because he could not remember having made a telephone call in which nothing improper was said in favour of Mr Srichand Hinduja and his brother Prakash. Social workers took away...

I n a few days' time, the governments of 12 European nations will undertake a logistical problem more challenging than that faced by Santa Claus. They will have to distribute 15...

I f you want proof that the world didn't change on II September, get down to the Manhattan coffee shop, the blue and orange chain dotted around London. For the past three years...

Felipe Fernandez - Armesto says Oxford is failing because her alumni are mean, she has betrayed her traditions and is unwilling to adopt the best American practices OXFORD...

But that's how liberals treat them: Andrew Kenny on what must be done to save South Africa Cape Town IN South Africa the news is so terrible and the response of our leaders so...

'VERY nice, I don't think, said my husband to no one in particular. I sometimes wonder whether he talks more when I'm not there than when I am. His remark was by way of...

Gary Hart is to be jailed for causing a terrible accident but, says Ross Clark, the government helps motorists deliberately to break the law IN the new year our overcrowded...

I TRUST that I shall not be called cynical when I mention that the first question to be answered by a doctor on examining a prisoner with abdominal pain is whether the patient...

Andrew Gimson on the strange history of Stephen Byers, who has become the master of the non-denial denial COMPARED with the unfathomable chaos of his later life, there is a...

Mark Steyn on the battle of two cultures: on one side is the freedom-loving US, on the other the anti-democratic EU New Hampshire MY colleague Petronella Wyatt reported the...

AS the happy people of Europe link hands, singing and dancing, to welcome the bright new dawn of the euro, they might consider the judgment of Tacitus on the British acceptance...

lain Duncan Smith talks to Peter °borne about his first 100 days and his plans for the future 'JOLLY nice of you to see The Spectator,' I said while shaking hands with lain...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit MOST bad laws make some kind of perverse sense in that they help to enrich the government's coffers or to satisfy some...

Peter Jones on why he would much rather J.K. Rowling were not translated into Latin and ancient Greek MEDIAEVAL alchemists thought that there should be a substance which would...

PAUL JOHNSON A nother annus horribilis over, I have been painting a New Year card. I don't do many, just one or two for close friends who I feel need cheering up. I was brought...

From The Hon. Dr Joseph Garcia Sir: Matthew Parris is wrong in his approach to the Gibraltar question (Mother voice, 15/22 December). The main consideration must surely be that...

Gibraltar or any colony — past, present or future — can be treated in the same way as title deeds on a Monopoly board. Britain has had her fair share of disasters with former...

From Mr Edgar Crook Sir: As a librarian, albeit one who has escaped from England to the literature-loving shores of Australia. I wholeheartedly support Julia Lewis (`An axe to...

From Debra Lake Sir: Congratulations to Tania Kindersley on an excellent article and for daring to air the ills of pornography (The degradation of the species', 8 December)....

From Mr Stephen Ashurst Sir: With almost dreary regularity, Mark Steyn repeats each week the standard 'my rights' mantra of the conservative naif (`The grapes of wrath', 15/22...

From Dr Michael Martin-Smith Sir: PetroneIla Wyatt notes a rise in openly expressed anti-Semitism since 11 September (Singular life, 8 December). She is not alone in observing...

Sir: Petronella Wyatt is, I'm sure, aware that 'anti-Semitism' is invoked not just when real prejudice occurs, but also whenever Israel or a Jewish political opinion is...

neatly puts all blame for the violence in the Middle East on the shoulders of President Arafat. He is indeed to blame for a lack of leadership and for other failings, but I...

From Mr Francis Rentoul Sir: As Ann Leslie wrote (`Before the Beatles' first LP', 15/22 December), in the 1950s the Windmill was the only public theatre where the Lord...

From Mr John Hart Sir: I have never listened to Premier Christian Radio, and probably never shall, but having read Dr Colin Nicholl's article (Tor Christ's sake', 24 November)...

STEPHEN GLOVER 0 n 7 December an alluring lead item appeared in Peterborough, the Daily Telegraph's diary column. It told us that Euan Blair, the 17-year-old son of Tony and...

Philip Hensher THE OUTCRY by Henry James Penguin, £8.99, pp. 240, ISBN 0141186941 H enn: James's last period has been very little explored, and, for most readers, his career...

John Gross UNCLE TUNGSTEN by Oliver Sacks Picador, £17.99, pp. 336, ISBN 0330390279 hen Oliver Sacks was a boy, one of his teachers wrote in an end-of-term report: 'Sacks will...

