Parliament about the war in Iraq, said, 'There is upon us a heavy responsibility to make the peace worth the war. We shall do so . . . with a fixed and steady resolve that the...

N • o matter how glamorous the guest-list, or how luxurious the food photographed sliding . down the hostess's gullet, there is an occasion which, deep down in his thoracic...

who greets ine with that 'Hey, peacenik — you must feel a right prat' look, I fear I shall arm myself with a few of those elusive WMDs and take out whole swaths of Wapping,...

Herat efore setting out for Afghanistan we took the precaution of visiting Robert Cranborne, who had = : dealings with the country in the ....iL.4 4# 1980s. He provided a...

Qasr, all those who had been so stirred by the words of Lt-Col. Tim Collins recoiled in horror. Had Lt-Col. Collins not said, plain as a pikestaff, 'We go to liberate, not to...

henever I read of a great wave of public alarm,' my grandfather used to say as he peered over the top of his Daily Telegraph, 'I am gripped by a massive calm.' I do not know...

T his was not a good war for newspapers. I am not so much thinking of the journalism. Much of it was excellent, though newspapers are obviously at a disadvantage to 24-hour...

France and Germany have lost the war, says Tim Congdon, and it is now time for Britain to help create a new European Free Trade Area that includes Russia and Turkey B y accident...

Simon Heifer on why the England cricket team must not go to Zimbabwe next year 1 ., n what used to be thought to be the gentleman's game of cricket, a brisk handshake was...

John Gibb reveals that Scotland Yard cannot cope with the burden of trying to police Internet paedophilia 1 n the late 1990s, the US Postal Service identified 75,000 members of...

Philippa Wragg on the legal struggle that followed the sexual assault on one of her boys A few weeks ago, Denis Cochrane, the choirmaster of a leading Roman Catholic school. was...

'What do you mean, "gapering"?' asked my husband during a pause from shouting at the television. 'Is it like capering?' He wasn't following, because he had been busy...

Andrew Gilligan says the war could be justified — in spite of the lies told by London and Washington Baghdad T . he war is over, sort of. As I write this, four US marines are...

It used to be that one listened for the first cuckoo of spring; nowadays, one listens for the first smashed car window of spring. Car-breaking is as seasonal as grouseshooting...

Rod Liddle raises some disturbing questions about the looting of antiquities from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad T he Iraqi information minister, Said al-Sahaf, was still...

It's against the law to sell a kidney. It shouldn't be, says Simon Hinde hor Andersen is something of a pariah, or so you would think, to read the denunciations that have been...

What will be Middle Eastern historians' judgment of Saddam's regime and its enforced collapse? Is there a Tacitus among them? In his Histories, Tacitus describes the traumatic...

aster is a time of resurrection and renewal — of hope, of belief, of purpose, of determination. We all want a better world. Yet man is a radically flawed creature and history...

From The Rt Hon, Christopher Patten, CH Sin William Shavvcross (Tax Americana', 12 April) writes, 'EU officials like Chris Patten speak of Europe being a "counterweight" to the...

From Mr Eric Hester Sir: Damian Thompson's brilliant article ('Anglican miracle', 12 April) should be compulsory reading for all the Roman Catholic bishops. If anything, it...

Sir: I agree with Damian Thompson that it is a good thing for the Church of England to promote the 'big players'. It is worth noting, however, that they are all theologians. The...

From Mr Taki Theodoracopulos Sir: I, too, regret my caricature of Richard Perle as a Bill Clinton cowardly draft-evader (High life, 29 March). Perle did not serve, but certainly...

From Mr Jeremy Deedes Sir: If memory serves, it was Taki's friend Arnaud de Borchgrave (High life, 12 April) who brought, at a price, a little style to the Intercontinental...

From Mr Robert Davies Sir: William Deedes (Books, 12 April) rightly says that George Steer features in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop. He does not add that Steer, as the correspondent of...

From Mr Patrick Fox Sir: Christopher Fildes (City and Suburban, 29 March) should not be too depressed at the thought of Aeroflot. For starters, the Natashas and Svetlanas are a...

From Sir Samuel Minim Sir: Alastair Campbell (Letters, 12 April) has performed a public service in reminding your readers of Gladstone's excellent principles of foreign policy:...

Campbell does not know that in 1882 Gladstone invaded and occupied Egypt? Is it possible also that he is not aware that Gladstone's largest holding (one third) in his bond...

From Mr Dana Baden Sir: In his excellent article, Roger Scruton (`The Islamification of our law', 12 April) quotes Martin Luther saying, 'Here I stand; I can do no other' as an...

From Mr John Jenkins Sir: In her column (Mind your language, 12 April), Dot Wordsworth wonders about triliteral Arabic roots. She might be interested to know that in Arabic qasr...

From Mr Edward Verity Sir: While I don't dispute Harry Mount's - views on Martin McGuinness or the police's frequently inverted priorities (Hands off my bike', 12 April), I...

the fickle finger of fate or Sir Brian Williamson, the . coast is clear. He has succeeded in his long-sustained ambition not to be made chairman of the Stock Exchange, and...

