Battle for the Tory party leader C onservative Members of Parliament voted for a new leader; Mr Kenneth Clarke, the shadow Chancellor, won most votes, but not enough under the...

It's too soon for Mr Hague, but not for the Tory party BRUCE ANDERSON F rom the outset, it was almost certain that William Hague would become the leader of the Tory party....

BORIS JOHNSON E very so often, in the course of the life- long struggle against our own natural incompetence, we know when we are licked. In five minutes they were expecting me...

A man capable of apologising for the Irish potato famine should not avoid Hong Kong now MATTHEW PARRIS T he Governor will be there. The For- eign Secretary will go. The heir...

Michael Gove goes behind the scenes of the ex-Chancellor's leadership campaign and finds it impressive but flawed KENNETH CLARKE started the cam- paign for the Conservative...

Anne McElvoy reveals how the Lilley and Howard forces dumped Redwood and swung to Hague THE RESULT of the first ballot reached Peter Lilley in his room via the television a few...

Michael Heath

Samuel Francis on the strange death of politics in the United States IN the first six months of 1997, American politics suddenly acquired all the charm and interest of an...

King Michael of Romania talks to Simon Sebag Montefiore about dining with Hitler, and other grim duties `RESTORATION', I say to the old King of Romania, 'is rather a...

LAST Friday, at midday precisely, I received a telephone call in my office. `Hello, this is Human Resources here.' I can't say I care much for being a Human Resource: it always...

`WHY are you reading that now?' I asked my husband as he summoned me from the kitchen to hear another snip- pet from The Gates of Memory, the memoirs of Sir Geoffrey Keynes,...

Leo McKinstry identifies the perfect test to disprove those `ever-rising standards' WHAT, apart from the appointment of the excellent Chris Woodhead as Chief Inspector of...

Profile: Margot Walmsley, whose salon is modest, but London's most cerebral SOME 20 years ago, a watcher in the shrubbery outside a Kensington terrace might have seen an...

When is a contract not a contract? When a writer's heirs benefit PAUL JOHNSON T he British are suffering from an out- break of their old disease — envy. I don't entirely...

Stop the millennium, I want to get off it's never too late to call time CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t is never too late to call time on a dud project, but it sometimes seems to be....

Sir: I do wish we could nail for ever the `donkeys and lions' myth about the first world war (Letters, 7 June). The exchange was first recorded in the front pages of Alan...

Sir: Several persons of my acquaintance, as it happens on both sides of the Atlantic and old enough to remember my long descrip- tion at the time, in the TLS, of Cyril Con-...

Sir: The Spectator recently seems to be indulging in a spot of Alfred Hitchcock- bashing (Arts, 10 May; Diary, 31 May), so I feel obliged to speak up in favour of the old master...

mentioned by Profes- sor Bew) is that there was a much worse famine in 1739-41, which almost no one, then or now, ever mentions. The Irish people multiplied (because of the...

Sir: In return for one apology about a myth of 150 years ago, how about another con- cerning historical reality only 50 years ago? Having enjoyed the Prime Minister's con-...

Sir: Our office is full of popping cham- pagne corks, thanks to Stephen Glover and his review of the new Punch (Media stud- ies, 7 June). This was punditry at its best:...

Sir: Twice in the last week I have read the phrase 'fine toothcomb' or 'toothcomb', most recently in your review of Lord Mel- bourne (Books, 7 June). Surely it should be fine -...

Sir: George Melly's reply to Peregrine Worsthome (Letters, 31 May) is as 'over- excitable' as the article that prompted it. Is Mr Melly really suggesting that when decid- ing...

Wilde than the one we have of Dou- glas Haig, a man who could not only coun- tenance the shooting of hundreds of shell- shocked adolescents but also exemplified the odious...

Sir: Regarding the recent correspondence (and doubts) relating to the existence of Alice von Schlieffen, the name itself has a potentially interesting interpretation. The...

The future of Paxo. Or, Newsnight becomes Newslite STEPHEN GLOVER J eremy Paxman, the Newsnight presenter who has become something of a national institution, despised and...

A family and its misfortunes Philip Hensher THE THINGS WE USED TO SAY by Natalia Ginzburg Carcanet, £9.95, pp. 224 disappointingly little read in this country; aside from...

William Scammell A PASSIONATE SISTERHOOD by Kathleen Jones Constable, £20, pp. 313 N o man is a hero to his valet', said Byron. The point wasn't lost on Mrs Milton, Mrs...

Bryn Green THE KILLING OF THE COUNTRYSIDE by Graham Harvey Cape, £16.99, pp. 218 T he idea of the countryside and our love of it are both rather peculiar to Britain. The great...

Nigel Nicolson A FRIENDSHIP OF CONVENIENCE by Rufus Gunn GMP, £8.95, pp. 171 T his is a novel about the gradual unravelling of Anthony Blunt. Although he is the central figure,...

Tobias Jones QUARANTINE by Jim Crace Viking, £16.99, pp. 243 I t's hard to imagine who will dislike Jim Crace's startling, beguiling novel more: atheists who resent his thick...

