Canterbury. In a shadow Cabinet reshuffle Mr David Davis was replaced as Conservative party chairman by Mrs Theresa May. Mr Derek Simpson, a former Communist, was elected to...

S o far, the Labour government has been tough only on the victims of crime. There are more of them than ever before. It is true, however, that Mr Blunkett, the Home Secretary,...

A tn Widdecombe and John Prescott are stamping around inside my head, marching up and down, bellowing at each other in a cacophony of incoherence. Bang, bang, bang, bark, bark,...

ANDREW GIMSON T he assassination of David Davis in the mangrove swamps of Florida seemed a nervous and incompetent business. The hitmen had trouble tracking down the...

The acknowledged beauty Leah McLaren has been on 12 promising dates in London. Nothing, as they say, happened. Here she meditates on the English man's curious lack of libido...

Derek Matthews reveals the management techniques of the guru of fair play: sacking, cronyism and asset-stripping WILL HU1TON is a decent, kind and thoughtful chap, and he...

MR Paul Kelleher, who demonstrated his free-thinking credentials by knocking the head off a statue of Lady Thatcher in the Guildhall Art Gallery in London, will never know how...

Why does the brooch languish in fashion obscurity for years at a time? Unlike any other piece of jewellery, the brooch is independent of all our physical limitations, floating...

Ruth Dudley Edwards listens with amazement to the obfuscations of the Sinn Fein leader GERRY ADAMS is a liar of genius. He Lies to governments, to journalists and to his own...

It's nearly too late to save Zimbabwe, says Michael Ancram. The world must intervene to stop Mugabe Blantyre, Malawi IT IS not often that you see a human face devoid of hope....

Ross Clark exposes the government's obsession with ethnic categories, and urges us all to revolt AMONG the thousands of questions my seven-year-old son has fired across café...

Justin Marozzi meets the much-feted Gaddafi junior, who is keen on democracy and weapons of mass destruction SAIF AL-ISLAM GADDAFI glides into the Royal Suite at Claridge's...

PAUL JOHNSON I was fortunate in my childhood, being tended not only by a delightfully gifted and soft-hearted mother but by two devoted sisters many years my senior. So I had...

FRANK JOHNSON I t has somehow emerged — that is, it was in a couple of newspapers over the weekend — that Harold Shipman is a Guardian reader. Apparently, he is given the paper...

From Mr David Banks Sir: Peter °borne (Minority pursuits', 20 July) suggests that the selection of a pregnant candidate would show that the Conservative party had really turned...

From Mr Benedict I3eresford Sir: The words 'uncritical adulation' come to mind on reading John Laughland's interview with Father Gumpel about Pope Pius XII (Pius the hero', 20...

Pius XII should be demonised for his role in the second world war, and perhaps he did act heroically. However, I do think it would have been appropriate for John Laughland to...

From Mr Stephen M. Lark Sir: Nicholas van Hoogstraten has been convicted of manslaughter, after two men he sent to beat up a business adversary, Mohammed Raja, caused his...

From Mr Nigel Tipple Sir: I was amused to read of Simon Heffer's problems with the Post Office (Diary, 20 July). As we live in the countryside, our mail does not arrive until 3...

From Mr Trevor Ringland Sir: When Simon Heffer ('Trimble must fight', 13 July) talks of a crisis for Unionism, he fails to recognise that it is in fact a crisis for the whole...

From Mr IR. Kavanagh Sir: The news that Rowan Williams is to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury comes as little surprise, given that the appointment was widely trailed in the...

From Professor David Begg Sir: I write with surprise, having read Leo McKinstry's attack on Ken Livingstone's track record ('Revenge of the killer newt', 13 July), I was very...

From Mr Bruno Vander Cruyssen Sir: I have followed Paul Belien's articles over the years with interest, as he is, unusually for Belgium, an articulate proponent of the...

From Mr George Charpentier Sir: Thank you for writing against the con tinued destruction of the basic principles of British law that the new rape legislation represents (Leading...

From Mr Ron Nowicki Sir: Nigel Nicolson (Books, 13 July) displays an astounding ignorance about the role of women in the second world war. They were much more than 'adoring...

From Mr John Cole Sir: David Lovibond's delightful article on Anthony Buckeridge (`Jennings strikes left', 13 July) will have pleased all for whom the Jennings hooks (as only...

From Mr Frederick Forsyth Sir: 1 have just returned from my third (albeit brief) sojourn on the Continent since 1 January. 1 am now convinced that the eurozoners are right;...

From Mr Sheridan Morley Sir: 'Oklahoma! was the first ever musical to combine dialogue, music, lyrics, choreography, scenery and costumes in one seamless whole,' says Toby...

From Mr John O'Byrne Sir: Surely an Etonian is a logged-on Blairite (Letters, 13 and 20 July)? John O'Byme Dublin If you would like to email letters for publication, please...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES T wo views make a market, or three, if you count mine. The optimists think that share prices will soon get back to normal and the pessimists fear that this...

