W e will have to get new targets in Europe,' Vladimir in said in an interview last week. Which weapons will be used ... ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or some completely...

RUPERT HAMBRO Aconcert, 'Raise the Roof', at St James's Church, Piccadilly, was held last month. We raised almost £30,000 with a musical evening and readings by Diana Rigg,...

TIM MONTGOMERIE Most elections produce a defining campaign event. In 1979 it was Margaret Thatcher's enlistment of Saatchi & Saatchi and the 'Labour Isn't Working' posters. In...

CHARLES MOORE 1 t is highly likely that Tony Blair will become a Roman Catholic after he leaves office. He regularly attends a Catholic Mass rather than Anglican services —...

By Tamzin Lightwater MONDAY I wish everyone would just calm down. It's like the inside of Mr Willetts's smaller brain (the one he used for grammar schools) around here. Don't...

Ross Clark says that the anti-g,lobalisation rioters protesting at the G8 summit in Germany and Labour's deputy leadership contenders are part of a new and dangerous trend...

Freddie Sayers says it is time for David Cameron to align himself with the Democrats with whom he has much more in common than the Republican party of Bush and the neocons The...

Douglas Hurd says that Sir Robert Peel — subject of his new biography — anticipated the Conservative modernisers' drive to win the support of those beyond the party's...

I heard someone on the wireless, in talking about the Freedom of Information Act, refer to the 'information-requesting community', as if they all lived together and had much in...

A trip to Arizona reminds Irwin Stelzer that Washington is not America: outside the Beltway there is a country rooted in patriotism, civility, hard work and suspicion of big...

In an open letter to the Secretary of Brooks's Club, Andrei Navrozov explains why he chose to be expelled: its surrender to the new smoking rules, he says, symbolises a much...

Rod Liddle says that all 'brand' logos are a waste of time and money: this one reflects the view that the Olympics are not about sporting excellence but the doctrine of...

Sir: As a South African liberal, I regard both Rian Malan and Ken Owen with the highest affection and respect. However, Owen is completely wrong and Malan completely right in...

Sir: I write as an inmate of Rampton from March 1993 to October 2004, and can only conclude that Rod Liddle's likening of John Sweeney losing his rag at a Scientologist (Liddle...

Sir: Matthew Parris (Another voice, 26 May) asserts that `few of us would now dream of going back to British Rail'. Many of us dream of little else. Those among us, for example,...

Sir: I was glad to read Allan Massie citing Anthony Powell (Life and letters, 26 May) as evidence that novel-writing is supposed to be painstaking. The late B.A. Young, for many...

Sir: According to Cressida Connolly, reviewing Rosie Boycott's Our Farm (Books, 26 May), Mistress Boycott is interested in everything, including why robins' eggs are blue....

Sir: Please tell Theodore Dalrymple (Global warning, 2 June) that councils could easily provide car-park meters that give change. The trouble is each machine would need a float...

MATTHEW PARRIS Rubbish has always fired my imagination and set my pulse racing. I don't know why; it may be an inherited trait. My late father used to rifle through our bins...

PAUL JOHNSON ne of the many things which makes me love Edward Elgar is that both the man and his music are so tremendously unfashionable. No wonder taxfunded quangos set up to...

Women and money make a perfect match Merryn Somerset Webb wonders why the investment world is a sea of men in suits, when women are naturally so much better at the job The City...

John Andrews A Martian called Zog visits Earth to see what it can offer in the way of the latest investment funds. He meets an independent financial adviser called Charlie who...

Anthony Bolton, the City's most successful and respected fund manager, recalls lessons learned over three decades John Maynard Keynes said that picking shares was like a beauty...

Matthew Vincent constructs a fast-rising share portfolio of companies that treat their customers appallingly he customer is always right,' said the 19th-century American retail...

Margareta Pagano says that despite privatisations and bull markets, savers still regard equity investment as a black art Business is hot: Martha Lane Fox makes it on to the...

Stephen Vines says the Chinese authorities can no longer control their stock markets, which are heading for trouble Ivaiting for the bursting of the Chinese share bubble is like...

MARTIN VANDER WEYER Ihave long been a fan of Patak's, the Lancashire-based Indian sauce-andpickle empire that was acquired last week by Associated British Foods for an...

Matthew d'Ancona COURAGE: EIGHT PORTRAITS by Gordon Brown Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp. 244, ISBN 9780747565321 Ivhat happens when the big clunking fist picks up the historian's pen?...

Jonathan Keates THE DAPHNE Du MAURIER COMPANION edited by Helen Taylor Virago, £9.99, pp. 424, ISBN 9781844082353 here was a time not so very long ago when a sustained...

Andrew Taylor DEATH UNDER THE DRYER by Simon Brett Macmillan, £16.99, pp. 300, ISBN 9781405041386 © £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 The modern crime novel tends to be a...