Peregrine Worsthorne LETTERS TO A YOUNG CONTRARIAN by Christopher Hitchens Perseus Press, £16.99. pp. 141, ISBN 1903985064 A nything written by Christopher Hitchens is worth...

behavi ng badly P. J. Kavanagh IT'S NOT CRICKET by Simon Rae Faber, £14.99, pp. 297, ISBN 05 71201814 BAT, BALL AND BOUNDARY compiled by Shelley Klein Michael O'Mara, £8.99....

Jane Ridley SCHNITZLER'S CENTURY: THE MAKING OF MIDDLE-CLASS CULTURE, 1815-1914 by Peter Gay Allen Lane, £20, pp. 334, ISBN 0713994487 n 18 March 1879 a 16-year-old Viennese...

Simon Ward SO WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? by Anthony Shaffer Picador, £16.99, pp. 222, ISBN 0330390430 T he somewhat plaintive tone of the title of Anthony Shaffer's memoir would...

Jonathan Cecil CHARLES HAWTREY: THE MAN WHO WAS PRIVATE WIDDLE by Roger Lewis Faber, £9.99, pp. 115, ISBN 0571210643 O ne of the minor anomalies of British show business is...

Gabriel e Annan SEDUCTION AND BETRAYAL by Elizabeth Hardwick New York Review of Books, £7.99, pp. 257, ISBN 0940322781 SLEEPLESS NIGHTS by Elizabeth Hardwick New York Review of...

ill done Christopher Ricks HOW IT WAS: A MEMOIR OF SAMUEL BECKETT by Anne Atik Faber, 130, pp. 129, ISBN 0571209106 R eminiscences of Beckett, like photographs of him, are...

Michael Glover A MURDER, A MYSTERY AND A MARRIAGE by Mark Twain W. W. Norton, £12.95, pp. 80. ISBN 0393043762 A few interesting things happened in 1876. Just a matter of weeks...

Nicholas Fearn GENES, GIRLS AND GAMOW by J. D. Watson OUP, £18.99, pp. 304, ISBN 0198509766 1 . he words of this memoir's title do not come in order of priority for James...

Martin Anderson THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP: THE LETTERS OF DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH TO ISAAK GLIKMAN translated by Anthony Phillips Faber, 125, pp. 340, ISBN 0571209823 T he battle...

Hugh Lawson-Tancred EMERGENCE by Steven Johnson Allen Lane, Penguin, £14.99, pp. 288, ISBN 0713994002 2 + 2 = 5. At least it does in natural and artificial systems which can...

Anita Brookner I t has to be said that the prizes awarded in the November literary season went to novels that were not of the highest quality. (The same might be said of novels...

Sheridan Morley looks back at the theatrical highs and lows of 2001 S o how was it for you? I mean apart from the foot-and-mouth, and the events of 11 September, and the fear of...

It makes you think Martin Gayford W hat is the nastiest material in the world? There is, of course, a wide choice. Some might plump, for example, for that artificial stone...

Mark Steyn T he annual retrospective gets a little tougher each year. What price now the blockbusters of summer? They gross a hundred million in the first week, and are dead by...

Ingenius parody Michael Tanner I feel like a very late arrival at a party, though one that is fortunately still in full swing. I have just seen for the first time The Mikado...

Star turns Toby Young I f I was asked to rank the various kinds of performers who ply their trade on the West End stage I would put stand-up comedians far above...

Robin Holloway exander Goehr, my revered composition teacher, and later longstanding boss in the music faculty at Cambridge, was always snooty about writing on music that was...

James Delmgpole w as the week before Christmas and I was getting kind of agitated: how would I find the time to watch all the seasonal preview tapes I'd ordered? What about the...

Michael Vestey A t a friend's farewell party at Broadcasting House recently I was chatting to a Radio Five Live presenter, who has also broadcast extensively on Radio Four over...

Robin Oakley T ony Blair doesn't want the European Union to be a superstate. He merely wants it to be a superpower. And how were the leaders of this superpower conducting...

Taki H ere's a follow-up to my 24 November story about Sotheby's ex-chairman Alfred Taubman, It was class warfare alright, with Taubman's five 'homes', his Gulfstream jet and...

Petronella Wyatt W hen I was nine, my father wrote a children's book called The Exploits of Mr Saucy Squirrel. This talking animal was based on the squirrels we saw emerging...

Simon Barnes THE coming year's overwhelming question of sport is whether or not David Beckham and Michael Owen possess the Gazza Factor. Now I know that Paul Gascoigne has...

for some years, I decided that this year would be the one in which I would try to start getting back in touch with people. Consequently I sent out about 100 cards, signing them...

liked a great deal, opened a new restaurant which is named 'simply by its address'. I called him twice in order to wish him well, as the restaurant was a new project and I...

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