The divided society M r Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political face of the Irish Republi- can Army, said that he was in 'absolute and implacable' opposition to...

It wasn't Dublin or John Hume who made the concessions, it was David Trimble BRUCE ANDERSON A I write, the news from Ulster is more encouraging; the collapse of the peace...

DAVID STARKEY T he journalist from a leading American news magazine (as she'd described it to me on the phone) carefully sat down on my sofa. There was an interesting clash...

As the next century nears, Michael Harrington recalls what they forecast in 1900 for this one; including which power was the equivalent of today's Pacific Rim WHEN THE time...

Samuel Francis says that he's an American right-winger who wants no part of the persecution of Mrs Clinton WINSTON CHURCHILL, that great American Conservative, once defined a...

Michael Heath

persist.. . IT IS, as someone once remarked, more blessed to give than to receive: especially stolen goods. If you don't want to be caught with the evidence of your wrong-...

Sue Cameron reviews the jockeying in Whitehall for the post of Cabinet Secretary LAYING BETS as to who will succeed Sir Robin Butler as Cabinet Secretary Britain's most...

JUST AS prehistoric flies are preserved in amber, so language fossilises words and leaves them with a meaning that has no direct reference to the so-called real world. Thus we...

A royal family on the rack and a poltroon in No. 10 PAUL JOHNSON th e personal crises within our royal fam- ily intensify. The Duke of Edinburgh is the latest target for the...

Europe is longing for a lead from Britain, says Sir Oran Haut-Ton, MP CHRISTOPHER FILDES M y friend Sir Oran Haut-Ton, MP, expects the call from and to Europe. Now is the...

over his special pleading for Tory politi- cians in his article condemning the Scott Inquiry report before its contents are known. No doubt he has accurately guessed them and is...

report even before its publication and his astonishing appeal to his fellow parliamentarians to ignore its conclusions are based on a misconception. It is also selective....

Sir: Lord Howe complains loudly that the Scott inquiry was 'a double-barrelled inqui- sition' employing unjust procedures CA judge's long contest with reality', 27 January)....

Max must wait again; the Observer's editor is in trouble with Mr Preston and mates STEPHEN GLOVER M y plans to write about Max Hastings, the newly appointed editor of the...

Why I don't wish to be flattered PETRONELLA WYATT embers of the royal family were last night waiting for a writ. The writ, which was served by the High Court, claimed that the...

Japan Shinto to soothe the soul John Casey finds purity in the landscape, shrines and hot baths where the sun only rises I FIRST visited Japan in the winter of 1980. As the...

A great city regurgitated Jeffrey Bernard P aris doesn't exactly spring to my mind during the winter months, when I look to see what the temperatures abroad are in my paper...

Through the tunnel with Jeff Kate Hatch I met Jeff at Groucho's before we head- ed off to Paris. To my surprise he asked if I knew he was confined to a wheelchair, as though...

The distance is in their eyes W E Deedes S o, it's to be Australia? Then brace yourself for The Tyranny of Distance, which is what Geoffrey Blainey called his excellent book...

The smell of old sheep George Courtauld voo' — I like that word: it means `cairn surmounted by a skull'. At present, a skull and I are looking down on the capital city,...

Ten for the road Philip Glazebrook A musician, if his sensibility is enough refined, will prefer the inner harmony of reading a score to the imperfection of any human...

Home to a tribe of gamblers David Spanier I f you drive along Interstate 95 for a couple of hours, south from Boston or north from New York, and then turn on to Route 2, which...

Umbria in metroland Edward Pearce A LABOUR supporter in Great Missenden tells of the young, shy canvasser who in 1959 knocked on the door of Cherry Tree cottage, not a grand...

Not a sad story so far Alan Judd FORD MADOX FORD: A DUEL LIFE by Max Saunders OUP, £35, pp. 632 h is first volume of Max Saunders's biography takes its subject from his birth...

William Rees-Mogg SHADES OF BLACK: CONRAD BLACK AND THE WORLD'S FASTEST GROWING PRESS EMPIRE by Richard Siklos Heinemann, £20, pp. 466 C onrad Black has written his auto-...

Amy Louise Erickson GENDER, SEX AND SUBORDINATION IN ENGLAND, 1500-1800 by Anthony Fletcher Yale, £25, pp. 448 THE PROSPECT BEFORE HER: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN WESTERN EUROPE,...

a fussy eater Julie Burchill VICE VERSA: BISEXUALITY AND THE EROTICISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE by Marjorie Garber Hamish Hamilton, £25, pp.608 P robably the one smart thing James...

