T he success of Hamas in the elections for the Palestinian Authority has provided a joyous opportunity for that small but sizeable body of opinion in the West which considers...

T he government was twice defeated in the Commons in votes on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, making its provisions less broad. The government produced a form with a box...

gift shop to buy a postcard of George Orwell. There wasn’t one. I then looked for Anthony Powell. Again, no luck. V.S. Naipaul wasn’t there either. In the course of my...

O ne of the most successful smear campaigns in the modern era concerns Margaret Thatcher. It was alleged that she stood for a narrow, selfish individualism without reference to...

I t says something for the change that David Cameron has already wrought in his party that I find myself in Rwanda courtesy of Andrew Mitchell, the Conservatives’...

Julian Manyon on why the Palestinians voted for Hamas — and why the terrorists will not be transformed into politicians by the realities of power Jerusalem F undamentalists...

Washington I n the 48 hours before George W. Bush took the podium to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, the presenter for ABC news was blown up in...

Restraints on speech have been abolished, says Daniel Wolf , but we live in a new age of social control W e live in a culture that at one moment celebrates stupidity as wisdom,...

The Europeans have betrayed Afghanistan, says Max Hastings . The enhanced Nato deployment is a charade T he Defence Secretary John Reid’s announcement that Britain is to send...

Lashkar Gar, Afghanistan I n a dusty clearing on the outskirts of Helmand’s capital, the US army’s Provincial Reconstruction Team had set up a mobile aid station. As we...

In view of the new Tory leader David Cameron’s call for ‘social enterprise zones’, where local communities deal with local social problems, it may be worth reminding him...

Aidan Rankin questions an economic dogma that unites Left and Right I n mid-20th-century Melanesia there was a brief but traumatic fashion for ‘cargo cults’. These movements...

The greens are again attacking cheap airlines — a sign, says Brendan O’Neill , of ignorance, mean-spiritedness and snobbery I could be in Galway this afternoon on a flight...

What a human catastrophe is the doctrine of human rights! Not only does it give officialdom an excuse to insinuate itself into the very fabric of our lives, but it has a...

The celeb Angelina Jolie is pregnant and was photographed last week with a tattoo around the growing bump that read, Quod me nutrit me destruit — What feeds me destroys me. A...

Rod Liddle marvels at the lunacies of inclusivity S ad news: apparently the forthcoming Festival of Muslim Cultures, which we have all been looking forward to, will not be...

The Undergraduate section of the Cup drew a disappointing field over the year, but there was nothing unworthy about the Cup winner — David Butterfield (Christ’s College,...

Sir Richard Sykes of Imperial College tells Martin Vander Weyer that Britain’s world-class scientists hold the key to future economic success A pproaching Imperial College...

From Lady Belhaven and Stenton Sir: I understand why Mary Wakefield decided to speak to the Federation of Poles in Great Britain (‘The misery of the Polish newcomers’, 28...

From Alexandra Gibbs Sir: Ross Clark (‘Reefer madness’, 28 January) disagrees with ‘the libertarian view that cannabis is ... a harmless bit of fun’. Many of us...

From Jane Kelly Sir: So what is the truth about the Great War? Come along then, tell us. I haven’t yet read The Great War: Myth and Memory by Dan Todman, but Hugh Cecil who...

From Dr John B. Sheldon Sir: In a better world Andrew Gilligan’s call for the United States to offer Iran a ‘grand bargain’ in order to provide a way out of the current...

From Professor John Poynton Sir: Peter Phillips (Arts, 21 January) regrets that Mozart’s 250th anniversary will overshadow other anniversaries. Most regrettable of all, I...

From William Kelley Sir: While I enjoyed Taki’s High life column last week, I feel I ought to point out that both Eton (1,157 killed) and Rugby (689 killed) lost more former...

From Eric Brown Sir: In ‘The Spectator’s Notes’ (21 January), Charles Moore writes: ‘The only part of mainland Britain where the North/South divide governs everything is...

From Christopher Arthur Sir: Reading Leo McKinstry’s very sensible piece about Ruth Kelly (‘Hate, hypocrisy and hysteria’, 21 January) and the pae dophile witch-hunt, I...

From Martyn Marriott Sir: Rod Liddle (‘The politics of Pleasantville’, 21 January) chooses a poor example of political correctness in stating that Africa’s problems are...

