T he publication of the Stern report on the economics of climate change was a deeply significant political punctuation mark. On Monday Tony Blair declared that the document was...

to Dublin to appear on The Late Late Show , the world’s longest running chat show. It’s a televisual extravaganza; Ireland’s answer to Parkinson , Question Time and Trisha...

T here is something comically surreal about the ten-year plans Tony Blair has commissioned across his Cabinet. A Prime Minister who will not last another ten months is asking...

MONDAY We have to stop Gordon from stealing the environment! It was Dave’s idea to save the planet. It’s theft, pure and simple, what Labour is doing. Jed has written...

Paddy Ashdown spent more than three years trying to reconstruct Bosnia. He was asked by Donald Rumsfeld to do the same in Iraq. Here, he tells Matthew d’Ancona that such...

Charlie Boss looks ahead to a crunch vote by the university’s main legislative body on 14 November which could force Dr John Hood to resign over his plans for modernisation F...

Veronica, when an undergraduate, pasted up a big map of London on the wall of the attic bathroom, and very nice it looked too, until the water tank somehow overflowed and ran...

America goes to the polls on 7 November. What’s at stake? The West’s strategy against N. Korea and Iran, the future of Iraq, green policy and free trade, writes Irwin...

David Selbourne surveys the West’s setbacks in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and warns that we are underestimating the coherence of the war against the infidel W ith the US...

Rod Liddle says that jokes about disability would not make us laugh if they did not have the power that censorship and political correctness can confer on anything A mputees...

When an emotional Tony Blair bade farewell to the Labour party conference, he said how hard it was to give up, but needs must. The ancients too knew all about the love of power:...

Clemency Burton-Hill on Thomas Cholmondeley, who shot dead a Kikuyu poacher and set white complacency against politicised tribalism T he sun is rising lazily over Soysambu, a...

Toby Young is under orders from his wife to get a vasectomy. But why should men agree to biological redundancy? What about their duty to keep up the birthrate? And what about...

From Jonathan Mirsky Sir: William Shawcross (‘Leaving Iraq would court disaster’, 28 October) rolls out the stabin-the-back accusation that the media ‘helps only those...

From Joseph Askew Sir: Tim Walker (‘Charles, the first multicultural monarch?’, 28 October) asks whether Prince Charles will be the first British monarch to have a...

From Martin Hogg Sir: James Shaw’s critique (‘I am a new kind of university drop-out’, 28 October) makes for depressing reading. If his ‘premier league’ university...

From Osman Streater Sir: Rachel Johnson (‘To be expelled is the mark of genius’, 28 October) informs us that ‘I have asked almost everyone I know but, apart from my...

From Wynne Weston-Davies Sir: The BBC4 docudrama Longford was one of the best things on television for a long time but it perpetuated a current television solecism, in that...

L eafing through a newspaper last week, I noticed two headlines above two news reports. The first was about Christian and Muslim schools and the government’s proposed new...

W e are experiencing funny weather, and all kinds of explanations are being put forward. As a historian I am sceptical of all of them, unless supported by direct empirical...

Matthew Lynn finds private military contractors such as Colonel Tim Spicer — formerly known as mercenaries — responding to demand in a high-growth business sector S itting...

for the simple reason that only elected officials can ultimately be held accountable for it. ‘We do protective tasks, we don’t do offensive action,’ says Spicer....

George Trefgarne E xcuse me if I pour some cold water on the rather triumphalist anniversary celebrations of Big Bang over the last couple of weeks. There was a general...

Kendra Okonski argues that punitive taxes on air fares and fuel will do little or nothing to save the planet V apour trails across the autumn sky have become the equivalent of...

T he relationship between Newcastle and Gateshead, proud communities separated by a majestic stretch of the River Tyne, has never been harmonious. J.B. Priestley may have come...

Emily Laughland says man-made fibres can never compete with nature F or the first few years of my teenage life I kept my fingers crossed that my Russian second cousin-in-law...

