I t is one of the peculiarities of a recession that it cannot officially be acknowledged until, often, it is already history. This week, we learned that the economy shrunk 0.5...

been staring at the carpet in Brussels airport for two hours — and this one has some promising ingredients. Through the glass wall separating our departure gate from the outside...

A nanosecond is easily measured in Westminster as the time between a politician’s hearing of a colleague’s impending resignation and wondering ‘What’s in it for me?’ It takes...

old man we did not know and left a message on his answering machine saying that one of us had ‘f—–ed’ his grand-daughter? What would happen if we then left three more messages,...

MONDAY Yikes! Memo from Jed in California marked ‘Urgent and F***ing Desperate’. It’s v. bad news. It seems the brand is recontaminated. Lord A’s latest focus group asked people...

Although McCain could still theoretically win, the Democrat candidate looks set for glory, says Christopher Caldwell . But Obama has even less to say about the economic crisis...

Tom Bower , the Prime Minister’s biographer, says that Gordon’s reinvention as the socialist who can save capitalism is just the latest in a series of convenient masks he has...

The French President’s strop is more eloquent than any policy or speech, says Celia Walden. He is a pint-sized de Gaulle regularly made to look a fool by his wife T he truth,...

Last time we saw that the Romans did not have anything like a banking system i.e. a machinery for creating credit through various negotiable instruments. What they did have was...

Martin Vander Weyer pours a whisky, sits back and observes chaos theory at work in the global markets: it could all end in Mad Max anarchy A t this juncture, my best...

Rod Liddle says that the row over their radio ‘prank’ has exposed the fact that these two smug, overpaid performers aren’t really that popular. There are no fans to defend them...

Sinclair McKay hails the pioneering novels of William Le Queux, true inventor of the modern spy novel, whose thrillers prefigured the Bond books by more than half a century D...

at dinner that we were ‘the only two tourists in Kabul’! In fact, we nearly did not arrive because on the eve of our flight, the aid-worker Gayle Williams was shot dead by the...

Sir: Patrick Macaskie (‘The market needs short-sellers’, 25 October) is indeed correct in suggesting that the problems caused by excessive borrowing could be solved by a round...

Sir: I don’t know how many Indians A.A. Gill (‘Oh, Kolkata!’, 18 October) spoke to before levelling patronising scorn at those Brits who still insist on calling the former...

Sir: May I pass on my congratulations to India for its recent success against Australia in the Second Test and its recent successful rocket launch as it embarks on its first...

Sir: Tim Congdon (‘Keynesianism still isn’t the answer’, 25 October) doesn’t fully understand the possibilities that preference shares can offer, which is a pity because his...

Sir: In an otherwise well-balanced piece (Liddle Britain, 25 October) Rod Liddle says ‘The intention behind David Steel’s [Abortion] Bill of 1967 was to prevent the maiming of...

Sir: What is all this ‘negative growth’ nonsense about? Growth is something positive, or increasing, so how is it that we now have this bizarre phenomenon? It is as absurd as a...

V .S. Naipaul, that clever and often wise man, once laid down: ‘One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.’ Well, where’s the comedy now? There is certainly...

O bviously, the senior powers at the BBC should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. What a cock-up. What a failure of leadership. What a grubby betrayal of Reithian values. Is...

Elliot Wilson profiles Poly Group, a company controlled by the Chinese military which uses arms-sales profits to buy back artworks that have been illicitly flogged off abroad I...

Allister Heath A little over a year ago, when it was already obvious to virtually everybody that the boom was over, the City’s Panglossian crowd came up with one last,...

Richard Northedge identifies the signals that will tell us when the property slump has passed its lowest point T he real economy has taken only the first step towards recession...

M oderation has never been popular in Shanghai. Over the years the city has been home to many types of excess, from opium and sing-song girls to Red Guards. At the moment the...

Lloyd Evans S OUL OF THE A GE by Jonathan Bate Penguin, £25, pp. 500, ISBN 97806870914821 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 E very new biographer of Shakespeare walks splat...

S. E. G. Hopkin T HE G RAVEYARD B OOK by Neil Gaiman Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 312, ISBN 97890747596837 ‘T here was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.’ The Graveyard...

Philip Ziegler M ASTERS AND C OMMANDERS by Andrew Roberts Allen Lane, £25, pp. 720, ISBN 9780713999693 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 B EHIND C LOSED D OORS by Laurence...

Justin Cartwright T HE W IDOWS OF E ASTWICK by John Updike Penguin, £18.99, pp. 308, ISBN 9780241144275 ✆ £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he Witches of Eastwick was...

D. J. Taylor C RAVEN H OUSE by Patrick Hamilton Black Spring Press, £9.95, pp. 272 ISBN 9780948238406 V £7.95(plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 P a t r i c k Hamilton (d. 1962) was...

John de Falbe HOME by Marilynne Robinson Virago, £16.99, pp. 336, ISBN 9781844085491 V £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 M a r i l y n n e Robinson’s magnificent previous...

Patrick Marnham A FRICA : A LTERED S TATES , O RDINARY M IRACLES by Richard Dowden Portobello, £25, pp. 576, ISBN 9781846271540 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O ut of...

Alan Judd A W HISPERED N AME by William Brodrick Little, Brown, £16.99, pp. 352, ISBN9780316731546 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T his is the third of William B r o d...

Oliver Gilmour T HOMAS B EECHAM : A N O BSESSION WITH M USIC by John Lucas Boydell & Brewer, £25, pp. 384, ISBN 9781843834021 Damn awful thing, what! [ The Ring ] — Barbarian...