From Anthony Howard Sir: Gordon Brown asks us to be patriotic and to plant Union flags in our gardens. He should have thought of that before he supported his Prime Minister in...

From John Bunting Sir: Dr Chris Scanlan’s letter (21 January) and Richard Dawkins’s effusions show the extent to which fundamentalism is now taken as representative of...

From Stuart Williams Sir: If I were a multibillionaire (And another thing, 21 January), I would buy an atom bomb from Mr Ahmadinejad and drop it on the Welsh Assembly. Stuart...

I mportant politicians are no longer content just to deliver their speeches. They or their spinners privately make known to lobby correspondents in advance the message which the...

I shall remember Saturday 20 January 2006. What it was like elsewhere I do not know, but in west Somerset it was the perfect winter’s day. A great surge of happiness ran...

John Spurling forgives the Black Sea state for giving birth to Stalin G eorgia has a recognition problem. Many people confuse it with the former slavestate in America, others...

Petroc Trelawny P hnom Penh lies at the confluence of three rivers. The Mekong is the grandest, rising in the mountains of China, and passing through Cambodia before eventually...

Petronella Wyatt I was off on the road to Morocco once more. (The warm climate and the soft landscape draw me back again and again. I must be getting old.) Those camels are...

one-week holiday in Turks and Caicos. The problem is, we have two young children and we’re facing a 14-hour journey. The hardest part is going to be the ten-hour flight to...

Sam Leith T HE D EVIL ’ S D OCTOR : P ARACELSUS AND THE W ORLD OF R ENAISSANCE M AGIC AND SCIENCE by Philip Ball Heinemann, £20, pp. 416, ISBN 0434011347 ✆ £16 (plus...

Olivia Glazebrook CLEAVER by Tim Parks Harvill/Secker, £16.99, pp. 316, ISBN 0436205610 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 H arold Cleaver is a middle-aged man at the...

He hears you talking but he doesn’t hear all the words your speech sounds represent. He listens hard: the wordless words pass by. He can’t locate their whatsits ...?...

John Grimond AFRICA by Guy Arnold Atlantic, £35, pp. 1028, ISBN 1843541750 ✆ £28 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A n unkind thought keeps coming to mind as you read this...

Cressida Connolly E LEVEN K INDS OF L ONELINESS by Richard Yates Methuen, £7.99, pp. 221, ISBN 0413775577 ✆ £6.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 R ichard Yates’s 1961...

Piers Paul Read C AMUS AT C OMBAT : W RITING 1944-1947 edited by Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi, with a foreword by David Carroll Princeton University Press, £18.95, pp. 334, ISBN...

Jane Ridley A RTIST OF W ONDERLAND : T HE L IFE , P OLITICAL C ARTOONS AND I LLUSTRATIONS OF T ENNIEL by Frankie Morris Luttterworth, £35, pp. 405, ISBN 0718830563 J ohn...

Amanda Herries T HE G UYND by Belinda Rathbone W.W. Norton, £14.99, pp. 293, ISBN 15493720157 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S ix years ago I embarked on a little...

Jonathan Mirsky T HE F ORD OF H EAVEN : A C HILDHOOD IN T IANJIN , C HINA by Brian Power Signal Books, £19.99, pp. 216, ISBN 1904955002 B rian Power’s book, like the best...

Brendan O’Neill G UARDIANS OF P OWER : T HE M YTH OF THE L IBERAL MEDIA by David Edwards and David Cromwell Pluto, £14.99, pp. 241, ISBN 0745324827 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45...

Frederic Raphael T HE J OURNALS , V OLUME II by John Fowles Cape, £25, pp. 463, ISBN 0224069128 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 D r Johnson talks somewhere of a...

Andrew Lambirth is entranced by the central purity of Dan Flavin’s installations M any artists are involved to a greater or lesser degree with the depiction of light, but Dan...

Russell Chamberlin I t seemed a curious place for one of the grimmest of Victorian institutions, tucked under manicured downs, surrounded by handsome villas with flowering...

Michael Tanner Last week I accidentally sent the wrong review of La Traviata for publication — one of a performance at the Royal Opera a year ago. What appears below is a...

