T he purpose of terrorism is not only to cause bloodshed, but also to spray psychological shrapnel across the societies it attacks and seeks to subvert. After the initial horror...

Thatcher sit snugly side by side on a sofa in the upstairs room of The Ivy. They are sort of flirting, bonding over old times and cold climes as the magic of their relationship...

P erhaps the most bizarre spectacle in the dying days of Tony Blair’s time in No. 10 Downing Street has been the way in which he has joined protests and campaigns as if,...

died at the weekend, was a man of great charm. He had a very attractive combination of enough confidence to put you at your ease and enough diffidence not to seem arrogant. In...

MONDAY Hot: where’s the glacier when you need it? Am sick of trawling internet for violent lyrics Dave can use for campaign against rap: just because someone called ‘Lethal...

Irwin Stelzer says that the sharp policy distinctions of the past are no more, but that the choice ahead of the voters is still one to relish. This is his audit of the scores so...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE My copy of Schopenhauer’s essays was owned before me also by a doctor, J. Raymond Hinshaw, MD. Hinshaw, a former Rhodes Scholar, was professor of surgery...

My husband suddenly found it necessary to discuss some hair-raising medical developments with other doctors in the sunshine of an out-ofseason ski resort in the Pyrenees, and...

Dan Hannan says that Zapatero’s divisive government is reviving memories of a conflict that most Spaniards would much rather forget Madrid S pain is inhabiting a...

Susan Richards says that the Russian ban on Georgian wine is a whisper of the tensions that could turn into a roar — a Great Game for the 21st century T he drink of choice for...

Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winning writer of The Pianist and The Dresser, tells Tim Walker that he is delighted to be in demand — but never wants to be ‘fashionable’ I...

Rod Liddle applauds Harriet Harman’s campaign against ‘lawyer-speak’ — but wonders whether New Labour can afford to be candid about the meaning of most of its...

E mily is ten months old. She is beautiful, and full of the joys of summer. She has the wide eyes of the young, long eyelashes, a shy but inquisitive nature, and a frisky little...

S ince homosexuals were ‘liberated’ in 1967, formed a lobby (some would say the most powerful in the country) and became publicly aggressive and demanding, they have...

From Ralph Blumenau Sir: Peter Oborne’s powerful piece about the ethnic cleansing in Darfur and eastern Chad (‘Darfur’s terrible export’, 10 June) has only one strange...

From James P. Carley Sir: In his piece ‘A don who embodies the idea of a university’ (10 June) Alan Duncan did a brilliant job of evoking Jeremy Catto, a man whose career is...

From Jonathan Bailey Sir: What an excellent article by Simon Caldwell (‘Amnesty could kill itself’, 27 May) pointing out the profound folly of Amnesty International’s...

From E.W. Huck Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 27 May) reported on the debate in which Members of Parliament discussed their own salaries and complained that they...

From David Watkins Sir: A large part of the difficulty in estimating the heights of historical figures (And another thing, 10 June) arises from ignorance of the fact that pieds...

From S.C. Chafe Sir: I sympathise with Matthew Parris’s selfdeprecating complaint about groups of women dining: the noise, the babbling and the enthusiastic shrieking (Another...

imposed on local authorities, a central feature of which is the requirement to avoid any possible conflict of interest. Elected members of local authorities must declare a...

The Hooray who became a middle-class style guru Judi Bevan meets Johnnie Boden, who shook off the stereotypes of his Eton, Oxford and City background to build an iconic...

Jonathan Davis These days, hedge funds are what every investor wants to own and where every alpha male (and some alpha females) now want to work. In the City, the hedge fund...

Richard Northedge profiles PartyGaming, the online casino, a year after its controversial flotation H appy birthday, PartyGaming. Or possibly not. A year ago, the City was...

I was all set to join some of my more liberated neighbours on York’s Naked Bike Ride last Friday, until I discovered that it was yet another protest against ‘global oil...

A. N. Wilson W RITERS , R EADERS AND R EPUTATIONS by Philip Waller OUP, £85, pp. 1181, ISBN 0198206771 V £68 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 E very now and then there are...

Robert Salisbury G OOD AND B AD P OWER by Geoff Mulgan Penguin/Allen Lane, £20, pp. 373, ISBN 9780713998825 A ny book about the exercise of power that carries a ringing...

Peter J. M. Wayne A L AND F IT FOR C RIMINALS : A N I NSIDER ’ S V IEW OF C RIME , P UNISHMENT AND J USTICE IN THE UK by David Fraser Book Guild, £17.99, pp. 458, ISBN...

Lloyd Evans T HOMAS H ARDY : T HE G UARDED L IFE by Ralph Pite Picador, £25, pp. 522, ISBN 033048186X ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 G reat writers are never that...