Bevis Hillier FRONT PAGE: COVERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Stephane Duperray and Raphaele Vidaling Weidenfeld, .t20, pp. 192 ISBN 0297829718 T he last review I wrote for this...

Michael Wharton TIBET, TIBET by Patrick French HarperCollins, £20, pp. 333. ISBN 0002571099 he mind's Tibet': innumerable books have been written about that partly imaginary...

Non-fiction: Auto Da Fay by Fay Weldon, Flamingo, £6.99 Winston's War by Michael Dobbs, HarperCollins, £6.99 Eminent Edwardians by Piers Brendon, Pimlico, £12.50 The Birds of...

Salley Vickers THE PRIORY by Dorothy Whipple Persephone, £10, pp. 536, ISBN 1903155304 T he Priory is the kind of book I really enjoy: funny, acutely observed, written in...

Brian Masters THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RICH by Richard Conniff Heinemann, 176.99, pp, 344 ISBN 0434009555 he wonderfully sardonic Dorothy Parker said, 'If you want to know...

Isabel Colegate THE ASCENT OF WOMAN: A HISTORY OF THE SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT AND THE IDEAS BEHIND IT by Melanie Phillips Little, Brown, £18.99, pp. 370 ISBN 0316725331 T he...

Simon Hoffer KHRUSHCHEV: THE MAN AND HIS ERA by William Taubman Free Press, £25, pp. 876 ISBN 0743231651 1 t will always be hard to understand the mental illness that was...

John de Fa!be THE LUCKY ONES by Rachel Cusk 4th Estate, £15.99, pp. 228, ISBN 1857029127 I began to change my opinion of this book about 50 pages from the end. Until then I had...

D. J. Taylor THE BOOK AGAINST GOD by James Wood Cape, £12.99, pp. 247,ISBN 0224063952 ji ames Wood's criticism, however astute, always put me in mind of Orwell's dictum that...

Hugh Massingberd MY FATHER, SANDY by Nicholas Wollaston Short Books, £12.99, p. 192 ISBN 1904095445 0 ne summer afternoon at Cambridge in 1930, a few weeks before Nicholas...

Richard Bradford S hortly before Lucky Jim was published Kingsley Amis wrote to Philip Larkin expressing the wish that 'something nice would happen to me, like having a fuck or...

Michael Pro dger on Holbein's harrowing picture of Christ lying in the tomb A o longside the Easter Week story f sacrifice and salvation runs a second narrative — the story of...

Andrew Lambirth Andrzej Jackowski: A Drawing Retrospective 1963-2003 Purdy Hicks Gallen:, 65 Hopton Street, SE] until 26 April Ac idrzej Jackowski was born in 1947 in a olish...

Lloyd Evans The Agamemnon Bridei4ell Theatre and touring Cooper! Ganick Tf the Iliad is Europe's first action advenIture, the Oresteia is Europe's first soap. And domestic...

Patrick Camegy The Taming of the Shrew Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Stratford The Tamer Tamed Swan Theatre, Stratford A prominent feature of the RSC book shop at Stratford is a...

Michael Tanner The Handmaid's Tale Coliseum Doth during and after the UK premiere of Poul Ruders's opera The Handmaid's Tale I felt puzzled on many scores, but mainly about...

Giannandrea Poesio Tour de Force Serdler's Wells Theatre - 'nglish National Ballet is a splendid ..I_company, which boasts some of the finest dancers around, and not just...

Charles Spencer M y colleague Caspar, who would be insufferably cool if he wasn't also ridiculously tall and unusually nice, once confessed to an engaging fantasy. He imagined...

Michael Vestey I t has been encouraging to see the centenary of the birth of Evelyn Waugh marked by Radio Four; now it's been observed by the World Service in its Masterpiece...

Simon Courtauld T he childhood memories are clear: a small fishing-boat rocks in the Atlantic swell off the north Cornish coast, and the line, stretching not far below the...

Robin Oakley I t would have been worth going racing at Newbury on Dubai Duty Free day for no other reason than to see the twinkle in Barry Hills's eye after Tante Rose had...

Taki New York J ust as well I never made it down south. For the last three weeks I've been feeling kinda funny, finding blood on my pillow in the morning and having headaches,...

Jeremy Clarke A our first terrier, lurcher and ferret club show of the new season, I was stewarding the ferrets again. I always get given the ferrets. I'd rather steward the...

Petronella Wyatt I Thad my half-brother Pericles staying here in London for the first time in four years. Pericles, who is my father's son by his third wife, Moorea, went to...

more for wine than they did even a few years ago. Whereas once we scoured supermarket shelves for bottles at under £3 which didn't taste like brake fluid, now we are often...

MICHAEL HENDERSON W hen that brilliant, tormented man, John Ogdon, was still alive, people used to say how much better it would have been for his reputation had he been called...

a professional firm in the suburbs of London, where I do four days a week working in an extraordinarily happy and democratic environment with political incorrectness to the...

like a free Internet café? Even guests who stay only one night irritate the life out of me by their burning and antisocial desire to check their email, usually for an hour at a...