Hugh Massingberd FATTY BATTER: How CRICKET SAVED MY LIFE (THEN RUINED IT) by Michael Simkins Ebtuy Press, £10.99, pp. 314, ISBN 9780091901509 © £8.79 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

James Buchan THE PRINCE by William Simpson Hatper Collins, £19.99, pp. 480, ISBN 9780060899868 £15.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the...

Andrew Lambirth E. MCKNIGHT KAUFFER: DESIGN by Brian Webb & Peyton Skipwith EH Antique Collectors' Club, £12.50, pp. 96, ISBN 9781851495207 © £10 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Caroline Moorehead A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER by Ishmael Beah Fourth Estate, £14.99, pp. 240, ISBN 9780007247080 © £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Ivhen...

Jonathan Sumption THE PURSUIT OF GLORY: EUROPE, 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning Allen Lane, £30, pp. 707, ISBN 9780713990974 © £24 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Has there ever been a...

Bevis Hillier L. A. MIRAGE by Anne Lambton Timewell, £14.99, pp. 220, ISBN 9781857252200 £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 1 n the late 1960s I was reviewing books in the...

Peter J. M. Wayne BAD MEN: GUANTANAMO BAY AND THE SECRET PRISONS by Clive Stafford Smith Weidenfeld, £16.99, pp. 307, ISBN 9780297852216 £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Reviewing recently a new English version of Alain-Fournier's 1913 novel Le Grand Meaulnes, I was happy and relieved to find that it retains its magic. It has entranced...

Robert Gore-Langton talks to Peter Gill and Kenneth Cranham about the Old Vic revival of Gaslight This season's they-don't-make- 'em-like-that-any-more offering at the Old Vic...

Andrew Lambirth Gillian Ayres: Paintings and Works on Paper 2005-7 Alan Cristea Gallery, 31 Cork Street, London Wl, until 16 June In Celebration of David Bomberg Daniel Katz...

Michael Henderson has high hopes for the newly renovated Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall reopens next week after two years of renovation costing £111 million, and...

Charles Spencer Until recently I was one of those insufferable prigs who proudly announces, 'Oh, I never watch television, it's all rubbish these days.' But there was little...

Michael Tanner Fidelio Royal Opera Fidelio is so full of wonderful music, and its subject matter is so stirring and so perennially relevant, that it should be a frequent feature...

Giannandrea Poesio Triple Bill Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House Phoenix Dance Theatre Sadler's Wells Theatre Stylistic accuracy is one of the most problematic aspects of...

Lloyd Evans Fiddler on the Roof Savoy Alaska Royal Court Philistines Lyttelton Hats off to Henry Goodman. No holiday for him this summer. He's the centrepiece of Lindsay...

Patrick Camegy King Lear The Seagull Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon The best way to get serious press cover1 age for your big show is to provoke the hacks by shutting...

Simon Hoggart Channel 4's Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel (Wednesday) was, as promised, pretty tasteless stuff, though not for the reasons we were told. There are those who...

Deborah Ross The Chumscrubber 15, nationwide T thought I'd go and see Ocean's 13, as it 1 is the biggest film this week, but then changed my mind. It's not that I don't care for...

Kate Chisholm Just as Damien Hirst last week launched his diamond-encrusted human skull on to the unsuspecting world he was upstaged by that other icon of British culture, The...

Taki Kent o this beautiful New England village near the New York–Connecticut border, home to the great designer Oscar de la Renta and his wife Annette, both very old friends of...

Robin Oakley psom last weekend was simply awash with emotion. Show me the racing man who didn't have a tear in his eye when Henry Cecil marched back to the top of his profession...

Jeremy Clarke The first day of June. A golden evening. I've been shopping and bought myself a pair of flip-flops. Fifty quid for two footprint shapes of recycled rubber, two...

Linseed oil and cut grass Roy Hattersley T played my youthful cricket on wickets 1 which were cut into steeply sloping pitches. Cover drives which should have raced over the...

DEBORAH ROSS This is about a mother who takes her son out for dinner for his 15th birthday. Normally the son would not agree to go out for dinner with his mother. Normally the...

James Waldron wonders if this is Blair's bequest to the nation Reading Blair's political obituaries, the most disheartening theme to me was the loss of innocence which the man...

Christa D'Souza ponders our national obsession with fancy dress There are plenty of things to thank the Lord for. My children's health. Their father's. Inshallah, mazeltov, my...

Sarah Standing goes with her book-club friends to Corfu Ivitnessing me overcome my fear of flying on a recent trip to Corfu must have given the members of my book club a long...

Dear Maly Q. One of the most characteristic aspects of being a member of the British middle class 'nouveau pauvre' is finding it embarrassing to take action when things we used...

FRANK KEATING T was sorry to miss last week's ghostbusting 1 gig at the Hay-on-Wye festival when David Beckham's surrogate-scribbler, actor-writer Tom Watt, joined two mates of...