he Queen reviewed a parade of 10,000 D-Day veterans on the beach of Arro- manches in Normandy and visited war graves. She joined 13 other heads of state and heads of government....

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 THE SERVANT PROBLEM I n November of 1938, one Beatrice Webb wrote the...

The Christian conspiracy at the heart of Europe SIMON HEFFER r Major's recent remarks about wanting a multi-layered, multi-speed, multi-track Europe have made, as one might...

NIGEL DEMPSTER T here is a bulging file marked Sara Keays in my cabinet to which another legal letter was added this week — detailing the latest state of play from my...

We should not waste our time worrying about the fortunate 'poor' AUBERON WAUGH B etween 1979 and 1994, the average income in Britain increased in real terms (taking tax and...

For Michael Heseltine, power is not a means to an end: it is an end in itself, argues Noel Malcolm IN APRIL 1967, a young property develop- er turned politician, Michael Ray...

Alexander Solzhenitsyn has shown a rare restraint since his return to Russia, writes John Lloyd Moscow A LITTLE over two years ago, when Vice President Alexander Rutskoi was...

There is no spirit-driven life force: we are just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information, argues Richard Dawkins I DON'T usually drop names but on occa- sion the...

persist. . . THE DOCTORS in one of the hospitals which has the honour to employ me have been going around for some time now with little notebooks in their pockets, rather like...

SOCIETY has been defrauded this week of a sensation. The Sutherland will case came on for trial on Thursday in the Probate Court, and as the amount at stake was £1,500,000, and...

`MUMMY,' said Veronica, who was watching motor-racing on television, `why isn't Damon Hill called Damian like everyone else?' `Do turn it down, dear. Of all the mindless sports....

Alastair Campbell meets the chairman of the 1922 Committee, who believes that the vast majority of Tory MPs are happy with John Major I HAVE glad tidings for the Prime Minis-...

The weekend cottage is a sham, a snare and a delusion, says Nicholas Coleridge, who has given his up A COUPLE of weekends ago we had Sun- day lunch with three other couples...

Cavaliers, Morlocks and Marquereaux at the siege of Saltwood Castle PAUL JOHNSON W ith every flick of Max Clifford's wrist,' wailed David Mellor in the Guardian, mankind was...

He has been briefed to review the flow of funds to industry, and has focused on the way that dividends are taxed. Does the tax structure, he wants to know, make companies pay...

NABC (Not Another Bloody Committee) and I have a market for our Swedish clock which, as I noted last month, tells you how much a meeting is costing. You programme the salaries...

A WEEK of weighty dining sees me dodg- ing from the Natural History Museum, where the gold bugs feed amid the dinosaurs and creepy-crawlies, to the Ban- queting House in...

A NEW form of capital raising has been pioneered in the Low Countries, where six Dutchwomen suddenly appear in super- markets naked from the waist up. To me it suggests nothing...

THIS MONTH'S case study on City short- termism, dividend greed and all that: £858 million of new share capital and another £750 million of loan finance are being raised for a...

Dividends shouldn't be wasted on shareholders buy Wimbledon tickets instead CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t was my father's view, from many years' experience as a company chairman,...

Greek boy, Taki. But it has always saddened me a little that he should sneer so remorselessly at the 'draft dodger' (High life, 4 June). And now Paul Johnson joins the chorus,...

Sir: After all the ululations over D-Day I suppose it should have been refreshing to read Professor Norman Stone's article (By land, sea and air — eventually', 4 June)...

lived through the second world war (I was 18 when it began), and in having crossed the beaches on D-Day. I am not a historian, but at least I know how it felt. Mr Stone has...

Sir: I was dismayed to read Mark Almond's article ('Why Bill, but not Maggie?', 28 May) revealing that Bill Clinton (formerly Bill Blythe, having changed his name) is receiving...

12 Months 6 Months UK ❑ £80.00 0 £41.00 Europe (airmail) ❑ £91.00 ❑ £46.00 USA Airspeed ❑ US$130 0 US$66.00 USA Airmail 0 US$175 0 US$88 Rest of Airmail ❑ £111.00 0 £55.50...

Sir: One can understand a journalist such as Alasdair Palmer regarding the craftsman's apron, worn for centuries by manual work- ers, as something akin to the clothing of Widow...

Sir: As a lifelong collector of boring books (Letters, 28 May), I must particularly rec- ommend for a really seriously boring read: Manuring Food Crops by George Copley;...

Sir: Now that we have the Osbornes com- municating their domestic arrangements (Diary, 30 April), may we look forward to a High life from Taki's 'mother of his children'?...

Sir: John Simpson believes ('We are all sceptics now', 4 June) that Britain needs the European Union. Remarkably, howev- er, despite producing an article of around 1,500 words...

Sir: Sewell and Auty — Auty and Sewell. In the current debate on falling standards of art criticism (Arts, 21 May), they have become the Torvill and Dean of the Lon- don art...

Sir: Your correspondent Dominique Jack- son (Letters, 4 June) states: 'Personally, I find the Guardian regularly provides ample amounts of both stimulation and pleasure' —...

The PM is dead, long live the . . . SIMON JENKINS B y the time you read this article the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will have resigned. He will have lost the will to...