Philip Hensher THE MORO AFFAIR by Leonardo Sciascia Granta, .#7.99, pp. 176, ISBN 1862075220 W atching Nanni Moretti's sublime film, La Stanza del Figlio, last year, it...

Victoria Glendinning THE JOY OF WRITING SEX by Elizabeth Benedict Souvenir Press, £9.99, pp. 244, ISBN 0285636421 A man at a party once handed me a round red lapel-button...

Alan Judd THE BUREAU AND THE MOLE: THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT HANSSEN, THE MOST DANGEROUS DOUBLE AGENT IN FBI HISTORY by David Vise Atlantic Books, .06.99, pp. 272, ISBN...

Fram Dinshaw THE HOUND IN THE LEFT HAND CORNER by Giles Waterfield Review, £14.99, pp. 284, ISBN 0747268851 G iles Waterfield's first novel, The Long Afternoon, hearteningly...

Brian Masters MISTRESS OF THE ARTS: THE PASSIONATE LIFE OF GEORGINA, DUCHESS OF BEDFORD by Rachel Trethewey Aurum Press, £18.99, pp. 349, ISBN 0747254761 J ane, Duchess of...

Francis King ROUSE UP, 0 YOUNG MEN OF THE NEW AGE by Kenzaburo Oe Mantic Books, 1 . 12.99, pp. 259, ISBN 1843540770 T he inspiration of Kenzaburo 0e, Japanese winner of the...

Ian Dunlop PLAYING THROUGH by Curtis Gillespie Scribner, £16.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0743209257 F or golf aficionados Gullane is one of holy sites, which along with St Andrews and...

Charlotte Moore OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY by Candida Lycett Green Doubleday, £18, pp. 212, ISBN 0385603312 E ngland is all I want,' declares Candida Lycett Green as she waits...

Hugh Massingberd ENGLAND'S LOST HOUSES: FROM THE ARCHIVES OF COUNTRY LIFE by Giles Worsley Aurum Press, £35, pp. 192, ISBN 1854108204 S oon after I started writing about...

Geographical sensitivity Martin Gayford 4 H ad Tom Girtin lived,' Turner is supposed to have said, 'I should have starved.' That was an exaggeratedly generous tribute to a...

Love denied Giannandrea Poesio J ohn Cranko's 1965 ballet Onegin is a choreographic masterwork one needs to see more than once to appreciate its choreographic texture and...

Misconceived enterprise Michael Tanner W hat is now the Longhorough Ring began as a two-evening version performed in Andrew Porter's superb translation. It is now a...

Robin Holloway T he 11th Almeida opera season, continuing to exploit the marvellous performance spaces (alas probably temporary) adjacent to King's Cross, presented six works...

Charles Spencer G ot your mojo working all right? Is your lemon being satisfactorily squeezed? Right, then we'll begin. One of the great curiosities of popular culture is the...

Voyage of discovery Toby Young I f you're a theatre buff, there's a frisson of pleasure to be had from seeing David Hare perform Via Dolorosa, his one-man play about visiting...

James Delingpole T his is going to be the quickest TV column I've written, well I hope so anyway, because I'm off to Lundy any second and you know what it's like before you go...

Michael Vestey R adio Four's File on 4 performed a useful service last week (Tuesday) by investigating the fraud and waste at the European Commission in Brussels. It also...

Robin Oakley W e all have our handicaps. I am constitutionally incapable of putting a screw in a wall without finding a hitherto hidden water pipe, hacking great holes out of...

Taki T Cape Gargalu, Corsica his is gonna be short (I'm writing longhand), hut I don't know how sweet, I'm on a classic sailing boat without modern contraptions such as...

Jeremy Clarke I 've moved back into the Buddhists' house. I'm looking after their one-eared rescue cat while they sail their yacht back from Sardinia. I was lying on the...

Neil Collins T hey are an odd lot, these Vikings. In Iceland, anything that moves, swims or flies is fair game, and for a British bird-watcher it was particularly grim to watch...

PetroneIla Wyatt P oor David Blunkett is under attack for relaxing the laws on cannabis in this country. I have met David Blunkett a couple of times and have found him a...

TANNERS of Shrewsbury are part Of the Bunch, a merry and convivial group of leading wine merchants who include Spectator favourites such as Corney & Barrow, Lay & Wheeler, and...

Michael Henderson THE Open championship (not the British Open, though Americans like to call it that) is one of the classic events in the sporting calendar. The latest, which...

garden, the grass was soggy after rain and all the glamorous women had to stand on the strip of York stone paving immediately outside the house for fear of sinking into the...

the best time to mow their lawns is on a Sunday, especially if it's sunny and if they own an unsilenced mower. Here, despite the high proportion of the population who are...

man who, I suspect, is not treating her with the consideration she deserves. Can you suggest a subtle way in which, without coming across as a Victorian father or arousing the...