Fraser Nelson F or a brief spell in my youth I used ‘suit’ as a term of abuse. I used to conspire with my friends to arrive at a bar ‘before the suits arrived’ by which...

Molly Watson E conomists have a term for the spending habits of the clientele at the Sloane Avenue outpost of Bliss, the Manhattan-based spa chain that is bringing American...

Matthew Bell I had forgotten I had a phobia about razor blades when I agreed to be shaved at George F. Trumper in Mayfair. It was only after waiting for half an hour in one of...

Harry Mount A mericans love clubs the way some Englishmen love clubs, but they love them without the constipated, halfproud, half-shameful secretiveness of the English clubman....

Mark Palmer S ometime in the early 1990s — while employed by the Sunday Telegraph — I was sent to report on how Marbella’s fortunes were being rebuilt by a medallionman...

William Shaw I remember the moment when I knew that the iPod had truly taken over the world. Way back in February I was walking home from a university club night. As I made my...

Philip Hensher J ANACEK , V OLUME I by John Tyrrell Faber, £60, pp. 971, ISBN0571175384 ✆ £48 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 L eos Janacek was a familiar and even...

Sandra Howard F IRST L ADY by Michael Dobbs Headline, £17.99, pp. 372, ISBN 0755326830 ✆ £14.39(plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hy, oh why, Michael Dobbs, didn’t you...

Peter J. M. Wayne U NLOCKING THE P RISON M USE : T HE I NSPIRATIONS AND E FFECTS OF P RISONERS ’ W RITING IN B RITAIN by Julian Broadhead Cambridge Academic, £19.95, pp....

Jonathan Sumption S TATE OF D ENIAL by Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster, £18.99, pp. 560, ISBN 0743295668 B ob Woodward is famous for persuading people to be indiscreet. This...

Andrew Taylor T HE W ATER ’ S L OVELY by Ruth Rendell Hutchinson, £17.99, pp. 295, ISBN 0091797284 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 R uth Rendell has been...

James Delingpole T HE D AILY T ELEGRAPH M ILITARY O BITUARIES , B OOK II edited by David Twiston Davies Grub Street, £17.99, pp. 416, ISBN 1904943608 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45...

Eric Christiansen E UROPE ’ S P HYSICIAN : T HE V ARIOUS L IFE OF S IR T HEODORE DE M AYERNE by Hugh Trevor-Roper Yale, £25, pp. 438, ISBN 0300112637 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45...

Rupert Christiansen O N O PERA by Bernard Williams Yale, £19.99, pp. 224, ISBN 0300089767 ✆ £15.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O pera has fallen out of fashion as a...

Justin Marozzi ARABS: A N EW P ERSPECTIVE by Mark Allen Continuum, £14.99, pp.142, ISBN 0826490557 V £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 H ad this excellent little book...

Harriet Waugh T HE C OMPLETE B OOK OF A UNTS by Rupert Christiansen Faber, £12.99, pp. 266, ISBN 0571226558 V £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I t is possible that my...

William Feaver PARMIGIANINO by David Ekserdjian Yale, £50, pp. 303, ISBN 0300108273 ✆ £40 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 G irolamo Francesco Mazzola was born in Parma...

Anthony Daniels A H ISTORY OF THE E NGLISH -S PEAKING P EOPLES S INCE 1900 by Andrew Roberts Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 736, ISBN 02970850768 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Hugh Massingberd T OMMY C OOPER : A LWAYS L EAVE T HEM L AUGHING by John Fisher HarperCollins, £18.99, pp. 470, ISBN 139780007215102 V £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Anita Brookner T HE V IEW F ROM C ASTLE R OCK by Alice Munro Chatto, £15.99, pp. 349, ISBN 0701179899 ✆ £12.79 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n the Foreword she writes...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft S UEZ 1956 by Barry Turner Hodder, £20, pp. 531, ISBN 0340837685 E NDS OF I MPERIALISM by Wm. Roger Louis Jr Tauris, £24.50, pp. 1,065, ISBN 1845113098 A...

