. for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part . . A freight train caught fire in the Chan- nel Tunnel about 12 miles from France, causing damage...

Why surly Gordon Brown behaved better about a referendum than affable Kenneth Clarke PETER OBORNE K nneth Clarke and his Labour shad- ow Gordon Brown have much in common. They...

BARRY HUMPHRIES A pproaching old age brings itself to my attention in small, irritating ways. Fortu- nately, aural whiskers have not yet sprout- ed, though I remember that my...

The unutterable tedium and stupidity of children who complain of their parents being famous PE TRONELLA WYATT I n my last column I wrote that one of the delusions of our age...

An American died last week, aged 92, after 50 years of denying treason. But, just before his death, James Srodes found more evidence that he was deadlier than Philby Austin,...

Michael Heath

Alfred Sherman, later associated with the Thatcher revolution, recalls an earlier revolutionary cause 60 years ago IN THE summer of 1937, I was aged 17 and studying science at...

Tatler, the glossy monthly, has just published its latest list of 'hottest dates. A.A. Gill knows from experience how it was compiled THE LITTLE black book. The very idea just...

Simon Sebag Montefiore goes in search of his exotic relations and finds them in the city where Orson Welles filmed Othello AFTER two lost centuries, there is no bet- ter place...

I WAS making some scones (sultana) and looking at what my licence quaintly calls the television receiving equipment, which was turned on and presenting a programme on — well,...

Michael Vestey surveys post-election US politics, and sees a domestically powerless President going abroad New York THE TELEVISION ads no longer show snarling faces, jabbing...

The National Theatre's Oedipus makes Harry Eyres think there's something similar about Oedipus and the Prime Minister THE cricket-loving John Major is not known to be an...

WHEREVER did Rousseau get his idea that the trouble with Man was civilisa- tion? Never has a philosophical premise received quite so incontestable a refuta- tion as in modern...

Charles Clover says that if nothing is done, by 2016 our countryside will be destroyed by the construction of 35 new cities the size of York A FAMILIAR fear stalks Berks and...

That's the real problem with the Taliban, Caroline Lees explains. But their leaders are off chasing Western mini-skirts Kabul HELLO? Salaam? It made no difference. The...

In Cantonese, that is. Michael Sheridan is learning the language of the future Hong Kong THERE ARE many fashionable things to do in Hong Kong, from consuming Can- tonese food...

Anglicanism, organic sin and the Church of Sodom PAUL JOHNSON I s the Church of England coming to the end of the road? It looks like it. The ser- vice for sodomites and...

Dry on the label but sweet in the bottle this must be Château Clarke 1996 CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he British are supposed to like their budgets as they like their white...

Sir: I have been working this year on a book with a similar theme to John Martin Robinson's (`Still the top class', 16 November), although only in the capacity of 'research...

Sir: Your excellent cover picture (16 November) is spoilt by 'Get orf. This would have been right 60 years ago, but since then `orf has `gorn' for ever. David Greenhaigh 3...

Sir: Simon Sebag-Montefiore (Wafic? What about Basil?' 16 November) says I said, 'Mediaeval Church politics depended on the export of sophisticated weaponry to foreigners.' That...

Sir: Thank God Mary Kenny doesn't claim to be one of her model agony aunts because • then she, according to her, would be one of our moral philosophers. As it is, in her arti-...

Sir: Professional integrity demands correc- tion of the bizarre impression given by the reference to me as 'Doctor Promiscuity' (`The conferences: a postscript', 19 Octo- ber)....

Sir: You did a considerable service to the history of music and ballet by printing in full (Arts, 2 November) the apologetic postlude added by Julia Kavanagh to her curious and...

Sir: There appears on page 78 of your issue of 9 November an advertisement for a book published by the Erotic Print Society. Pro- ductions such as this are offensive and...

Sir: Simon Barnes (Sport, 9 November) writes, 'You cannot pick up a newspaper without learning more about Boycott's sex life. . . . Perhaps the oddest thing of all about this...

Sir: I read with great interest the article by Tom Sutcliffe (`Modern Mary Magdalen', 9 November). I endorse many of the points that he makes, but he ignores a major area of...

Sir: I note with sorrow the words of Mark Steyn (Arts, 9 November) that New York requires schools to teach that the Irish potato famine was a deliberate act of British...

Sir: Paul Johnson is unwise to trade in insults against the Church of England (Let- ters, 9 November). If he stoops so low as to call it the Church of Sodom he might find that...

Sir: While I do not disagree with the main argument advanced in Paul Johnson's arti- cle (And another thing, 16 November), I do take issue with his introduction regarding...

Sir: Might I respond to Richard Lamb's considered, and Lindsey Platt's somewhat hysterical, criticisms of my 26 October article (Danger! New myth ahead') in which I expressed...

Forget the Mail. Here's a paper which really knows how to hurt New Labour STEPHEN GLOVER H ere is a little game. Who can guess in which national newspaper the following...

Books of the Year A further selection of the best and most overrated books of the year, chosen by some of The Spectator's regular contributors Theodore Dalrymple Perhaps it...

