andro Linklater H IRED G UNS AND C OUPS D’E TAT by Anthony Mockler Hunter MacKay, £20, pp. 366, ISBN 9780947907075 I t should be impossible to write an unreadable book about...

Charlotte Moore T HE W IDOW AND H ER H ERO by Thomas Keneally Sceptre, £16.99, pp. 264, ISBN 9780340825273 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 G race Waterhouse...

Allan Mallinson T HE A DVENTURES OF C OLONEL D AFFODIL by Major-General Sir Roy Redgrave Pen & Sword, £19.99, pp. 208, ISBN 9781844155255 I n 2000, in these pages, I reviewed...

Saïd K. Aburish I MPERIAL L IFE IN THE E MERALD C ITY : I NSIDE B AGHDAD ’ S G REEN Z ONE by Rajiv Chandrasekaran Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 368, ISBN 9780747591689 ✆...

Byron Rogers S EX AND THE P SYCHE by Brett Kahr Penguin, £25, pp. 622, ISBN 9780713999402 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I shall never forget that glorious summer of...

Anthony Sattin W HEN A C ROCODILE E ATS THE S UN by Peter Godwin Picador, £16.99, pp. 342, ISBN 9780199273713 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he title of Peter...

I wish I could be fun at parties too: Slap men across their backs and flirt with girls, Tell ribald tales, play games with young blonde curls, Shout, ‘Murphy, man, remember at...

Jane Ridley P LUTOCRATS : A R OTHSCHILD INHERITANCE by George Ireland John Murray, £30, pp. 432, ISBN 9780719561535 ✆ £24 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 H ow the...

William Skidelsky I NNER W ORKINGS : E SSAYS 2000-2005 by J. M. Coetzee Harvill Secker, £17.99, pp. 304, ISBN 9781846550454 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 N...

Jonathan Keates M OTHER L EAKEY AND THE B ISHOP : A G HOST S TORY by Peter Marshall OUP, £12.99, pp. 323, ISBN 9780199273713 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he...

Adam Zamoyski T HE T HYSSEN A RT M ACABRE by David Litchfield Quartet, £25, pp. 470, ISBN 9780704371194 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 U ntil fairly recently, the...

Sam Leith Y OU C ANNOT L IVE AS I H AVE L IVED AND N OT E ND U P L IKE T HIS : T HE T HOROUGHLY D ISGRACEFUL L IFE BL T IMES OF W ILLIE D ONALDSON by Terence Blacker Ebury,...

R ory Bremner is in a hurry. The controversial impersonator surges into his production office a few minutes late for our meeting. ‘So sorry. Did they tell you? We overran,’...

Andrew Lambirth The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings Royal Academy, until 10 June Sponsored by Bank of America Renoir Landscapes 1865–83 National Gallery, until 20 May...

Richard Cork Leon Kossoff: Drawing from Painting National Gallery, until 1 July A t the age of only ten, Leon Kossoff undertook a momentous journey across London on his own....

Susan Moore F orget London, Paris and New York. For any serious collector of art and antiques there is just one unmissable event: The European Fine Art Fair at Maastricht. No...

Paul Cartledge ‘Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.’ T he first four words served as the title of a rather good...

Deborah Ross I Want Candy 15, Nationwide Amazing Grace PG, Nationwide I Want Candy is a British sex comedy, which should already sound alarm bells, but I will plough on...

Lloyd Evans Attempts on her Life Lyttelton Dying for It Almeida Platonov Barbican ‘I ’m not a snob. Ask anyone. Well, anyone who matters.’ The author of this self-knowing...

Michael Tanner The Tempest Royal Opera House L’Orfeo Queen Elizabeth Hall T he first revival of Thomas Adès’s The Tempest showed that, impressive as the first series of...

Giannandrea Poesio Dido and Aeneas Sasha Waltz and Guests, Sadler's Wells Theatre I t is not surprising that Baroque operas have long attracted the interest of contemporary...

Kate Chisholm I wonder whether Cameron and co. in their attempts to stir up worries about climate change, carbon emissions and the future of the planet ever spend much time...

James Delingpole S o it’s Sunday night and I’m lying in bed watching Mansfield Park (ITV), stricken with a chest infection, feeling really rough, writhing at all the...

Alan Judd ‘G ood neighbours I have had, and I have met with bad; and in trust I have found treason.’ Thus spake Elizabeth I, that font of pithy regal eloquence who learnt...

Taki New York D ripping with malice, envy and venom, hacks are having the time of their life as Conrad Black goes on trial in Chicago, a city known for its smiling...

Jeremy Clarke A t Cheltenham this year I was once again a guest of racing tipster and bon viveur Colonel Pinstripe. The Colonel is famous for his rambling, gossipy, sexist,...

Sarah Standing shares her husband’s dream of owning a house abroad — briefly M y husband always maintains that the best places in the world to visit are invariably the...

Women may just have to accept growing older gracefully, says Susan Boyd I suppose there is a time in your life when you long to appear older perhaps when you are 15. You pile on...

Y ou’ll know it by its food: Parma ham, parmesan cheese, lambrusco wine, balsamic vinegar, and spaghetti bolognese. All of those products have become the staples of British...

John Laughland P aris, for me, means bookshops. Others may associate the French capital with the Eiffel Tower, the haute couture houses on the Avenue Montaigne or inimitable...

Josie Reed V isiting graveyards on holiday is not just for genealogists and military historians; it’s for lovers of art and poetry, and for anyone with an interest in what...

means of buying good cheap wine. Supermarkets often have bargains. Recently, however, I went to a tasting by a very downmarket chain — they had Châteauneuf du Pape for £6.99...

FRANK KEATING O nce more unto the breach! Harfleur, Dunkirk and all that guff is being desperately evoked by the public prints and broadcasters. Goodwill may be suffering from...

Q. I find myself constantly smarting — for want of a better phrase — from the presumptions of instant matey-ness one encounters in almost every human interchange in English...

memorial service. I have a sentimental streak and may well be overcome by emotion. I dread being unable to continue once the tears start rolling. Name and address withheld A....

make my table look spectacular. The problem is that they become so badly clogged after one use that they take hours to clean. Is it acceptable to fit them with cardboard...