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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK P rivate Johnson Beharry, 25, was awarded
The Spectatorthe Victoria Cross for valour on 1 May 2004 during an incident in Iraq. The government admitted that Camilla Parker Bowles would become Queen if she was married to the Prince of...
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Red alert on Brown
The SpectatorI t is an iron rule of politics that the more ecstatic the immediate reviews of a Budget, the more disastrous it is likely to prove for the country over the long term. Last...
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W e have just moved back into the house I grew
The Spectatorup in. Itâs at Sissinghurst in Kent and my father lived there until his death last September, or at least in one part of it. The whole house and garden belongs to the National...
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At all levels of the Labour party, Gordon Brown is taking over
The SpectatorT he signs of an imminent general election now abound. The government has started to churn out announcements as it clears the decks before Parliament rises. The most vicious of...
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T he Passion narrative, read in all churches this week, reminds
The Spectatorone of exactly why Jesus was put to death. In Matthewâs account, it is based on the evidence of two false witnesses. They accuse Jesus of saying âI am able to destroy the...
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Church of martyrs
The SpectatorAnthony Browne says that more than 300 million Christians are either threatened with violence or legally discriminated against because of their faith F or most citizens of Iraq,...
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Labourâs stolen votes
The SpectatorRod Liddle reports on widespread corruption in the system of postal ballots Birmingham A t one oâclock in the morning of 9 June last year, two days before the local council...
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What it means to be Jewish
The SpectatorThe fact that I am Jewish has always mystified me. It bears no relation to anything else in my life â not to the way I was brought up, not to religion since I am agnostic, nor...
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What makes a hero?
The SpectatorHarry Mount asks George MacDonald Fraser whether Flashman is a coward as well as a cad âF lashmanâs just a monster,â says George MacDonald Fraser. âHeâs extremely...
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Abortion humbug
The SpectatorStuart Reid says that reducing the time limit on abortion to 20 weeks will make termination more, not less, respectable A ll you need for an abortion, apart from a live foetus,...
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Smarter than the Italians
The SpectatorPetronella Wyatt examines the new and convincing evidence that Britain is a more cultured place than Italy â and France A sk any European what he or she associates with the...
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SECOND OPINION
The SpectatorTHEODORE DALRYMPLE Medical students arrive for my tuition, fresh-faced and innocent, all eager for the treat. For the most part, they are still of conspicuously middle-class...
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Socialist engineering
The SpectatorSimon Heffer on the arrogance and cruelty of Gordon Brown as he goes about his self-appointed task of destroying the English middle classes W e have yet to be given a thorough...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorWhat is the difference between a cad and a bounder ? It depends on your dictionary. âA man who behaves dishonourably, especially towards women,â says the New Oxford...
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Mr Blairâs celebrity status was once an asset to New Labour. Now it is a danger
The SpectatorM iss Charlotte Church at last has a boyfriend of whom her mother approves. But perhaps I should answer the average High Court judgeâs question: âWho is Miss Charlotte...
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Oh to be caught âtwixt love and duty at the worldâs biggest boondoggle
The SpectatorP aul Wolfowitz may have to choose between Shaha Ali Rizaâs affections and his sense of duty. She is a gender specialist employed by the World Bank as an acting manager for...
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No such luck as Death of an Outsourcing Salesman
The SpectatorâH ello.â âAm I addressing the esteemed Mrs Johnson?â âNo. You are manifestly not addressing her.â âNo problem. My schedule say your number is Mrs Johnson, recent...
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Rumours of death somewhat exaggerated
The SpectatorRobert Salisbury T HE S TRANGE D EATH OF T ORY ENGLAND by Geoffrey Wheatcroft Penguin/Allen Lane, £20, pp. 317, ISBN 0713998016 G eoffrey Wheatcroft is rarely dull in print...
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Through a glass darkly
The SpectatorSebastian Smee T HE O PTIMISTS by Andrew Miller Sceptre, £16.99, pp. 313, ISBN 034082512X â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he subject of Andrew Millerâs latest...
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Chekhov in the home counties
The SpectatorSalley Vickers T HEY W ERE S ISTERS by Dorothy Whipple Persephone, £12, pp. 455 ISBN 1903155460 D orothy Whipple was once a highly regarded bestselling novelist and it is...
A season in Hell
The SpectatorHugh Cecil M ASSACRE OF THE I NNOCENTS : T HE C ROFTON D IARIES , Y PRES , 1914-1915 edited by Gavin Roynon, with a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert Sutton, £19.99, pp. 286,...
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Jazzing up the Psalms
The SpectatorDigby Anderson REVELATIONS introduced by Richard Holloway Canongate, £10, pp. 404, ISBN 1841955086 N ew editions and commentaries on the Bible are generally to be welcomed as...
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Showman and philosopher
The SpectatorRupert Christiansen P ETER B ROOK by Michael Kustow Bloomsbury, £25, pp. 352, ISBN 0747576467 â £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hen I interviewed Peter Brook a couple...
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Hunting the French fox
The SpectatorPatrick Skene Catling A N A CT OF COURAGE by Allan Mallinson Bantam, £16.99, pp. 366, ISBN 0593053400 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hich of the acts of courage...
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Royal taste in reading
The SpectatorNicolas Barker T HE B OOKS OF H ENRY VIII AND H IS W IVES by James P. Carley British Library, £20, pp. 161, ISBN 0712347917 â £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 H enry...
