I t must come as something of a relief to Peter Mandelson that when Labour sources now refer to ‘the Peter Problem’ they mean Peter Hain, the beleaguered Work and Pensions...

hanker for parties or cut-price cashmere, just the long, deep bath of my dreams. We spent New Year with friends in Cameron country: lovely Oxfordshire farmhouses, big fires and...

I n the British version of the 2008 US election, Gordon Brown is Hillary Clinton: the less talented half of a tempestuous political marriage who attempts to make up for...

three million in December, its lowest since the early Seventies, is a landmark. The moment that the Sun’s circulation overtook that of the Mirror , in May 1978, revealed a big...

OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY MONDAY Got back to complete chaos after my winter spa break with mummy. Any de-stress and/or slimming benefit from seaweed and salt wraps entirely lost...

Both Brown and Cameron face separate backbench mutinies as the revived EU Constitution — now called the Lisbon Treaty — comes before the Commons, says Fraser Nelson . Which...

Rod Liddle says that the notion of ‘compulsory donations’ is oxymoronic and the pinnacle of the medical profession’s zeal to get its hands on our corpses T he question is,...

James Hughes-Onslow reports on the wretchedness of breaking an ankle and then having to persuade the man in A&E that his agony was caused by more than a sprain I t’s six years...

For all his claims to have singlehandedly engineered British growth, Gordon Brown is the architect of policies that undermine his desire for a better society, writes Irwin...

Sir: Denis MacShane (‘Welcome to the Vlad and Dave show’, 12 January) is right to imply that the attitude of the Conservative party to the Russian KGB state is reminiscent...

diplomats cosying up to each other in the Council of Europe stirred nostalgic memories of over half a century ago. At a Labour party parliamentary dinner for visiting Soviet...

Sir: I agree with Charles Moore that the British are simply not healthier and better treated by the NHS than patients in neighbouring countries (The Spectator’s Notes, 12...

Sir: In response to Toby Young’s search for an explanation as to why time speeds up as we get older (Status anxiety, 5 January), I have my own (non-scientific) theory. When I...

Sir: Your correspondent Mr Williams objects to my description of Henry VIII as the ‘English Stalin’ on the grounds that the Tudor dynasty was Welsh (Letters, 5 January). It...

Sir: It is rather sad to see Admiral Liardet trotting out those old ‘modernist’ notions that I thought had been put to rest some time ago (Letters, 12 January). I leave...

Sir: Kate Chisholm comments that Kirsty Young has yet to breathe new life into Desert Island Discs (Radio, 12 January). Far from resuscitating the programme, I fear that Kirsty...

W riting for the Times last week I found myself bogged down in a patch of linguistic mud. I had begun a sentence thus: ‘Discussing a mutual acquaintance who keeps breaking...

C harles Lamb, writing to Joseph Hume at Christmas 1807 on the subject of ‘a certain turkey and a contingent plumb-pudding’, added, ‘I always spell plumb-pudding with a b,...

Elliot Wilson says Pakistan’s economy is dominated by a ruthless business conglomerate that owns everything from factories and bakeries to farmland and golf courses: the army...

Richard Northedge ‘I t is somewhat ironical,’ the chairman of the Financial Services Authority told the Treasury select committee investigating the Northern Rock crisis,...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft B ARBARISM AND C IVILISATION : A H ISTORY OF E UROPE IN O UR T IME by Bernard Wasserstein OUP, £25, pp. 900, ISBN 9780198730743 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p)...

Philip Hensher T HE S ECOND P LANE by Martin Amis Cape, £16.99, pp. 224, ISBN 9780224076104 ✆ £13.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T hese journalistic pieces and two...

Jonathan Mirsky H ENRY J AMES ’ S W AISTCOAT : L ETTERS TO M RS F ORD , 1907-1915 foreword by Philip Horne, edited by Rosalind Bleach Stone Trough Books, 38 Fossgate, York...

M. R. D. Foot T HE H UNT FOR N AZI S PIES by Simon Kitson, translated by Catherine Tihanyi University of Chicago Press, £14.99, pp. 218, ISBN 9780226438931 ✆ £11.19 (plus...

Blair Worden E ARLS OF P ARADISE by Adam Nicolson Harper Press, £25, pp. 298, ISBN 9780007240524 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he century or so before the Civil...

Anita Brookner D ANS LE C AFÉ DE LA J EUNNESSE PERDUE by Patrick Modiano Gallimard, E14.50, pp. 149, ISBN 9782070786060 P atrick Modiano is a nostalgic novelist who has...

Lloyd Evans believes that Wilde’s comedy is the best play ever written M y favourite play is on its way to the West End and I fully expect to be disappointed. It’s not that...

Andrew Lambirth The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their Contemporaries 1890–1930 Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 17 February T aste is strictly divided over the...

Lloyd Evans La Cage aux Folles Menier Chocolate Factory The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer Arcola Angry Young Man Trafalgar Studio L a Cage aux Folles is a musical based...

Deborah Ross No Country for Old Men 15, Nationwide N o Country for Old Men , adapted by Joel and Ethan Coen from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, is not for the squeamish or easily...

Michael Tanner The Adventures of Pinocchio Grand Theatre, Leeds I t’s odd how, even if you try to ignore Christmas, it still manages to determine the shape of your...

Peter Phillips B y the time you read this I shall have watched two days of the 3rd Test between India and Australia at the WACA in Perth, and given a paper on how important...

Kate Chisholm L ord Reith must be turning in his grave. Not with shock and horror, but in amazement that there are still moments on his beloved airwaves when you can imagine...

Simon Hoggart F oyle’s War is back on Sundays, sporadically, with Kingdom filling in the gaps on ITV. The BBC has followed Cranford with Lark Rise to Candleford , a series...

Ursula Buchan A mong the serially misused words of our time — celebrity, passion, caring, genius — we must surely count ‘plantsman’. Thirty years ago, it was a term...

Taki Gstaad T he row over Indonesian ‘hobbits’ has split this beautiful alpine village in half. Alas, it began when I wrote something about the Olden, one of Gstaad’s...

Jeremy Clarke T he only comfortable place to sit in my local pub is at this one particular table that is closeted on three sides by highbacked pine pews. Last Saturday...

Melissa Kite S ecurity is a scary thing. I sometimes get the impression that my life, in so far as it is still my life, has been sealed in bubble wrap by major corporations and...

Susanna Gross I was saddened to learn of the death earlier this month of Raymond Brock. I only met him a few times (through his wife Sally, another renowned player) but always...

Rory Knight Bruce visits Caerhays Castle in Cornwall T he increase in popularity of shooting, and the diversity of the people who do it, has not had a marked effect on the...

I n the newspaper business there’s a name for a story that makes your jaw hit the floor and your eyes pop out of your skull: ‘a marmalade dropper’. For instance, the...

I caught my husband perusing a menswear catalogue. I don’t know where he got it. It can’t have been sent to him. It was the kind that leans towards nightshirts and Barathea...

M ost writers of science fiction have foreseen human communication becoming more sophisticated and realistic. Brave New World has the feelies; 1984 has telescreens; every...

Q. Now that eco-issues are so fashionable my husband has come out as a militant meanie on energy conservation. Meanwhile our three teenage daughters use absurd amounts of hot...

party. Too late we find out that our grandmother has given him the ‘treat’ of booking an old-timer’s band which can only play waltzes, etc. None of us wants to hurt...

and occasionally embarrassment to me for as long as I have known how to write. The problem is, I never seem to have the same handwriting twice. I don’t mean just a small...