The moral high ground: The Three Wise Men T he Catholic bishops of England and Wales circulated a pre-election booklet called The Common Good, which Labour supporters claimed...

CHARLES HINDLIP I ran to work this morning; work is at Christie's in St James's. I am not sure it did me much good, as London is now more polluted than New York. This is sad,...

If Mr Blair's lead in the polls continues to fall, what will become of all his supporters a la mode? PETRONELLA WYATT T he other day I was sitting in a café with a friend who...

Bruce Anderson argues that Sir James Goldsmith's opinion of politicians should be taken seriously; he knows whereof he speaks SIR James Goldsmith used to have consis- tent...

Lady Powell banished her from one party, but Anne McElvoy found another. There was also a third one in the hall SIR JAMES Goldsmith emerged from the Grand Hotel pursued by...

Michael Heath

Jonathan Holborow, Mail on Sunday editor, justifies printing prosecution evidence against Colin Stagg which was never put to a jury I FIRST met Andre Hanscombe on a bright...

So on to Dan Quayle in 2000. Michael Vestey reports Washington IT IS easy to be influenced by the media's portrayal of a public figure. 'What a jerk — the guy can't spell...

FROM TIME to time I am asked by a newspaper to express my outrage at some more or less disgusting aspect of modern life, and usually I am only too happy to oblige. Indeed, I...

Andrew Roberts warns against any modish blaming of Britain for German failure to overthrow Hitler BRITISH reviews of a new book about the German resistance serve as a warning...

WE'RE NAS Kathy Marks tells the untold story about the classroom violence issue: it's good for a certain union (and its leader) IT IS 1979, and the National Association of...

WE ARE making some progress, if only speculative, on the origin of the phrase spending a penny. For those of you who missed the story so far, it certainly pre- dates...

If EMU does go ahead in 1999, argues Mark Archer, the consequences could be disastrous for all involved `C'EST magnifique, mais ce n'est past reconornie' — such might have...

Simon Courtauld meets the Countess of Listowel: writer, Hungarian, and present in Budapest 40 years ago SHORTLY after her 92nd birthday last year, Judith, Countess of...

Simon Blow recalls a strange meeting with the novelist whom television has just made newly famous SATURDAY'S superb BBC 2 dramatisa- tion of Henry Green's novel, Loving, took...

Jimmy restores a bit of life to a moribund conference season PAUL JOHNSON L ast week I broke my new rule and went briefly to Jimmy Goldsmith's Refer- endum Party conference....

Sir Alastair gets himself out of a hole it wouldn't have happened without him CHR ISTOPH ER FILDES H is last week at Eurotunnel finds Sir Alastair Morton in Tokyo. He is...

Sir: Stewart Steven certainly hit the bull's- eye, judging by the reaction of Neil Hamil- ton and Tiny Rowland to his article 'The case for Mohamed' (12 October). As Stewart is...

editor of the Daily Mail, Mr Robert Dunlop, then a main board director of Lonhro's with whom I often lunched, gave me some wonderful detail about a titanic battle for the...

of Neil Hamilton (Payed paid me noth- ing', 19 October). Most of these were con- tained in his witness statement for the trial we were expecting to begin on 1 October. He...

to close the gap in the market identified by Frank Johnson in his Diary (19 October) and produce an Egyp- tian equivalent of Debrett — perhaps to be entitled Tales of the...

Sir: I commend you for printing Matthew Parris's article on Ian Greer (Another voice, 19 October). Not many journalists would be as free-thinking and outspoken. Matthew Parris's...

The truth about Mr Neil's Sunday Times: it went down (in both senses) STEPHEN GLOVER H as the Sunday Times declined as a newspaper? The question arises with the publication of...

The great talking shop Philip Hensher THE LITERARY COMPANION TO PARLIAMENT edited by Christopher Silvester Sinclair-Stevenson, £30, pp. 605 T he House of Commons, alas, never...

Charlotte Moore LISTENING TO THE ORCHESTRA AND OTHER STORIES by Susan Hill available from booksellers or post-free from Long Barn Books, Ebrington, GL55 61VW, tel: 01386...

Victoria Glendinning HAZEL: A LIFE OF LADY LAVERY 1880-1935 by Sinead McCoole Lilliput, f25, .E15, pp. 242 he Irish colleen depicted on the first Irish Free State banknotes...

Michael Scott MY PARABOLA by Titta Ruffo Baskerville,$38, pp. 490 A ffixed to the inside of the front cover of the baritone Titta Ruffo's autobiogra- phy, originally published...