William Fiennes SERPENT IN PARADISE by Dea Birkett Picador, £16.99, pp. 299 hen Dea Birkett saw the film The Bounty one wet afternoon in Elephant and Castle she immediately...

Giannandrea Poesio THE LIFE AND BALLETS OF LEV IVANOV, CHOREOGRAPHER OF `THE NUTCRACKER' AND 'SWAN LAKE' by Ronald John Wiley OUP, £45, pp. 306 A strategically placed subtitle...

o n the evening of 5 January, 1895, Henry James set out from his house in De Vere Gardens for a visit to the theatre. The play he went to see was Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband,...

Christopher Howse CAN JANE EYRE BE HAPPY? by John Sutherland OUP, £4.99, pp. 232 F rom the man who asked: `Is Heathcliff a murderer?', 'What does Mr Hyde look like?' and, 'Do...

do Igo to, my lovely . . .? Nigel Spivey CONFESSIONS OF A PHILOSOPHER by Bryan Magee Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 503 T he demons came when he was in the school chapel: It was not a...

Georgia Peters Beware the heritage trap John Rowlands believes we should not be overwhelmed by a romanticised vision of the past H eritage is a word so variable in its current...

Desmond Shawe-Taylor writes to his predecessor Giles Waterfield about his first year at Dulwich D ear Giles, A year ago when you stepped down as Director of Dulwich Picture...

was a contemporary description of a Robert Adam colour scheme. Annabel Ricketts investigates T he recent re-opening of the domed salon at Chiswick completes a series of three...

Lots and lots Leslie Geddes-Brown T he day cannot be far off when an auc- tion house auctions its own catalogues. In the highly important and most magnificent bracket we will...

Ellsworth Kelly (Tate Gallery, till 7 September) A free spirit Martin Gayford P aintings that look good in photographs aren't necessarily the good ones. Such is the...

Simon Blow samples the pleasures of the Covent Garden Festival T he Convent Garden Festival which ended on Saturday is cause for personal celebration. I live in the heart of...

Mutual admiration Ursula Buchan Lutyens and Jekyll' go together like love and marriage, urn, well, horse and car- riage at least. This was the most famous 20th-century...

Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne) Happiness is . . Michael Tanner T hough it will be a sad day for humani- ty — we seem to be able to survive quite a few of them — when Le...

All Things Considered (Hampstead) Damn Yankees (Ade1phi) Nocturne for Lovers (Chichester Minerva) Henry V (Shakespeare's Globe) Appalling manners Sheridan Morley A Hampstead,...

The Fifth Element (PG, selected cinemas) The future? It's British Mark Steyn Y ou wait ages for an Ian Holm movie, then two come along at once. Hard on the heels of Big...

Mark Morris Dance Group (London Coliseum) Sit back and enjoy Giannandrea Poesio A ccording to a juicy, behind-the-scenes rumour, an eminent dance personality recently claimed...

Pressing problems Michael Vestey W hen Radio Four began broadcast- ing the first Test Match from Edgbaston on long-wave last week, the announcer kept urging listeners to phone...

Tabloid crudity James Delingpole T here are few things more pathetic than chippy proles whingeing about the iniquities of the class system. It's there to be exploited, not to...

Lucy Fleming charts her progress in the Capetown to Boston race F or an actor there's a rather worrying time when the final dress rehearsal is over and there's an hour or so to...

Serious business Robin Oakley A gushing hostess once asked a depart- ing George Bernard Shaw whether he had enjoyed himself at her party. 'Yes, madam, and it was the only...

Why should we pay? Taki P New York uerto Rican pride has to be the greatest of all oxymorons. It ruined my last week- end in the Bagel, as two million Puerto Ricans invaded...

Taking the plunge Leanda de Lisle A reader in Omaha writes to tell me that I have a 'fine touch with my sexual bits'. I'm not sure what he means by that, but I've decided to...

On the move Jeffrey Bernard I'm not exactly sick of the flat that I live in now but I am getting just a little bored with living in a market street, something that most people...

Optimist Andrew Robson IF you cannot make your contract unless a critical card is held by one opponent, then you must assume it to be so. Dealer North North-South vulnerable...

YOU are a serious cook or eater going to the United States on business or holiday? Well, you can eat some very good food. America has good raw ingredients, excel- lent...

ISLE OF J SIVA! Y URA llI ,01rH11:15,1 COMPETITION Reductio ad absurdum Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1986 you were invited to reduce the plot of a well-known piece of...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND CHESS Gambits galore Raymond Keene DURING MUCH of the 19th century, the Evans Gambit was one of the great high- ways of chess theory....

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

Frailty, thy name is horse Simon Barnes I AM writing these words in the most terri- ble sulk. Entrepreneur did not win the Derby, you see. And it really is most fright- fully...

Dear Mary.. . Q. Exquisite embarrassment looms: can you help? On exercise in Norway, our bat- talion second-in-command (never notice- ably sensitive to the feelings of junior...