designated as ‘the simple longings of the British people’ appeared in facsimile handwriting: ‘more police, cleaner hospitals, lower taxes, school discipline, controlled...

T he nurses and midwives at St Thomas’s Hospital this week faced a rewarding task: to bring Donald James Kennedy into the world. They could have been as slapdash as they had...

OLIVIA GLAZEBROOK L ast week was dedicated to boosting morale. Having had my novel rejected no fewer than eight times in a fortnight, I have screwed the lid back on my pen...

I t is now clear that the most important event of the 2005 general election took place before campaigning formally started, when Downing Street aides travelled to Scotland to...

CHARLES MOORE T his is the first general election campaign since 1983 in which I have not been the editor of a publication (or, in 1992, the deputy editor). And in all previous...

What with postal fraud and dodgy demographics, next month’s poll is loaded in favour of the government. Rod Liddle says it’s about time Robert Mugabe started to send election...

The people of the world are moving on, says Mark Steyn , and leaving Western Europeans — and Canadians — far behind New Hampshire I was stunned to hear they were closing the...

Usher, who is no relation of Poe’s unfortunate family, has, I hear, decreed that jeans and trainers are not enough. Usher is an African-American singer, with a new interest in...

Max Hastings on an extraordinary act of courage that earned a Coldstream officer the Victoria Cross 60 years ago this month A memorable little event took place at the Imperial...

Julian Evans talks to the celebrity hypnotist who claims to have brought down the Akayev government in Kyrgyzstan I na white room in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, a tattooed man from...

The death of the Pope has relit a number of arguments, few more contentious than the status of the foetus. Naturally, on a subject about which the Bible has almost nothing to...

Simon Heffer says that no decent person can vote for a government that uses lies, fraud and manipulation to stay in office T he transformation of the phrase ‘right-wing’ from a...

There is a special relationship between New Labour and the police, says Andrew Gilligan . Why? Because both are bossy and both are bureaucratic T he battlebuses have pulled out...

Douglas Davis on the university teachers who will discuss academic sanctions against Israel in Eastbourne next week P ay attention, Professor. If you support the proposed...

T o be watching the last days of poor old Rover is to intrude on canine grief. A wise vet would have put this dog down long ago. I was asking only last week when Rover would go...

Roger Scruton launches a new Spectator series with an investigation into the consequencs of the sexual revolution S exual intercourse began, according to Philip Larkin’s famous...

From Tim Holman Sir: Peter Oborne is on devastating form describing Tony Blair’s rudeness towards the monarchy (‘How Blair betrays the Crown’, 9 April). Jack Straw’s description...

Minister’s decision to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II are quite remarkable. He seems to believe that Mr Blair’s presence at the Vatican was inappropriate because...

in Peter Oborne a writer for The Spectator who is not a Roman Catholic? How exciting! Sheila Donaldson Bromley, Kent

From Chris Wright Sir: Dr Adrian Steele (Letters, 9 April) tells us that the Pope ‘could have been kept alive ... by the simple means of attaching him to an artificial...

From Tom Aitken Sir: Charles Moore, in a fit of boyish enthusiasm, proclaims that ‘there is no important organisation based in Western Europe, other than the Catholic Church,...

From David Shiels Sir: Boris Johnson (Diary, 9 April) and Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 2 April) are correct to continue to draw attention to the problems created by the...

I am surprisingly in sympathy with Boris Johnson’s viewpoint. Mr Johnson may, however, wish to explain why so many safe parliamentary seats in England are held by Scots of all...

From Lama Jampa Thaye Sir: Your correspondent James Guest was correct about one thing in his letter concerning abortion (Letters, 9 April). God has certainly not spoken to us...

James Guest: Abortion is not mentioned in the Bible because it could not then be done without risking the mother’s life. It only became a safe and simple medical procedure for...

From Scott Rasmussen Sir: Regarding Charles Spencer’s paean to the Grateful Dead (Arts, 2 April): he might be of a different opinion as to the merits of this band had he gone to...

From Andrew McCullough Sir: Rupert Christiansen, in his review of Peter Brook (Books, 26 March), notes that Brook made a 75-minute television film of King Lear with Orson...

From Andrew Roberts Sir: The Liberal party did not bring in female suffrage (Answers to Spectator/ YouGov poll, 9 April), but the wartime Coalition government which included the...

From Nicky Samengo-Turner Sir: Sam Leith has got the wrong end of the class-warrior stick rather than Max Hastings (Books, 9 April). Hastings’s analogous reference to hunting...

M y fingers poised above the keyboard, I was about to start this column in the lazy way columnists sometimes do: ‘Am I alone in thinking... ?’ But the question is disingenuous....

R ecently I attended a lecture by Dr Lars Tristing of Clusium University, Kansas City, on ‘Achieving a Type IV civilisation’. Despite what the Greenpeace zealots say, what...

Philip Hensher N ELSON : T HE N EW L ETTERS edited by Colin White Boydell & Brewer, £25, pp. 525, ISBN 1843831309 T he most famous social encounter in British military history...

Ian Thomson W OLVES E AT D OGS by Martin Cruz Smith Macmillan, £17.99, pp. 337, ISBN 0333907507 ✆ £15.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n the spring of 1986, radioactive dust...

Philip Ziegler T HE Q UEST FOR THE A RK OF THE C OVENANT by Stuart Munro-Hay I.B. Tauris, £19.50, pp. 276, ISBN X1850436681 ✆ £17.50 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 C ertain...

