M r Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent Cabinet ministers a 2,500-page dossier on the Treasury's assessment of the five economic tests applicable in deciding if...

A nyone organising a protest against fat-cat pay should bear in mind the experience of a group of gas customers who recently attempted to take a 40-stone sow called Winnie to...

C hannel 4 outdid itself in ignorance with the dumb, grandiosely titled The 100 Greatest Film Stars of All Time. We tuned in eagerly, expecting to see a cross-section of...

ROD LIDDLE Iv hat you need in front of you for this useful publicservice exercise is a piece of string cut to precisely five and one-tenth of an inch in length and a flat atlas...

B aroness Amos's precipitous appointment to the role of International Development Secretary has been the cause of general rejoicing. But from one secluded broom cupboard in a...

John Major says Tony Blair cannot accept the European constitution in anything like its current form, and demands a referendum on the matter T . he history of the Conservative...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade Stephen Byers has an apology to make. Not, sadly, for telling porkies or mismanaging the railways. He wants to...

My husband has just been to a professional conference in La Rioja. Why do doctors feel they confer better in places renowned for wine? I was allowed along for the ride, although...

Peter Oborne on the refusal of Anglican and Catholic bishops to denounce the tyranny in Zimbabwe 1 t is remarkable for Britain to be visited by a saint. But that was surely our...

Andrew Gilligan assesses the benefits to Britain of subservience to Washington 0 ne throwaway line in Sir Peter Stothard's recent account of Tony Blair, war leader, rather blows...

Apologies for singing a very old song, but with the debate on a referendum over the European constitution in full swing, and the term 'parliamentary democracy' being bandied...

David Lovibond discovers, post-50, that no amount of multi-vitamins or gym visits will put off the onset of 'sordid infirmity' M y parents died quickly and hygienically,...

Sam Kiley describes the terrifying experience of being captured by Baathists bent on revenge A purple-coloured Korean saloon was gaining on us fast as we zigzagged the wrong way...

Sean Thomas breaks a taboo on the subject of IQ tests, but believes there are grounds for hope 1 n February this year, the Department for Education and Skills issued a report...

CHRISTOPHER FILDEt c must all make sacrifices. Gordon Brown's Cabinet colleagues spent a weary weekend ploughing their way through the Treasury's answers to his five tests for...

I .mt he glory of my library in 'Bayswater are the ten-foot-high windows at the north and south ends, which open into nature in . all her moods and seasons. She seems to enter...

From Liane Jones Sir: I was impressed that you published Emma Williams's article about the Israeli occupation (The reek of injustice', 17 May). I visited the Occupied...

From Sir Archie Hamilton Sir: Matthew Parris (Another voice, 17 May) quotes someone close to Margaret Thatcher as saying that she was unmoved by the satirical portraits in words...

From Dr Peter Mandler Sir: In writing about the current spate of works of art threatened with export, Susan Moore (New ways to keep Old Masters', 17 May) mourns 'the decline in...

From Mr Paul Kincaid Sir: Your reference to the Arthur C. Clarke Award (The Spectator's Notes, 17 May) has been drawn to my attention. I was honoured that Christopher Priest...

From Mr Michael Grosvenor Myer Sir: Gerald Warner (Sight of fashion', 17 May) is in error in saying that Bertram Wooster's eyeglass (or monocle) 'eludes detection in the text'....

From Mr Robert H. Bork Sir: George Osborne's review of David Frum's book, The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W Bush (Books, 3 May), refers to me as a 'religious...

(") ne day last week, the only sub ject of conversation among those of us employed to observe proceedings from the House of Commons gallery was the blond hair of Mr Michael...

/ t was in these pages four weeks ago that the idea of a non-governmental referendum on the new European constitution was first mooted. Paul Robinson explained how, if Tony...

Philip Hensher BEETHOVEN'S NINTH: A POLITICAL HISTORY by Esteban Bach, translated by Richard Miller University of Chicago Press, £19.50, pp. 327, ISBN 0226078124 W hat does...

George Osborne BUSH'S BRAIN: How KARL ROVE MADE GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENTIAL by James Moore and Wayne Slater John Wiley, £18.50, pp. 395, ISBN 0471423270 W ho is the second most...

Steve King OUR FINAL CENTURY by Martin Rees Heinemann, £17.99, pp. 228, ISBN 0434008095 S ir Martin Rees has written three thrillingly good books on cosmology for...

William Leith A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey John Murray, £16.99, pp. 381, ISBN 0719561000 T his book, a memoir, opens with James Frey, a former drug addict, telling us...