I have heard time. She ran down the stairs like a girl to her lover. All houses have noises. In Maggie's old house I hear a rush. It is taps, I think, water. Unsteady with...

Tobias Jones A WHITE MERC WITH FINS by James Hawes Cape,. £12.99, pp. 281 A ll the best British fiction draws on that familiar double-edged sword: our wonderfully ridiculous...

Tom Hiney THE COUNTRY AHEAD OF US, THE COUNTRY BEHIND by David Guterson Bloomsbury, £5.99, pp. 181 J ohn Betjeman used to say that 'thought- fully written' meant 'by a woman...

William Dalrymple THE MYSTERIOUS FAYUM PORTRAITS by Euphrosyne Doxiadis Thames & Hudson, £48, pp. 247 O ne hot summer afternoon sometime in the late 580s, the Byzantine...

Alan Wall THE ORIGIN OF SATAN by Elaine Pagels Penguin, f20, pp. 214 T he title of this book is somewhat mis- leading. This is no monograph on the early life of Satan, either...

A hundred years of Boheme As Puccini's opera celebrates its centenary, Michael Scott traces the history of this popular work S trange though it may seem today, La Boheme was...

The Midsummer Marriage (Royal Opera House) Love Life (Opera North) Mad about the Marriage Rupert Christiansen I have always felt there was something silly about Michael...

Diaghilev (Barbican Art Gallery, till 14 April) Patron of the arts Martin Gayford Y ou don't have to like ballet to enjoy the Diaghilev exhibition at the Barbican, though it...

Everything but the kitchen sink Alistair McAlpine F or many years the great auction hous- es of London sold only fine art in all its forms. If you wanted to dispose of the...

Giles Worsley believes the Government should rethink its strategy on the buildings it owns 0 f all the Government's increasingly desperate efforts to offload responsibility for...

Plugging my CD Pounds Peter Phillips T he wondrous success of all those little books which are currently selling for very little indeed is, I hope, giving the marketing men in...

Comic Cuts (Lyric Hammersmith Studio) Two Trains Running (Tricycle) Slaughter City (Barbican Pit All change Sheridan Morley J ack Shepherd's Comic Cuts is a back- stage farce...

Web of friendship Michael Vestey P LONKER `OKAY'— MURDOCH PROF TO POINTY HEADS. A tabloid sub-editor would put it better, no doubt, but the 'prof in question would approve:...

Heat (15, selected cinemas) Just simmering Mark Steyn S ome years ago, in Montreal, a couple of hookers across the street from me used to advertise: 'Two girl action! Twice...

Ruby Wax's con-job Ian Hislop I have now witnessed a mugging to cam- era. It is not often that you see television used in an entirely new way but Ruby Wax Meets Imelda Marcos...

A week full of `incidents' Gavin Stamp I had intended to wax further on the rail- way delights of Berlin, but three recent experiences of the reverses regularly suf- fered by...

Irish pleasures Robin Oakley I s this a private party, or can anyone join in?' Anyone who has ever been racing in Irish company will know the sentiment. There is something...

What a couple Taki L ili Mahtani and I met only once, at a Mortimer's party in the Big Bagel last year, and she could not have been nicer. After lots of drinking and dancing,...

Pouring oil on troubled body Jeffrey Bernard M y nurse from the Middlesex Hospi- tal, who is a qualified masseuse and who does it professionally on the side, came up to my...

BRIDGE Wishful thinking Andrew Robson Dealer East Both Vulnerable CARD PLACING by assumption, or wish- ful thinking, is an important logical concept in bridge. Here is an...

restaurant from New York in Lon- don: now is that modern or what? You might reasonably think the name of the place to be part of the Thai element. Actu- ally, it's the rather...

Home of chess Raymond Keene THIS WEEK sees the start of a splendid new development in The Spectator's cover- age of chess, namely sponsorship by Simpson's-in-the-Strand, now a...

URA I ISLE OF JURA %MU %it ,t Oltif UMW COMPETITION Desperate dozen Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1917 you were asked to incorporate a dozen given words or phrases into a...

A first prize of 125 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 19 February, with two runners-up prizes of f15 (or, for UK...

Teak and candy floss Simon Barnes MY FIRST theory about Monica Seles was that she was a Martian. I was reasonably confident about this as I watched her win the US Open tennis...

Dear Mary.. . Q. What is the protocol about using mobile telephones in restaurants? I understand they are banned in Mark's Club where a friend of mine underwent a Bateman-style...