Adam Zamoyski T HE L AST M AZURKA : A T ALE OF W AR , P ASSION AND L OSS by Andrew Tarnowski Aurum, £14.99, pp. 348, ISBN 1845131398 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Lucy Beresford S ummer reads: doesn’t the very phrase conjure up unfortunate images of lobster sunburn? But what to do, when a long summer stretches ahead and there are still...

Simon Baker T HE W OMAN W HO W AITED by Andreï Makine Sceptre, £12.99, pp. 182, ISBN 0340837365 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A t the beginning of Andreï...

Matthew Dennison T HE R ISK OF D ARKNESS by Susan Hill Chatto, £12.99, pp. 374, ISBN 0701176822 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he body count is impressive in...

William Brett JPOD by Douglas Coupland Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 448, ISBN 074758222X ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hen Microserfs was published in 1995, it...

Frank Johnson H OW H ITLER C AME TO POWER by Sara Moore Authorhouse, 1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, Indiana 47403, £14.95, pp. 310, ISBN 142088557X,...

I n a volume of his posthumously published notebooks ( Garder Tout en Composant Tout ), Henry de Montherlant remarks: ‘ Je ne sais pourquoi nous faisons des descriptions,...

Henrietta Bredin visits Civitella Ranieri and finds a magical retreat for artists C ivitella Ranieri is a massive, fortified, 15th-century castle, brooding over the surrounding...

Andrew Lambirth Constable: The Great Landscapes Tate Britain, until 28 August (sponsored by AIG) J ohn Constable (1776–1837) is the quintessential painter of rural England....

Alan Powers L ast time it was cows, this time it’s sheep. I’m not talking about an agricultural show, but about the London Architecture Biennale, which begins today when...

Roderick Conway Morris Where Are We Going? Palazzo Grassi, Venice, until 1 October A n ancient Roman sceptic wondered how, when two augurs passed in the street and caught one...

Michael Tanner Fedora Opera Holland Park Mazepa WNO, Birmingham Hippodrome O pera Holland Park is suddenly fashionable, even people who have never been near it writing about...

Toby Young A Voyage Round My Father Donmar Warehouse Cruising Bush T he dramatic high point in A Voyage Round My Father , John Mortimer’s famous autobiographical play, occurs...

Olivia Glazebrook Thank You for Smoking 15, nationwide T hank You for Smoking is a satirical comedy about the culture of spin, adapted from Christopher Buckley’s 1994 novel...

Giannandrea Poesio Royal Ballet Triple Bill Royal Opera House H omage to the Queen is one of two ballets that Frederick Ashton conceived with a special occasion in mind the...

Simon Hoggart T he World Cup, and once again people who don’t watch football from one quadrennium to the next manifest an interest in all those surreal pairings: Ecuador v ....

Michael Vestey I n the last of the present series of Great Lives on Radio Four last week (Tuesday) the career of the late Sir Robin Day was reviewed. Day died in 2000 when he...

Simon Courtauld I f, as I was told the other day, much of the frozen chicken and duck meat brought into this country comes from the Far East, it may be that some of us have...

Robin Oakley I couldn’t quite work out on my first visit to Bath races on Sunday why one entrance was headed: ‘Bookmakers and OAPs’. Senior citizens might need a bit of...

Taki F rom my open window in Cadogan Gardens I can hear a woman’s lovely voice singing something from Mozart’s Requiem ; at least I think it’s Mozart’s oeuvre. One can...

Jeremy Clarke T he authorities — my mother, her sister, and my mother’s cousin; combined age 230; one deaf, one inarticulate, one amnesiac; all three beset by small...

Roy Hattersley A shford-in-the-Water has beaten us to it. Their well-dressing service was last Sunday. Ours is still weeks away. Most of us are far too genteel to let our...

Fully booked Simon Heffer on why he’s never lost for words E ducational psychologists say that if a boy sees his father reading books, he will want to have and read books...

Susan Boyd claims that the best accessory of all can’t be bought F rom the back her clothes suggest that she could be a young woman aged between 19 and 24 — she most...

Philip Marsden explains why Cornwall is on his wavelength T he north Cornish village of Watergate Bay, a few scattered cafés and guest houses in a steep treeless valley, is not...

FRANK KEATING L ast Saturday afternoon in Frankfurt’s tent-like Waldstadion, British football writing’s dumpling eminence Malcolm Brodie, 80 next birthday, laid out his pad...

Dear Mary Q. I recently celebrated my CP (civil partnership), having been with my boyfriend for almost 21 years. I had planned it for months and arranged a flamenco evening at...

the public in order to raise money for a local charity. We know the garden well, of course, but although I had intended to support our friends by helping to swell the numbers,...

Mess at this time of year, but so many people are on diets they won’t eat it. What puddings are non-fattening, Mary? Name withheld, Hereford Road, London W2 A. Only the cream...