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Sunset over the Boulevard
The SpectatorPhilip French T HE M EMORY OF A LL T HAT by Betsy Blair Elliott & Thompson, £15.99, pp. 320, ISBN 190402730X â £13.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 B etsy Blair was born...
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A monumental mediaeval muddle
The SpectatorC. J. Tyerman T HE H OLLOW C ROWN : A H ISTORY OF B RITAIN IN THE L ATE M IDDLE A GES by Miri Rubin Allen Lane, £25, pp. 380, ISBN 071399066 â £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870...
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An ele g y
The Spectatorfor Yugoslavia Victor Sebestyen C HERNOBYL S TRAWBERRIES : A M EMOIR by Vesna Goldsworthy Atlantic Books, £14.99, pp. 290, ISBN 1843544148 â £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870...
The not so beautiful game
The SpectatorLloyd Evans T HOSE F EET : A S ENSUAL H ISTORY OF FOOTBALL by David Winner Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp. 274, ISBN 0747547386 â £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 S ame...
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The lower slopes of the magic mountain
The SpectatorJonathan Keates A N EW H ISTORY OF G ERMAN LITERATURE editor in chief David E. Wellbery The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, £29.95, pp. 1056, ISBN 0674015037 T he...
The Kingâs detective
The SpectatorAlan Judd M: MI5â S F IRST S PYMASTER by Andrew Cook Tempus, £20, pp. 287, ISBN 0752428969 â £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n 1850 when William Melville was born...
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Going to the good
The SpectatorAlexander Masters A NOTHER B ULLSHIT N IGHT IN S UCK C ITY by Nick Flynn Faber, £7.99, pp. 347, ISBN 0571214088 J onathan Flynn is a lying, cheating, incompetent,...
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Victory over death
The SpectatorRichard Harries reflects on how Christâs crucifixion has been depicted over the ages T he first depiction of Jesus on the cross, on a small ivory panel in the British Museum...
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Secret revealed
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Dennis Creffield: A Retrospective Flowers East, 82 Kingsland Road, E2, until 3 April Nine Abstract Artists â Revisited Osborne Samuel, 23a Bruton Street, 1+1,...
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A hunterâs eye for nature
The SpectatorJohn McEwen The Art of âBBâ Northampton Museum & Art Gallery, until 8 May F or pure delight you must away to Northampton and see this admirable celebration of the...
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Dazzling delight
The SpectatorGiannandrea Poesio Phoenix Dance Theatre Sadlerâs Wells Theatre Royal Ballet Royal Opera House L ugubrious pessimists who despair about the state of contemporary dance in the...
Labyrinthine complexities
The SpectatorMichael Tanner English Touring Opera Cos!; Mary Queen of Scots F or its spring season, English Touring Opera has chosen an ambitious pair of operas, Mozartâs Cos! fan tutte...
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Stifled desire
The SpectatorLloyd Evans The House of Bernarda Alba Lyttelton Wilde Tales Southwark Playhouse Poor Beck Soho W hat a gorgeous place to live. Thatâs your first reaction to The House of...
Label to love
The SpectatorRobin Holloway E very music-lover loves Hyperion Records; our debt to this company is difficult to quantify or to overestimate. From its pioneering days in the Eighties right...
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Morally detached
The SpectatorMark Steyn Maria Full of Grace 15, selected cinemas T he publicity poster for Maria Full of Grace shows the face of the eponymous Maria looking up at a hand thatâs proffering...
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Return of the Daleks
The SpectatorJames Delingpole D octor Who is back (BBC1, Saturday) as a TV series for the first time in 16 years and Iâm not sure which aspect of his latest incarnation, as written by...
High living
The SpectatorMichael Vestey O ccasionally, one stumbles across something delightfully quirky on Radio Four that one knows would never be aired anywhere else; such was the case with The...
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Let them eat hake
The SpectatorSimon Courtauld W hy, I wonder, is a fish revered in one European country yet largely ignored in the others? As a fish of the Atlantic, and other cold waters, hake is little...
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Broke and desperate
The SpectatorTaki Gstaad T he murder of Edouard Stern, widely reported in the European press but less so in Britain â after all, whatâs the loss of a ruthless banker or two? â has...
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Winning look
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke S haronâs got a dog. Itâs a basenji, an African hunting dog descended directly from the jackal and domesticated by the pygmies of the Ituri forest in the...
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W hen I compiled this monthâs offer â from the estimable
The SpectatorSimon Wrightson, who conducts his business from a gorgeous manor house in North Yorkshire â I was slightly surprised to discover that we had an entirely French selection. This...
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Days of wine and oysters
The SpectatorFRANK KEATING W hat with the frenzied finales of Six Nations rugby, Cheltenhamâs four daysâ hooley, and my own ruddy all-day asthma, I had to miss John Jacksonâs 70th...
Q. I am 43. I am starting to develop terrible
The Spectatorfurrows on my forehead. I do not wish to go under the knife nor do I wish to have any more Botox because I do not like the âBotox delayâ effect. What do you recommend,...
Q. I have been brought up to write thankyou letters,
The Spectatorbut I feel increasingly out on a limb as so very few of my contemporaries ever seem to bother. In the circumstances, do you think it is priggish of me to continue sending out...
Q. My friend Eâs son is about to have what
The Spectatorshe calls an âillegitimateâ baby â her son is not married to the mother of this child. Her problem is how to introduce this woman without using the word âpartnerâ,...