Peter Porter T HE P OWER OF D ELIGHT : A L IFETIME IN L ITERATURE : E SSAYS 1962-2002 by John Bayley, selected by Leo Carey Duckworth, £25, pp. 677, ISBN 0715633120 ✆ £23 (plus...

‘Princess of death! Princess of ice!’ — Turandot, Act III It was to be his last supreme success. Gozzi’s barbaric fairy-tale supplied The elements on which his art relied: A...

Olivia Glazebrook A L ONG L ONG W AY by Sebastian Barry Faber, £12.99, pp. 292, ISBN 0571218008 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T here are plenty of books about the...

Francis King T HE E ARTH AND S KY OF J ACQUES D ORME by Andrei Makine Sceptre, £16.99, pp. 184, ISBN 0340831251 ✆ £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T his is the concluding...

Michael Howard T HE W AR L ORDS : H INDENBURG AND L UDENDORFF by John Lee Weidenfeld, £16.99, pp. 207, ISBN 0297846752 ✆ £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 O ne consequence...

Jane Gardam J ANE A USTEN AND C RIME by Susannah Fullerton The Jane Austen Society of Australia Inc, 26 Macdonald Street, Paddington, Sydney, NSW 2021, Australia, email:...

Tony Gould T HE B UTCHER OF A MRITSAR : G ENERAL R EGINALD DYER by Nigel Collett Hambledon & London, £25, pp. 575, ISBN 185285457X T he massacre of nearly 400 unarmed civilians...

Tom Rosenthal D EAR A USTEN by Nina Bawden Virago, £10, pp. 144, ISBN 1844081842 D ear Austen is a letter to a much loved husband, Austen Kark, former head of the BBC World...

Zenga Longmore A N A CRE OF B ARREN G ROUND by Jeremy Gavron Scribner, £14.99, pp. 342, ISBN 0743259718 ✆ £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hat an extraordinary book. It...

Simon Baker GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson Virago, £14.99, pp. 282, ISBN 1844081478 ✆ £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 M arilynne Robinson is an anomaly in modern American...

Tom Stoppard is the latest recruit to a scheme for schools. Henrietta Bredin reports T he assumption continues to be made that Shakespeare pure and unadulterated is too...

Hero of the counter-culture Andrew Lambirth Robert Crumb — A Chronicle of Modern Times Cummings and Lewandowska — Enthusiasm Whitechapel Art Gallery, until 22 May R obert...

The Manx factor John Spurling Bryan Kneale: Idea and Realisation Cass Sculpture Foundation, 3 & 4 Percy Street, London W1, until 4 June B ryan Kneale comes from the Isle of...

Ruth Guilding Only Make-Believe: Ways of Playing Compton Verney, until 5 June C ompton Verney House has reopened for its second season, continuing its founder Sir Peter...

Toby Young Tristan & Yseult Cottesloe The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union Donmar Mammals Bush A larm bells were ringing even...

Michael Tanner Twilight of the Gods Coliseum W hile the ENO Ring was in preparation, and we were seeing semi-staged performances of the dramas at the old Coliseum and the...

Mark Steyn Sahara 12A, selected cinemas U ntil James Bond came along in the Sixties, the most successful movie series to date had been the Road pictures with Bing Crosby, Bob...

Michael Vestey R adio Four News publicity asked me if I was interested in the 35th anniversary of PM and The World Tonight , which occurred last week, and I said I certainly...

Simon Hoggart T wo of the biggest stars on British television are Andrew Davies and Russell T. Davies (no relation), and I doubt you have any idea what either of them looks...

Robin Oakley F or the Beach Boys it was California Girls who were sans pareil. For Chas and Dave it was the Girls of London Town. But this column is dedicated to the girls of...

Taki New York I t’s all over but the shouting, as they say in the Bagel, but bitchy British tabloids had nothing on the locals where Chuck and his bride were concerned. Call...

Jeremy Clarke B ored with pandering to the needs and appetites of a pair of acne-encrusted agrophobic nihilists, I left my boy and his half-brother in the caravan and went out...

Aidan Hartley Laikipia E kiru is the teenage son of Lopiyok, who is the undisputed authority on livestock at the farm. The boy is bright, tall and gangly with a chorister’s...

out to lunch and I want them to have a good time, not just because I love Norma to bits but also because... nope, that’s it actually. She used to babysit us when we were little...

(Continued from last week.) When Bobby Fischer did play, it was obvious that a remarkable talent had emerged. His sharp, clear and vigorous style, his breathtaking speed of play...

Jaspistos In Competition No. 2387 you were invited to provide a sketch of a villainous character on their first appearance in an imaginary novel. I turned at once to Dickens,...

FRANK KEATING T he Windsor wedding at least, one trusts, signalled the end of some tiresome weeks for the royal family. So trying, in fact, that it would certainly not have...

company with regard to wedding presents for mature couples. Unfortunately, the wrong telephone number was published. It is 01342 823123 and our website remains...

share a flat. She likes to store rice, biscuits, cereals, flour, etcetera in Kilner jars and there are serried ranks of them in our shared kitchen. I instinctively feel that...

now possible to buy legitimate stamps bearing one’s own image from the Royal Mail. Yet I was unable to get any satisfaction from the Royal Mail’s website on the address you...

Dear Mary Q. I am a picture framer. The other day I drove up to London to drop off a picture at the house of a client. While I was there, I asked if I could use the loo. Once...