David Edelsten THE BIRD MAN by Isabella Tree Ebuty Press, £14.99, pp. 246, ISBN 071262158X I n Milan just before Easter I stumbled on a stack of lithographs from John Gould's...

David Caute PETERSBURG PERSPECTIVES edited by Frank Althaus and Mark Sutcliffe, with photographs by Yury Molodkovets Fontanka, with Booth-Clibbom Editions, .02, pp. 320, ISBN...

Lucy Beresford DEATH TRAP by Patrice Chaplin Duckworth. 114.99, pp. 220, ISBN 0715632159 D eath Trap is a torrid tale of vampiric, lesbian lust. Having piqued your interest, I...

Simon Hefter THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF THOMAS AND JANE CARLYLE, VOLUMES 29 AND 30 edited by Ian Campbell and others Duke University Press, 905 West Main Street, Suite 18B,...

Jane Ridley MARY GLADSTONE: A GENTLE REBEL by Shelia Gooddie Wiley, £16.99, pp. 257, ISBN 0470854235 p rime ministers' families are interesting subjects for biography, and the...

Sam Leith THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK by Steven Sherrill Canongate, £12.99, pp. 320, ISBN 1841953989 W hat if, millennia ago, the Minotaur escaped Knossos alive? What...

Hugh Massingberd BABYCHAM NIGHT by Philip Norman Macmillan, £15.99, pp. 332, ISBN 0333900979 1 n his recent essay in these pages about George Orwell, Philip Hensher ruminated...

Allan Massie SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD by Joseph McBride Faber, £25, pp. 838, ISBN 057200753 I t s a rare film that knows its own author. Actually it's a rare one that had a...

Raymond Carr SIX WIVES: THE QUEENS OF HENRY VIII by David Starkey Chatto, £25, pp. 852, ISBN 0701172983 F ew historians would question David Starkey's assertion that the...

Andrew Lambirth looks at why art schools are producing so many conceptual artists H ere's a random sample of my postbag: an invitation to a mixed exhibition of nine artists'...

John McEwen Stella Ross-Craig: Drawings of British Plants Kew Art Gallo, Kew Gardens, until 4 October T he factual probity of science has always been in bracing contrast to...

Angela Summertield Pissarro in London National Gallen', until 3 August S taged to mark the 100th anniversary of Camille Pissarro's death, this small exhibition is also...

Mark Glazebrook Sense And Sensibility: Artists Take On Art History Transition, 110a Lauriston Road, E9, Friday to Sunday, 12 to 6, teL 07941 208566, until 1 June Merlin James...

Martin Gayford F or a while something puzzled me about the sacking and pillaging of the Baghdad museum. The looting was not hard to comprehend — after all everything movable and...

Susan Moore E xceptional works of art are becoming real rarities at auction. And if our masterpiece-starved international art market does deliver the kind of object that stops...

Michael Tanner Hamlet Royal Opera La Damnation de Faust Opera North T he most celebrated English tragedy, and the most celebrated German socalled tragedy, each set to music by...

Toby Young Henry V The Lady from the Sea Almeida Sexual Perversity in Chicago Comedy I let out an involuntary groan of disappointment as soon as the curtain went up on...

James Delingpole A f fi t n er Cambridge Spies I really hadn't cant to spend another week ranting about how utterly crap and leftie the BBC is. Unfortunately, fate decided...

Michael Vestey I Vs difficult to imagine how grim life could be for many in the post-war years in Britain. It was even worse for the 80,000 Eastern European displaced people...

Alan Judd XText month sees the 90th birthday of an automotive designer whose impact on our high streets and on perceptions of what it is to be British are arguably as great as...

Tat k I Palo Alto enty-five minutes by taxi going south from San Francisco, Palo Alto is the home of Stanford University, the school where brainy types who wish to make lotsa...

Jeremy Clarke A friend at our karate club, Colin, does bondage and 'water sports' pictures and sells them to a web porn site called 'After Midnight'. When I spoke to Sharon in...

Aiclan Hartley Malindi A fter five years in the writing, my .rlbook The Zanzibar Chest is coming out in July. Based on the advice of my friend Toby Young, whose New York memoir...

MICHAEL HENDERSON C ommentating on sport is a difficult task. When do you let the images speak for themselves, and when is it appropriate to reinforce the visual with a few...

Q. I am shortly to take the stage at a certain literary festival. I always enjoy talking afterwards to those readers who have brought along their copies of my book for me to...