Raymond Carr FATHERS: AN ANTHOLOGY edited by Louise Guinness Chatty, 116.99, pp. 354 T his anthology comes out at the right time. Families are back in fashion. The British...

edge Andro Linklater SONS AND MOTHERS edited by Matthew Glendinning and Victoria Glendinning Virago, £16.99, pp. 262 T he drama of modern motherhood can be crudely summarised:...

Bruce Boucher VENICE AND THE GRAND TOUR by Bruce Redford Yale, £20, pp. 137 B ruce Redford's Venice and the Grand Tour celebrates a special relationship of a different kind:...

Simon Courtauld THE LAST OF THE BEDU by Michael Asher Viking, £20, pp. 298 THE DANAKIL DIARY by Wilfred Thesiger HarperCollins, £18, pp. 214 T he first problem with the Bedu is...

James Simmons WRITING TO THE MOMENT: SELECTED ESSAYS 1980-1996 by Tom Paulin Faber, £16.99, pp. 318 T om Paulin is an honorary Irish poet by virtue of having spent his...

Blair Worden THE SENSE OF REALITY by Isaiah Berlin, edited by Henry Hardy Chatto, £20, pp. 277 H ow do libraries and bookshops decide where to position Isaiah Berlin's books?...

say Hello!, we say goodbye Dominique Vulliamy MY STORY by Sarah, Duchess of York Simon & Schuster, £15.99, pp. 296 THE DUCHESS OF YORK UNCENSORED by Vasso Kortesis Blake,...

S ome years ago, journeying down the valley of the river Araxes in eastern Turkey — 'as one does', you might sarcastically interject — I noticed the man sitting next to me...

Steps in the right direction Giannandrea Poesio talks to Ashley Page about the future of British ballet I s there a future for British ballet? The question encapsulates one of...

Leslie Geddes-Brown speaks out on behalf of all vertigo sufferers I have visited the Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy only once. The space, once the old diploma...

The Art of the Picture Frame (National Portrait Gallery, till 9 February) Feelings, not facts Edward Lucie-Smith T he National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition The Art of...

Theodora (Glyndebourne Touring Opera) Handel surprises Michael Tanner H aving missed Handel's oratorio Theodora at Glyndebourne this year, and read ecstatic reports about it...

American Buffalo (15, selected cinemas) Kansas City (15, selected cinemas) A script in search of a film Mark Steyn H ere's an old gag, best done in a Cockney, Brummie or...

Shakespeare for My Father (Theatre Royal, Haymarket) Scrooge (Dominion) What the Heart Feels (Orange Tree, Richmond) In the shadows Sheridan Morley I n my theatre-going life,...

Taking sides John Parry I was hugely entertained, and not at all surprised, to read the rambling petulant attack on theatre critics by the director Michael Bogdanov. Some...

Three cheers Robin Holloway nsistent reminders earlier this autumn of the 50th birthday of the Third Pro- gramme, and its successor Radio Three, brought home the fact that the...

Royal rejects Simon Hoggart W ith lunch digested, rain drizzling down outside, the papers a rumpled mess on the floor, what greater pleasure could there be than to settle down...

Murder most gripping Michael Vestey T he late, lamented Edgar Lustgarten returned from the Black Museum in the sky this week in the rotund shape of John Mortimer. Remember...

Corporate cowards Taki New York I learned my lesson 26 years ago. Having spent the night gambling with him, I asked Henry Ford, the then numero uno of the United States, for...

Going for Gold Robin Oakley T o everything there is a season. Shortly before the swankier yachts slip into their South of France moorings for the summer, the seafront bistros...

Wars and peace Jeffrey Bernard I have just watched an episode in a series of documentaries about the first world war. Anything to do with that tragedy is a dreadful tear-jerker...

We want it all Leanda de Lisle W hile city people talk about 'retiring to the countryside', those already here talk about retiring to a town where the houses are better heated...

BRIDGE Take five Andrew Robson . THE summer festival of bridge at Brighton grows in popularity and players as far afield as Bangladesh, Iceland and . Indonesia attended....

A quality Christmas Auberon Waugh A Christmas approaches we move up- market with an all-French offer which aver- ages £7.32 a bottle on the mixed case, although this cruel...

COVENT GARDEN and surrounding theatreland is unquestionably the area of London most heavily populated by restau- rants. During this autumn three large, new establishments have...

i U RA SI,LLE HU SCOIC"X SIFMISEI COMPETITION Bouts limes Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1959 you were invited to write a poem with a given rhyme- scheme. The scheme was...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN•THE-STRAND Mind over matter Raymond Keene AT THE MOMENT two great players, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, both claim the world championship,...

a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage correct solution opened on 9 December, of £20 (or, for UK solvers, the latest Dictionary – ring the word 'Dictionary'). 1288, The...

No trivial matter Simon Barnes CHARLES Williams chose Charles de Gaulle as his first biographical subject. No one has denied that de Gaulle had some- thing more than a walk-on...

Dear Mary.. Q. You know what it's like — rush, rush, rush, straight out of the office and you are meant to be in your seat 50 minutes later. Rush, rush, rush, through the...