_ health, in education, in criminal justice — this is the big challenge that this government and the Labour party faces'. His words were seen partly as a warning to the Left of...

An epidemic of fear O f all British exports, it is a tragedy that paranoia should be currently the most successful. If only the integrity of our armed forces and our distaste...

but if there's one group of professionals which has been a bit down-at-heel in recent months it's libel lawyers. For a variety of reasons — Jeffrey Archer languishing in jail...

he elaborate construction of the story of Tony Blair as lonely war leader, noted here last week, has continued to preoccupy Downing Street strategists as well as the political...

of something that had helped him to weather opposition to the war. 'I got a letter from the father of someone out there at the beginning, with very strong support,' he told the...

I f William Rees-Mogg had a fan club, I would be its president. I would lick envelopes for him and update his website, which would no doubt be full of his latest geopolitical...

The hunt for Saddam and WMD continues. Anarchy rules. But Iraq is now free, and Boris Johnson rejoices in the triumph of liberty Baghdad Iv e could tell something was up as soon...

The Defence Secretary tells Andrew Gimson that WMD remain the legal basis for the war against Iraq e could go and invade some country none of us has yet thought of and destroy...

Rod Liddle says the Conservatives would be more successful if they were keener on conserving p . hew! Made it! Just in time. mind. And not without a rather costly...

The Entente Cordiale was conceived 100 years ago, but now, says Simon Heifer, France and Britain are further apart than ever 0 ne hundred years ago, on I May 1903, King Edward...

Mr Peter Bonnett from Downham Market, Norfolk, appeals to me as 'The Spectator's custodian of language'. God forbid! I have troubles enough! Mr Bonnett is worried about the...

winery, the celebrated Cousino-Macul estate in Chile. The winery nestles in the foothills of the Andes, close to Santiago, though they have just extended operations to another...

Why do people do the things they do, especially when they are so bad for them? A patient of mine last week offered me the complete explanation, when I asked him why he had taken...

Unesco's recent Education for All week was outwardly a campaign to boost the educational opportunities for children in the Third World. On closer inspection, however, the...

The suicide rate in our jails has doubled since 1983. Theodore Dalrymple suggests that 'caring' attitudes are making matters worse T here have been far more hangings in British...

The Americans say they have no plans to attack any other foreign power — at the moment. To judge by the Iraq conflict, however, it will not be St Augustine's concept of the...

I _ magine that opposite this page there were to appear an advertisement under the headline 'Free Return Tickets to Cape Town', worded something like this: 'Hundreds of free...

From Mr Arthur Houghton Sir: Rod Liddle's article on the hidden agendas of the American Council for Cultural Policy (The day of the jackals', 19 April) provoked peals of...

From The RI Hon, Christopher Patten Sir: It is encouraging for Conservatives like me that articles such as Tim Congdon's (The dawning of a new Europe', 19 April) can still be...

From Mr Frederic Lamond Sir: I am glad that Mark Steyn ('Why I nearly resigned', 26 April) decided against resigning from The Spectator. His articles provide a unique insight...

1876-8, as Mark Steyn suggests, and administered Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Arabia, she would have found herself very quickly at war with Russia — a war which would inevitably...

From Sir Philip Naylor-Leyland, Bt Sir: It seems that the Questing Vole has lost the plot a little (19 April). The piece refers to a 'Sir Vyvian NaylorLeyland' paying nervous...

From Mr Stephan Shakespeare Sir: It's easy to say what's wrong with the Tories, but more difficult to come up with solutions. Michael Gave (It's still the "nasty party" ' , 26...

From Mr Patrick West Sir; Philippa Wragg's description ('My son's agony', 19 April) of the disgraced organ master Denis Cochrane strikes me as odd. Wragg describes him as an...

From Mr Timothy F. Statham Sir: Simon Hinde's article ('Another kidney . , 19 April) brought a breath of fresh air to a subject steeped in cant and hypocrisy. No one wants to...

From Mr Michael Nicholson Sir: Peter Hammett's adoration of the French is touching (Letters, 26 April), but, as always, there is a story behind a story. It is true that during...

From Lord Bray brooke Sir: I was intrigued to read in Taki's High Life (26 April) that my great-great-greatgrandfather, General Cornwallis, 'threw in the towel' at Yorktown in...

A discourse on giraffes ii_ have recently had a lot of children on my hands. I enjoy taking the youngest through their reading books. Older ones I encourage to write: stories,...

George Osborne THE RIGHT MAN: THE SURPRISE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH by David Frum Weidenfeld, i9.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0297847325 y the end we knew more than we ever wanted to...

Selina Hastings GIVING UP THE GHOST by Hilary Mantel Fourth Estate, £16, pp. 246, ISBN 0007148410 1 n the course of this moving memoir Hilary Mantel explains that she turned...

Philip Ziegler CHASING CHURCHILL by Celia Sandys HarperCollins, £20, pp. 293, ISBN 000710040X W inston Churchill once said to Lord Rothermere, 'I never take holidays.' He...

Andrew Hedgecock THE WHOLE STORY AND OTHER STORIES by All Smith 1-famish Hamilton, £10.99, pp. 192, ISBN 0241141109 T he stories in Ali Smith's third collection are like...

