M r Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, came to an agreement with Mr John Bru- ton, the outgoing Taoiseach of Ireland, to start a series of talks with Sinn Fein on decommissioning...

If Mr Blair runs his government as a children's crusade, he will eventually get the bird BRUCE ANDERSON T he atmosphere could hardly have seemed more harmonious if the Tories...

BORIS JOHNSON I t was him! We had just put some money on a couple of losers and were staggering down the rain-lashed concrete landing towards the Telegraph box at Ascot, and...

A danger lurking for Mr Hague MATTHEW PARRIS Ev en at the best-regulated coronations, accidents can happen. William Hague has promised a 'special conference' at which he will...

ABOVE ALL, WHY? Nicholas Farrell provides the questions about Jonathan Aitken's ruin, and some of the answers Whatever it is that Mr Aitken is hiding, he has so far, despite...

I GOT so excited about toothcombs last week that at one point I said the oppo- site of what I meant. I meant to say that the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary says, under tooth,...

Michael Gove on what happened in the Tory party once Mr Hague saw off Clarke-Redwood IT WAS the Bomb wot won it. Labour's implausible policy on the nuclear deterrent gave the...

Samuel Francis on the real meaning of a prediction by, among others, Mr Clinton Washington DC EVEN chauvinistic Americans admit that California is the weirdest state in the...

MOBUTU Sese Seko, it seems to me, is a much traduced man. In the field of social policy he was a most enlightened ruler and was greatly in advance of his time. For example, he...

Mary Kenny is present at an occasion attended by the strange mix that is Irish republicanism WHEN I said I was going off to see Martin McGuinness deliver his oration over the...

Anne McElvoy on what Labour thinks about the Tory leadership, rather than says A NEW Labour friend telephoned just me after William Hague's victory was announced. 'Damn,' he...

A tribute to a gallant swashbuckler, at present in hot water PAUL JOHNSON T he Guardian-Aitken affair raises important issues, above all the abuse of power by the media, which...

Sir: In Ian Brown's critique of Save our Railways (`Save their subsidies', 21 June) his three main insinuations appear to be that we are a shadowy front for old Labour, that we...

Sir: David Damant (Letters, 21 June), despite an exhaustive knowledge of Ger- man history, continues to assert that the Schlieffen Plan was a 'gambler's throw'. Is it perhaps he...

Brown's very perceptive piece? During the days when the state ran all public transport there was no move towards integration. Buses only occasionally visited railway sta- tions...

Sir: Someone is having his leg pulled (Let- ter from Charles Fitzgerald, 21 June). If a court martial in this unspecified part of the world was indeed convened by this anony-...

Sir: Sheridan Morley (Arts, 14 and 21 June) is becoming dangerously obsessed by the idea that drama critics — himself excluded, presumably — know nothing about musical theatre....

Sir: In the spring of 1855, at the height of the Crimean War, Prince Napoleon (Napoleon III's disreputable cousin) wrote in a pamphlet about French soldiers besieg- ing...

Sir: I, too, was at the 'Puerto Rican Pride' parade (High life, 14 June), as the Times's New York correspondent. There were indeed some 'fat, squat, ugly, dusky' people there...

was more afraid of Sir Arthur Harris or going LMF [Low Moral Fibre] than I was of the enemy! David Hearsey 128 Piccadilly, London W1

Sir: I am terribly disappointed to discover that your correspondent and my old acquaintance Michael Gove appears to be devoid of any sense of humour (`How Clarke won (but only...

In praise of the Roundhead who exposed the warped Cavalier STEPHEN GLOVER T he Guardian is perhaps our most influential newspaper. It has succeeded in painting the Tories as...

Why Aitken's public life was dishonest because his private life was too PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE Again, most serial philanderers make mistakes and get caught out, but not...

Edited by Petronella Wyatt Summer hath his joys Jennifer Paterson I have just eaten my first tiny broad beans of the season, plain boiled and served with butter. They are...

Summer on the beach Simon Sebag Montefiore T he Blairite epoch began for me at a louche café called Vingt-Quatre which is the heart of that quarter of Fulham Road...

Popping corks Frederick Forsyth F unny stuff, champagne. A bit like sex really. When it's good it's brilliant; when it's awful you wish you'd stuck to Bisodol, which you...

Grand old sit-downs Jonathan Keates S o that's it then, say the pundits and media oracles, dinner this summer is a defi- nite no-no. The thing to do instead, it seems, is to...

Dangerous hors d'oeuvres A.A. Gill L ook here, one of the things we expect- ed a new touchy-feely administration to do pronto was to get rid of all those sad young people...

High spirits Victoria Mather S ummer drinks are celebratory, winter drinks are prophylactic. In summer one drinks to party, in winter one drinks to sur- vive; any fool who...

Dining out Mary Killen Q. I can never think of anything to say at dinner parties. Would it be better if I refused all such invitations? B.E., Devon A. You have a choice of...

Set by Christopher Howse W in The World Encyclopaedia of Cocktails, published by Constable. Entries to Food and Drink Quiz, by 10 July. The editor's decision is final. Fish...

Philip Hensher NEWS OF A KIDNAPPING by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Cape, £16.99, pp. 370. T hough it doesn't live up to the excite- ment of a new novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez,...