Peter Phillips W hile we’re on the subject of Shostakovich, and his general worth as a composer and human being in this the 100th anniversary of his birth, I recently came...

Charles Spencer I promise I’m going to come up with some hot musical recommendations this issue, but I must thank those Spectator readers who wrote about last month’s...

Toby Young Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Apollo The Soldier’s Tale Old Vic Mary Poppins Prince Edward I t’s been 44 years since Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of...

Michael Vestey U ntil the row over the dropping of the UK Theme from Radio Four, I had no idea so many people listen to the radio at 5.30 every morning. If I’m awake at that...

James Delingpole ‘W hy can’t all our schools be like Eton?’ the heroic Claire Fox asked on Question Time (BBC1, Thursday) last week, and the question was so shocking that...

Taki Gstaad W hen excerpts of Truman Capote’s ballyhooed opus Answered Prayers first appeared in Esquire , I thought the tiny terror had written his masterpiece. Taking a...

Jeremy Clarke I ’ve come out of the West End theatre cowed as usual by the sheer unfriendliness of the metropolitan bourgeoisie among whom I’d been sitting. We’d seen a...

into British cooking and who has just published his 2006 guide to the best restaurants in the UK, if he’d care to have lunch, show me how he judges a restaurant, maybe teach...

E17 may seem an unlikely candidate to be gracing the glossy pages of style magazines, but the area — birthplace of William Morris and home to the ‘greyhound racing stadium...

SIMON HOGGART T he French wine crisis grinds on. The great and expensive classics continue to sell well, but many in the middle are being swept aside by a tide of better,...

FRANK KEATING T he basso thump of Six Nations’ rugby begins this weekend — today Wales are at Twickenham and Italy in Dublin, and tomorrow the French collide with the Scots...

I ask something else? Whenever I have eaten birds, it has always been quite an informal occasion where one didn’t have to worry about, well, what to do with shot. One could...

having essential repairs carried out and I have to move out next week. Having been rugged by a friend of a friend who had agreed I could live in one of her spare rooms, I find I...

January 2002 (from M.C.-M., Notts) in which your correspondent commented on the fashion for leaving shooting before the day is formally concluded. I now hear of something even...

T he success of Hamas in the elections for the Palestinian Authority has provided a joyous opportunity for that small but sizeable body of opinion in the West which considers...

T he government was twice defeated in the Commons in votes on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, making its provisions less broad. The government produced a form with a box...

gift shop to buy a postcard of George Orwell. There wasn’t one. I then looked for Anthony Powell. Again, no luck. V.S. Naipaul wasn’t there either. In the course of my...

O ne of the most successful smear campaigns in the modern era concerns Margaret Thatcher. It was alleged that she stood for a narrow, selfish individualism without reference to...

I t says something for the change that David Cameron has already wrought in his party that I find myself in Rwanda courtesy of Andrew Mitchell, the Conservatives’...

Julian Manyon on why the Palestinians voted for Hamas — and why the terrorists will not be transformed into politicians by the realities of power Jerusalem F undamentalists...

Washington I n the 48 hours before George W. Bush took the podium to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, the presenter for ABC news was blown up in...

Restraints on speech have been abolished, says Daniel Wolf , but we live in a new age of social control W e live in a culture that at one moment celebrates stupidity as wisdom,...

The Europeans have betrayed Afghanistan, says Max Hastings . The enhanced Nato deployment is a charade T he Defence Secretary John Reid’s announcement that Britain is to send...

Lashkar Gar, Afghanistan I n a dusty clearing on the outskirts of Helmand’s capital, the US army’s Provincial Reconstruction Team had set up a mobile aid station. As we...

In view of the new Tory leader David Cameron’s call for ‘social enterprise zones’, where local communities deal with local social problems, it may be worth reminding him...

Aidan Rankin questions an economic dogma that unites Left and Right I n mid-20th-century Melanesia there was a brief but traumatic fashion for ‘cargo cults’. These movements...

The greens are again attacking cheap airlines — a sign, says Brendan O’Neill , of ignorance, mean-spiritedness and snobbery I could be in Galway this afternoon on a flight...

What a human catastrophe is the doctrine of human rights! Not only does it give officialdom an excuse to insinuate itself into the very fabric of our lives, but it has a...