James Delingpole YOGA FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T BE BOTHERED To Do IT by Geoff Dyer Abacns. £10.99, pp. 257, ISBN 0316725072 G eoff Dyer is my new friend. We met for the first time...

Byron Rogers A KIND OF JOURNAL by P. J. Kavanagh Carcanet, I:14.95, pp. 243, ISBN 1857546326 his book doesn't half keep you guessing. Most of the time the atmosphere is that...

Francis King THE TIMES DECEAS'D by Timothy D'Arch Smith Stone Trough Books, The Old Rectory, Settrington, York YO1 9TF, .E20, pp. 140, ISBN 0952953463 T he life described in...

Steve King LONDON'S LEONARDO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROBERT HOOKE by Jim Bennett, Michael Cooper, Michael Hunter and Lisa Jardine OUP, £20, pp. 224, ISBN 0198525796 A s a...

Alan Wall THE BIRTH OF VENUS by Sarah Dunant Little, Brown, £12.99, pp. 412, ISBN 0316725498 W hat is it that the contemporary writer brings to historical fiction? Well,...

Jonathan Keates BEETHOVEN: THE MUSIC AND THE LIFE by Lewis Lockwood Norton, 128, pp. 604. ISBN 0393050815 F or composers nothing has ever been quite the same since Beethoven...

Adam Zamoyski UNQUIET WORLD: THE LIFE OF COUNT GEOFFREY POTOCKI by Stephanie de Montalk Victoria University Press. $NZ 39.95, pp. 336, ISBN 086473414X D odgy Polish counts have...

John Jolliffe THE LAST SECRETS OF THE SILK ROAD by Alexandra Tolstoy Profile, ,f16.99, pp. 209, ISBN 1861973934 T his is the astonishing story of a 5,000-mile ride by a team of...

Jonathan Sumption NATURE VIA NURTURE: GENES, EXPERIENCE AND WHAT MAKES US HUMAN by Matt Ridley Fourth Estate, £18.99, pp. 328, ISBN 1841157457 1 t is now well over a century...

Shortly before he died, Sir Paul Getty talked to Richard Bebb in the only interview he ever gave T he charitable giving of Sir Paul Getty always had a deliciously quirky element...

Nick Rossiter on how the 'Mona Lisa' was used on a sensitive diplomatic mission R eports of patriotic American restau.rants taking French fries and French toast off the menu...

Michael Tanner Alcina English National Opera Luisa Miller Royal Opera T he revival at the Coliseum of David McVicar's production of Handel's Alcina is a nearly unqualified...

Ursula Buchan I never thought it would come to this. That I would be glad when the daffodils were finally over. But this annual and ubiquitous explosion of egg-yolk yellow is...

Andrew Lambirth The Museum of the Mind British Museum until 7 September S ubtitled 'Art and Memory in World Cultures', this small but fascinating show has bitten off rather...

Marcus Berkmann A wonderful letter in this month's Moja, Inc magazine for gnarled old rockers (and rollers). It refers to a booklet that came free with the previous month's...

Lloyd Evans The Dwarfs lricycle Monsieur Chasse Orange Tree, Richmond How To Lose Friends ... Soho Theatre W here does one stand on Pinter? His testicles, you might say. Not...

Mark Steyn Thomas Pynchon A Journey Into The Mind Of Unrated, ICA Half Past Dead 15, selected cinenias I mentioned last week, apropos my near resignation from The Spectator,...

Simon Hoggart I Thad the chance to catch only the first of the new I'm A Celebrity — Get Me Out Of Here! (ITV) before press day, but naturally the moment I saw John Fashanu...

Michael Vestey S ome fascinating insights into the works of P.G. Wodehouse were offered on Radio Four last week in a programme about the unpublished notebooks he wrote from...

Robin Oakley T he next time I bump into John Hills before a big handicap and he says, 'It would be nice to win this one, wouldn't it?' with a particularly cheery grin, I shall...

Taki New York M y doctor tells me that the reason I grew a tumour in my head was because of my obsession with Ashley Judd. For any of you living in outer space, Ashley is an...

Jeremy Clarke S unday afternoon and I was going home with that 'making love and walking home alone' kind of feeling. A blowy Sunday afternoon and the high street strewn with...

Petronella Wyatt I have just returned from Morocco, or Marrakech, to be precise; the rose-pink city with its hidden gardens and ancient, tiled palaces. This was against the...

I suspect that most inquisitive Londoners have, at one time or another, wondered about the extraordinary artists' studios on the A4 at Hammersmith as they rush towards Heathrow....

TV work includes almost everything with 'murder' in it — Murder Most Horrid, Murder In Mind, Midsomer Murders — and whose wonderful bestselling children's books include Granny,...

MICHAEL HENDERSON T he weather turned this week, but, even without the blue skies that have graced the last four weeks, summer arrived with the publication of Wisden. The...

to unzip himself as he approaches our downstairs gents. He also delays the buttoning-up process until long after he has vacated the facility. I am afraid that I find this...

clothes in England. All that can be found readily are the 'Douglas Hurd'-style loden overcoats, as sported by members of the 'DL, JP' class, usually flung in the back of a...

entry to the Jaspistos competition. Last week The Spectator presented me with another £30 cheque, erroneously. This was swiftly banked by my husband, who believes that it would...