Charlotte Moore FELIX IN THE UNDERWORLD by John Mortimer Viking, £16.99, pp. 247 h is is a novel about a novelist. Felix Morsom, a widower and lonely without knowing it, leads...

Peter Levi COURTESANS AND FISHCAKES by James Davidson HarperCollins, f25, pp.371 T he pleasures of knowing Greek include immediate communication with a world very unlike ours,...

Ra Page SKIN by Tobias Hill Faber, £8.99, pp. 200 A poet trying his hand at prose fiction is, according to most critics, like a comedi- an taking a straight role. All those...

Douglas Johnson THE HISTORY OF CIVILISATION IN EUROPE by Francois Guizot, translated by William Hazlitt, edited by Larry Siedentop Penguin Classics, £8.99, pp. 255 G uizot was...

Patrick Skene Catling DECORATED SKIN: A WORLD SURVEY OF BODY ART edited by Karl Gifting Thames & Hudson, £45, pp. 256 E ery artist's prime, most fondly enhanced subject is his...

Byron Rogers BOGART by A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 676 I t was an extraordinary career. By the time he had completed his first 45 films he had been hanged...

Alan Judd THE QUEST FOR GRAHAM GREENE by W. J. West Weidenfeld, £20, pp.286 T he Graham Greene biographical indus- try began during its subject's lifetime and was much...

Paul Ferris THE MEMORY WARS: FREUD'S LEGACY IN DISPUTE by Frederick Crews et al Granta, £9.99, pp. 299 H ere between two paperback covers are the classic polemics against Freud...

Tony Gould THE HACIENDA: MY VENEZUELAN YEARS by Lisa St Aubin de Teran Virago, f16.99, pp. 342 THE PALACE by Lisa St Aubin de Teran Macmillan, £15.99, pp. 263 L isa St Aubin de...

David Pryce-Jones A BRUTAL FRIENDSHIP by Said K. Aburish Gollancz, £20, pp. 412 T he Arab world today, as Said Aburish rightly describes it, is a menacing cauldron of...

House under fire Lord Chadlington defends the policies of the Royal Opera House to Charles Osborne I n three weeks from now, the Royal Opera House will close for redevelopment...

Nolan's Nolans: A Reputation Reassessed (Agnew's, 43 Old Bond St, W1 till 25 July) John Virtue (Jason and Rhodes, 4 New Burlington Place, W1 till 1 July) A sense of isolation...

Van Dyck in Genoa (Palazzo Ducale, Piazza Matteotti, Genoa, till 13 July) Dynastic statements Bruce Boucher Van Dyck's 'Noble Genoese Woman and Daughter', Cleveland Museum of...

Oh, to be in Aldeburgh . . Robin Holloway I n spite of the tiniest touch of ingrowing self-congratulation, Aldeburgh remains not only the most individual but also the most...

Batman & Robin (PG, selected cinemas) Power dressing Mark Steyn A far as I can remember, the 1960s Batman never made too much of his cos- tume. In those days, the long...

The Ring (Norwegian Opera, Norwich) Die Zauberfliite (European Chamber Opera, Holland Park) Ring ritual Michael Tanner T he Norwich Ring' is bound to enter into Wagnerian...

Amy's View (National Theatre) Blithe Spirit (Chichester) The Wood Demon (Playhouse) Brave acts Sheridan Morley L ce his long-time director Richard Eyre, the most prolific and...

Comedy culture Michael Vestey W riting recently in this column about the range and subtlety of British comedy and wondering why this country is so suc- cessful, I thought it...

I don't give a damn James Delmgpole E very five years or so, Ian Hislop decides he needs a token weirdo at one of his Private Eye lunches and invites me along for a round of...

Candid talk Robin Oakley D ean McKeown is one of the canniest jockeys these days on the Northern Circuit, and not surprisingly. His racing education began early. As an...

Proud of the pride Christian Hesketh W hat makes the contest between the Lions and South Africa's Springboks such an enthralling event is not only the three matches which...

Self-satisfied hyenas Taki W hen Aristotle Onassis won a civil suit brought against him by the fellow Greek ship-owner Panaghis Vergotis — the case was front-page stuff,...

Mean hearted Leanda de Lisle Y ou're not a Conservative, Leanda. You're just not,' a friend of many years informed me after I'd told him I voted Conservative on 1 May. He...

One way to win Andrew Robson HOW often is a ten card suit dealt? Frequently in a goulash, but very rarely in normal play. In spite of holding ten trumps in her own hand,...

Hurry, while stocks last Auberon Waugh So, off we go. The white cheapie, a good astringent sauvignon( 1 ) from the Pays d'Oc, is wrapped in fruit which comes pouring out of...

URA I 'AVM %MI YOICH.N1111 COMPETITION Not the same news Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1988 you were invited to choose a recent newspaper head- line and to write a story...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND CHESS Caro can't . Raymond Keene IF THERE is one Black defence against the king pawn opening which represents a kind of rock of...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Portage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 14 July, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK...

The moment of inspiration Simon Barnes THERE is a line in Kipling's tale of polo and its ponies, The Maltese Cat, that I have always liked. 'It was then that Powell, a quiet...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I recently sustained a gardening injury to my knee. How can I best disguise the rather large scab during my forthcoming holiday in the South of France, where I...