The celeb Angelina Jolie is pregnant and was photographed last week with a tattoo around the growing bump that read, Quod me nutrit me destruit — What feeds me destroys me. A...

Rod Liddle marvels at the lunacies of inclusivity S ad news: apparently the forthcoming Festival of Muslim Cultures, which we have all been looking forward to, will not be...

The Undergraduate section of the Cup drew a disappointing field over the year, but there was nothing unworthy about the Cup winner — David Butterfield (Christ’s College,...

Sir Richard Sykes of Imperial College tells Martin Vander Weyer that Britain’s world-class scientists hold the key to future economic success A pproaching Imperial College...

From Lady Belhaven and Stenton Sir: I understand why Mary Wakefield decided to speak to the Federation of Poles in Great Britain (‘The misery of the Polish newcomers’, 28...

From Alexandra Gibbs Sir: Ross Clark (‘Reefer madness’, 28 January) disagrees with ‘the libertarian view that cannabis is ... a harmless bit of fun’. Many of us...

From Jane Kelly Sir: So what is the truth about the Great War? Come along then, tell us. I haven’t yet read The Great War: Myth and Memory by Dan Todman, but Hugh Cecil who...

From Dr John B. Sheldon Sir: In a better world Andrew Gilligan’s call for the United States to offer Iran a ‘grand bargain’ in order to provide a way out of the current...

From Professor John Poynton Sir: Peter Phillips (Arts, 21 January) regrets that Mozart’s 250th anniversary will overshadow other anniversaries. Most regrettable of all, I...

From William Kelley Sir: While I enjoyed Taki’s High life column last week, I feel I ought to point out that both Eton (1,157 killed) and Rugby (689 killed) lost more former...

From Eric Brown Sir: In ‘The Spectator’s Notes’ (21 January), Charles Moore writes: ‘The only part of mainland Britain where the North/South divide governs everything is...

From Christopher Arthur Sir: Reading Leo McKinstry’s very sensible piece about Ruth Kelly (‘Hate, hypocrisy and hysteria’, 21 January) and the pae dophile witch-hunt, I...

From Martyn Marriott Sir: Rod Liddle (‘The politics of Pleasantville’, 21 January) chooses a poor example of political correctness in stating that Africa’s problems are...

From Anthony Howard Sir: Gordon Brown asks us to be patriotic and to plant Union flags in our gardens. He should have thought of that before he supported his Prime Minister in...

From John Bunting Sir: Dr Chris Scanlan’s letter (21 January) and Richard Dawkins’s effusions show the extent to which fundamentalism is now taken as representative of...

From Stuart Williams Sir: If I were a multibillionaire (And another thing, 21 January), I would buy an atom bomb from Mr Ahmadinejad and drop it on the Welsh Assembly. Stuart...

I mportant politicians are no longer content just to deliver their speeches. They or their spinners privately make known to lobby correspondents in advance the message which the...

I shall remember Saturday 20 January 2006. What it was like elsewhere I do not know, but in west Somerset it was the perfect winter’s day. A great surge of happiness ran...

John Spurling forgives the Black Sea state for giving birth to Stalin G eorgia has a recognition problem. Many people confuse it with the former slavestate in America, others...

Petroc Trelawny P hnom Penh lies at the confluence of three rivers. The Mekong is the grandest, rising in the mountains of China, and passing through Cambodia before eventually...

Petronella Wyatt I was off on the road to Morocco once more. (The warm climate and the soft landscape draw me back again and again. I must be getting old.) Those camels are...

one-week holiday in Turks and Caicos. The problem is, we have two young children and we’re facing a 14-hour journey. The hardest part is going to be the ten-hour flight to...

Sam Leith T HE D EVIL ’ S D OCTOR : P ARACELSUS AND THE W ORLD OF R ENAISSANCE M AGIC AND SCIENCE by Philip Ball Heinemann, £20, pp. 416, ISBN 0434011347 ✆ £16 (plus...

Olivia Glazebrook CLEAVER by Tim Parks Harvill/Secker, £16.99, pp. 316, ISBN 0436205610 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 H arold Cleaver is a middle-aged man at the...

He hears you talking but he doesn’t hear all the words your speech sounds represent. He listens hard: the wordless words pass by. He can’t locate their whatsits ...?...