Ian Thomson A S TUDY IN G REENE by Bernard Bergonzi OUP, £16.99, pp. 208, ISBN 0199291020 W ith almost 30 novels to his name, Graham Greene was a prolific chronicler of human...

A nother biography of Thomas Hardy, and, it seems a good one, by Claire Tomalin. But what is it about Hardy that so attracts biographers? There have been a good few of them,...

Michael Henderson talks to the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, champion of Janacek F or a man who was told by Neville Cardus not to bother leaving Australia to find his true...

Andrew Lambirth Velázquez National Gallery, until 21 January 2007 (sponsored by Abbey) T he first thing to be said is how good this exhibition looks upstairs in the main...

Mark Glazebrook Ensor et les avant-gardes à la mer PMMK (Musée de l’Art Moderne-sur-Mer), Ostend, until 25 February 2007 E veryone knows about the magnetism of Paris and...

Lloyd Evans Summer and Smoke Apollo The Father Theatre Museum Faustus Hampstead T ennessee Williams. What a gift he had for titles. Sweet Bird of Youth ; Suddenly, Last...

Giannandrea Poesio Coppélia Royal Ballet D espite its immense popularity, the ballet Coppélia is not a favourite with some dance practitioners. ‘Beware of ballets with lots...

Charles Spencer W e were on holiday last week for halfterm and, as so often when I have time off, I started to fret. What on earth was I going to write about in ‘Olden but...

Michael Tanner Peter Grimes Opera North Germania Deutsche Oper, Berlin Bird of Night Linbury Studio N o opera which is unquestionably major has so equivocal an effect on me as...

Deborah Ross Sixty Six (12a, nationwide) Y es, I know now that I should have seen Borat instead and, yes, I am kicking myself — although not too hard, as that would be...

Kate Chisholm ‘T he special function of the intelligence requires total liberty, implying the right to deny everything, and allowing of no domination,’ wrote the French...

Simon Hoggart I was in Zagreb last weekend. The city closes early on Saturday, so I ended up watching television in my hotel. Once you’ve flicked past German stock-market...

Simon Courtauld I n my early days as editor of the Field , I read an article submitted by one of the magazine’s venerable hunting correspondents — the subject was...

Robin Oakley I nvestment decisions don’t come easily and are all about value for money. Take the unfortunate fellow who lost his reproductive organ in an industrial accident....

Taki New York T his is so luminously beautiful, so hauntingly glamorous, that nail technicians, personal tattooists, wardrobe consultants and personal publicists the world...

Jeremy Clarke ‘ e’re getting closer to a new vaccine. W Can you help finish it off?’ Below this, a red, white and blue archery target with the word ‘Flu’ superimposed...

Roy Hattersley I t is now nearly a year since we were invaded by aliens. Although they did not have the same air of childish innocence, they turned out to be more insidious...

James Waldron on reaping the rewards of an instant garden T here’s a splendid old Indian Rain tree in the garden at Petersham House, near Richmond-uponThames. The head...

Sarah Miller gets light-headed and lethargic in Parrot Cay A travel editor who doesn’t get out much may be an oxymoron but seeing the world vicariously through the lightbox is...

Simon Davis squeezes into some of the tiniest properties on the market T he average price per square foot of residential property in London’s Kensington and Chelsea now stands...

follows has nothing to do with not being either hip or edgy. I am hip and edgy. Some days I’m so hip and edgy that’s all there is to me: hip and edge. ‘Wow, look at the...

FRANK KEATING B eginning this weekend, we are lumbered with the close combat of international rugby union just about all the way to next October and the World Cup final in...

facing a difficult future, but I was caught somewhat off guard when a barrister colleague told me that she had just turned 40 and wondered if she were too old to ‘go on the...

hygiene. Others are beginning to laugh at him behind his back — the main complaint is the ‘smell of frying onions’. How can I help without hurting his feelings? E.S.,...

wife’s best friends, I am a keen golfer. Said husband plays golf with me and two friends each weekend, usually for a small wager. My problem is — and I am afraid there is no...