Victoria Glendinning D EATH BL THE A uTHoR : H oW D.H. L AWRENCE D IED AND W AS R EMEMBERED by David Ellis OUP, £20, pp. 273, ISBN 9780199546657 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Michael Carlson HOMICIDE by David Simon Canongate, £12.99, pp. 656, ISBN 9781847673114 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 D EATH D YED B LONDE by Stanley Reynolds Quartet,...

Edward Norman D OSTOEVSKY : L ANGUAGE , F AITH AND F ICTION by Rowan Williams Continuum, £16.99, pp. 290, ISBN 9781847064237 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hile the...

Jason Goodwin T HE M AN WHO I NVENTED H ISTORY by Justin Marozzi John Murray, £25, pp. 333 ISBN 9780719567117 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hen Kristin Scott Thomas...

C hesterton refuses to go away. You may think he should have done so. Orwell tried to show him the door: Chesterton was a writer of considerable talent who chose to suppress...

Toby Jones, Karl Rove in the film W , explains his character’s relationship with President Bush C ondoleezza Rice’s teeth lie discarded beside her bottle of water. Colin...

Andrew Lambirth Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian National Gallery until 18 January 2009 Sponsored by AXA W hen people think of the Renaissance, it’s to Italy that their...

Matthew Dennison Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision Manchester Art Gallery, until 11 January 2009 N eedlepoint nose-dived during the 19th century. This came about, like...

Michael Tanner Matilde di Shabran Royal Opera House Aida English National Opera Iolanta Royal Festival Hall M atilde di Shabran is one of Rossini’s least performed operas, and...

Lloyd Evans Blowing Whistles Leicester Square Theatre Faces in the Crowd Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court O h, what a gay play. The exhibitionist bravado of gay culture,...

Marcus Berkmann N o one quite believes it, but the new Guns N’ Roses album is finally coming out. Axl Rose has been working on it for 17 years, demonstrating, as rarely before,...

Deborah Ross Quantum of Solace 12A, Nationwide Q uantum of Solace is the latest James Bond movie, which I thought I would make clear from the start. These films arrive with...

James Delingpole A bout 25 years ago, during a particularly bad acid trip, I had my soul stolen by Mister Migarette, an evil glowing man with a huge hat, like the mad hatter’s,...

Kate Chisholm T o the British Academy last week for a heartening prizewinning ceremony. No gongs, no red carpet, no dangerous stilettos on this occasion — not even a fabulous...

Robin Oakley L ast year’s Flat jockeys’ championship was a classic, an intriguing all-out battle to the last week of the season, with Seb Sanders and Jamie Spencer sharing the...

Taki New York A merica’s diminished intellectualism has made this interminable election period as boring as a Nat Rothschild Corfu party for respectable folk. Part of the...

Jeremy Clarke T he help-yourself breakfast buffet was a single, waxed carton of orange juice (made from concentrate), and a stack of small upturned glasses. I filled one of...

Alex James B eing driven is one of the great luxuries. It’s right up there with breakfast in bed, silence, sunshine, new socks and vast expanses of marble. It’s elevating. It’s...

face of recession. Not only do we intend go on drinking through the dark times, we insist on continuing to drink well. Thanks this week to Wheeler Cellars, off shoot of the...

Sarah Standing THE MALDIVES I think I’m probably guilty of suffering from terminal ‘holiday hope’. Holiday hope is basically just the denial of reality. It’s the self-held...

Sinclair McKay MARTINIS F or years, I wondered how James Bond could be bothered with the stuff. After all, there he was, after a long day filled with car chases, trollops and...

Matthew d’Ancona PRIVATE CLUBS T here may be trouble ahead (as Irving Berlin warned) — but what use is sitting alone in your room (as Liza Minnelli added)? I am on the 33rd...

Charlotte Metcalf HAMPERS I f you have ever received a hamper, you will be familiar with that delicious quiver of anticipation as you unbuckle the creaking wicker lid to see...

James Waldron BEDS I blame my back problems on a particularly recalcitrant Austro-Hungarian-Revivalstyle wardrobe. I single-handedly tackled the monstrosity while working at...

James Sherwood CUFF-LINKS P rivate Eye didn’t need to caption the pictures of a gaunt, pinched Peter Mandelson — bittersweet smile playing about his pursed lips — as his...

I am surprised by how ready my journalistic colleagues have been to accept Nat Rothschild’s public explanation of why he behaved as he did. According to him — and his anonymous...

‘I hate jokes,’ said my husband affably, and added: ‘Hwumph!’ The latter was an oral marker as he heaved his body from his armchair to the sideboard where the contents of the...

email recently. If you had purchased $1,000 worth of AIG stock a year ago, you would have $44.34 left. With Wachovia, you would have had $54.74 left of the original $1,000....

Dear Mary Q. As a parent of boys, one can use the word ‘willie’ or ‘winkie’, but as a parent of a little girl, I have been at a loss to know how to refer to the female...

our historic house, as they are so unattractive. But given that it seems inevitable and one will have to, is there a preferred brand that one should look out for, Mary? Name...

member of the group who has no swimming trunks is parading in M&S black boxerstyle Y-fronts. I am worried because our host is due to arrive today and might regard this attire as...

(Dr). Her husband is a solicitor (Mr). Could you advise me on what is the correct form of addressing them on an envelope? V.H., Bingham, Nottingham A. Joint forms of address...