John Grimond AFRICA by Guy Arnold Atlantic, £35, pp. 1028, ISBN 1843541750 ✆ £28 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A n unkind thought keeps coming to mind as you read this...

Cressida Connolly E LEVEN K INDS OF L ONELINESS by Richard Yates Methuen, £7.99, pp. 221, ISBN 0413775577 ✆ £6.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 R ichard Yates’s 1961...

Piers Paul Read C AMUS AT C OMBAT : W RITING 1944-1947 edited by Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi, with a foreword by David Carroll Princeton University Press, £18.95, pp. 334, ISBN...

Jane Ridley A RTIST OF W ONDERLAND : T HE L IFE , P OLITICAL C ARTOONS AND I LLUSTRATIONS OF T ENNIEL by Frankie Morris Luttterworth, £35, pp. 405, ISBN 0718830563 J ohn...

Amanda Herries T HE G UYND by Belinda Rathbone W.W. Norton, £14.99, pp. 293, ISBN 15493720157 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S ix years ago I embarked on a little...

Jonathan Mirsky T HE F ORD OF H EAVEN : A C HILDHOOD IN T IANJIN , C HINA by Brian Power Signal Books, £19.99, pp. 216, ISBN 1904955002 B rian Power’s book, like the best...

Brendan O’Neill G UARDIANS OF P OWER : T HE M YTH OF THE L IBERAL MEDIA by David Edwards and David Cromwell Pluto, £14.99, pp. 241, ISBN 0745324827 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45...

Frederic Raphael T HE J OURNALS , V OLUME II by John Fowles Cape, £25, pp. 463, ISBN 0224069128 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 D r Johnson talks somewhere of a...

Andrew Lambirth is entranced by the central purity of Dan Flavin’s installations M any artists are involved to a greater or lesser degree with the depiction of light, but Dan...

Russell Chamberlin I t seemed a curious place for one of the grimmest of Victorian institutions, tucked under manicured downs, surrounded by handsome villas with flowering...

Michael Tanner Last week I accidentally sent the wrong review of La Traviata for publication — one of a performance at the Royal Opera a year ago. What appears below is a...

Peter Phillips W hile we’re on the subject of Shostakovich, and his general worth as a composer and human being in this the 100th anniversary of his birth, I recently came...

Charles Spencer I promise I’m going to come up with some hot musical recommendations this issue, but I must thank those Spectator readers who wrote about last month’s...

Toby Young Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Apollo The Soldier’s Tale Old Vic Mary Poppins Prince Edward I t’s been 44 years since Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of...

Michael Vestey U ntil the row over the dropping of the UK Theme from Radio Four, I had no idea so many people listen to the radio at 5.30 every morning. If I’m awake at that...

James Delingpole ‘W hy can’t all our schools be like Eton?’ the heroic Claire Fox asked on Question Time (BBC1, Thursday) last week, and the question was so shocking that...

Taki Gstaad W hen excerpts of Truman Capote’s ballyhooed opus Answered Prayers first appeared in Esquire , I thought the tiny terror had written his masterpiece. Taking a...

Jeremy Clarke I ’ve come out of the West End theatre cowed as usual by the sheer unfriendliness of the metropolitan bourgeoisie among whom I’d been sitting. We’d seen a...

into British cooking and who has just published his 2006 guide to the best restaurants in the UK, if he’d care to have lunch, show me how he judges a restaurant, maybe teach...

E17 may seem an unlikely candidate to be gracing the glossy pages of style magazines, but the area — birthplace of William Morris and home to the ‘greyhound racing stadium...

SIMON HOGGART T he French wine crisis grinds on. The great and expensive classics continue to sell well, but many in the middle are being swept aside by a tide of better,...

FRANK KEATING T he basso thump of Six Nations’ rugby begins this weekend — today Wales are at Twickenham and Italy in Dublin, and tomorrow the French collide with the Scots...

I ask something else? Whenever I have eaten birds, it has always been quite an informal occasion where one didn’t have to worry about, well, what to do with shot. One could...

having essential repairs carried out and I have to move out next week. Having been rugged by a friend of a friend who had agreed I could live in one of her spare rooms, I find I...

January 2002 (from M.C.-M., Notts) in which your correspondent commented on the fashion for leaving shooting before the day is formally concluded. I now hear of something even...