If it tastes good, what the hell... Nigella Lawson SUNDAY, a sunny day in May. Lunch with friends in the garden. Cold poached salmon with hot new potatoes, then a splendid if...

Vodka Pain, pleasure, gloom and angst Anne Applebaum That is the difficulty with vodka: because it affects different nations in different ways, there are no objective...

Mad venture Rebecca Nicolson F orget about Château d'Yquem and Trockenbeerenauslese, the subject on every oenophile's lips this summer is the return to respectability of...

Vegetables Beans means broad Simon Courtauld family discussion was held a few years back when I decided to reduce the size of the vegetable patch. Which vegeta- bles, I...

the distributors, Laurent Perrier (UK), 66-68 Chapel Street, Marlow, Bucks (0628 475404).

A question of class Candida Crewe T he romance was at a critical stage. It was important for my friend that she should get everything just right if she was to cajole this...

A Vintage Subscription Offer Give a Spectator gift subscription to a valued friend or relative, and we will give you a gift in return - a bottle of Moet & Chandon 1986 Vintage...

A weight of moderate prose Raymond Carr THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, VOLUME VIII: TWENTIETH-CENTURY OXFORD edited by Brian Harrison OUP, L50, pp. 902 S ome might...

Eric Christiansen THE LURE OF THE SEA by Main Corbin Polity Press, £35, pp. 380 A t last, the true importance of the year 1789 has been revealed. It was not just the beginning...

David Gilmour JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN: ENTREPRENEUR IN POLITICS by Peter T. Marsh Yale, £30, pp. 725 J udged by the fate of the causes he championed, Joseph Chamberlain was a...

Michael Hulse COLLECTED POEMS by James Michie Sinclair - Stevenson, £6.99, pp. 128 S ince Sinclair-Stevenson established a new poetry list a year or so ago, it has been a thing...

Edward Chancellor MOTHER OF OSCAR: THE LIFE OF JANE FRANCESCA WILDE by Joy Melville John Murray, £19.99, pp. 308 O scar Wilde claimed in De Profundis that his mother...

Adam Sisman IN SEARCH OF CHURCHILL by Martin Gilbert HarperCollins, £20, pp. 338 H ere is an exciting book in which nothing happens. No sex, no violence: much of the action...

Jane Gardam ALICE A , first John Bayley's novel, only his second in 40 years as distinguished literary critic, 20 of them as Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford,...

Anita Brookner MOTHERS AND OTHER LOVERS by Joanna Briscoe Phoenix House, £14.99, pp. 248 M y mother was a middle-class woman who spent her days at home, that being the norm in...

Opera Absolutely fabulous Rupert Christiansen does his best to complain about the new Glyndebourne but is ultimately embarrassed by its success S omeone has got to give it to...

Rutherford and Son (National, Cottesloe) King Lear (Barbican) Family tales Sheridan Morley A I have lately, and in a minority voice, been questioning both the adequacy of the...

Serial Mom (`18', selected cinemas) The Secret Rapture (`15', selected cinemas) Mom's the word mark Steyn S erial Mom and The Secret Rapture don't have much in common except...

ST New Contemporaries (Camden Arts Centre, till 12 June) Telecom it faut Giles Auty A lthough the exhibition described here closes this Sunday in London, it moves on...

Plants on the up and up Ursula Buchan T he news that sales of plants have helped save the garden centres' bacon dur- ing the recession made me gasp and stretch my eyes. It was...

Royal launch pad Martyn Harris I f you had to blame one person for the decline of the British Royal Family it would have to be Lord Mountbatten of Burma: conspirator,...

Soul of forgiveness Taki here was another naval invasion that took place last week but, unlike the one 50 years ago, this one failed miserably. Some- where south of Mykonos,...

Rocky rides Jeffrey Bernard T he girl I am dictating this to is about to go to university to read English. I can't think of anything more boring, except for reading physics,...

Poor old Monty Nigel Nicolson I n his new biography of Montgomery, Alistair Horne quotes Bill Williams, Monty's Chief Intelligence Officer, as say- ing: 'No, he wasn't a nice...

ORE MALT Stichomythia Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1833 you were asked for a poetic dialogue in alternate lines, rhymed aa, bb etc, illustrating a typical domestic dispute....

SPAIN'S FINEST MA CHESS c 011103 STAIN'S FINEST CAVA Crystal ball Raymond Keene THE INTEL/PCA WORLD Chess Cham- pionship quarter-finals got underway this week in New York,...

You are invited to incorporate the follow- ing words (which occur in a poem by W.H. Auden) in any order into an entertaining piece of prose: vice, rocking-horse, button- ing,...

GRAHAM'S "Th PORT CROSSWORD J W J G RAHAM'S PORT (-- 1163: Anagram by Mass A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct...

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Searching for Brian Lara Geoffrey Wheatcroft IN FEBRUARY, I was in Antigua, but he was elsewhere. In April, he was famously in Antigua, and I wasn't. My search for Brian Lara...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I am a former mistress of Alan Clark. As a Lloyd's loser, I would welcome some extra income at this most difficult of times, particularly as I am planning a...