Craig Brown CHANGING TRAINS by Steven Norris Hutchinson, £16.77, pp. 273 I am told that the sales reps were hawk- ing this book with the promise that it would be the next Alan...

Tom Hiney ENGLISH WEATHER by Neil Ferguson Gollancz Originals, £9.99, pp. 319 S tranded at a railway station, few people in their right mind would head for the Con- temporary...

Anthony Storr THE AGE OF HERESY: YOU CAN ACHIEVE MORE, NOT LESS, AS YOU GET OLDER by Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene Ebuly Press, £12.99, pp. 184 n the 1940s, educational...

Patrick Skene Catling THE BOYS: TRIUMPH THROUGH ADVERSITY by Martin Gilbert Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 511 T his is an important book. There was a Holocaust. Fewer than 100,000 Jews...

Anne McElvoy THE AGONY OF THE RUSSIAN IDEA by Tim McDaniel Princeton, £19.95, pp. 212 T he Russian Idea is a hardy if abstruse construct. It stalks Gogol's Dead Souls which...

Main de Botton THE BEND FOR HOME by Dermot Healy Harvill £14.99, pp. 307 T he Irish poet and novelist Dermot Healy has written his memoir. As we approach the end of the 20th...

Anne Chisholm I n fiction as in life, many brave colonial boys and girls have made the journey from Australia to the mother country in search of fame, fortune, reputation or...

Antony Lambton ALEC DOUGLAS HOME by D. R. Thorpe Sinclair-Stevenson, £25, pp. 562 M r D. R. Thorpe has written a care- less, repetitive, unstructured book littered with bad...

Charles Moore FULL DISCLOSURE by Andrew Neil Macmillan, £20, pp. 481 W hy should I give my energy, my ability and my experience and one more minute of my time to this man...

Nigel Spivey CANAAN by Geoffrey Hill Penguin, £7.99, pp. 72 S lim volumes of contemporary verse are not normally honoured with notice in these pages. What is there in this new...

Tangles with the Taste Police Leslie Geddes-Brown criticises planners for their negative approach to listed buildings C harles Wingfield, the elderly owner of Grade 1 listed...

Making & Meaning: Rubens's Landscapes (National Gallery, till 19 January) Artist of power and poetry Martin Gayford A little while ago I wrote about painters who don't travel...

Andrew Lambirth found much that was fascinating on his visit to the Tate Gallery in Cornwall I f you have the energy and enthusiasm to travel down to Cornwall, you would be well...

Victor Horta (Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, till 5 Jan) Exuberant trend-setter Martin Bailey V ictor Horta, the architect of swirling lines, is being honoured with an...

The Cunning Little Vixen (Coliseum) A zany look at life Michael Tanner I t occurred to me while I was watching, in a slightly detached way, the ENO's latest revival of...

Batting for Bruckner Robin Holloway W hen the impossible question 'Who is your favourite composer?' comes up, my instant unthinking answer is 'Bruckner'. When compelled...

Art (Wyndham's) Old Wicked Songs (Promenade, New York) Rent (Nederlander, New York) Cabaret Convention (Town Hall, New York) But is it art? Sheridan Morley T he snob hit of...

Twelfth Night (PG, selected cinemas) He can take it Mark Steyn hat veteran wordsmith has been kept busy recently turning out screenplays for such mainstream motion picture...

Royal Ballet (Royal Opera House) Mal Pelo (The Place) Mark Baldwin Dance Company (The Place) Sublime elegance Giannandrea Poesio T he relentless, yet fatuous search for new...

A study in spending John Parry T here used to be a time in the arts when actors acted, singers sang, dancers danced and administrators, well, adminis- tered. While the arts...

The right voice Michael Vestey M usic lovers hate music, said Sir John Drummond, a former Controller of Radio Three. This startling remark was made two Sundays ago in the last...

Mean streets Simon Hoggart I used to live in Manchester, in Burnage actually, which I believe is where the Gal- lagher brothers from Oasis were raised. The old place doesn't...

(Nearly) Heaven on earth Robin Oakley T here is nothing quite like that tingle of anticipation as you slalom (slowly, of course, officer) through Six Mile Bottom and catch...

As good as it gets Taki D ear, oh dear! Why can't the hacks ever get it right? Andrew Pierce in the Times breathlessly reported how Alan Clark was at Carla Powell's Referendum...

Bigheads beware Jeffrey Bernard I hope to God that my worries about the future of Frankie Dettori are completely unfounded, as on too many occasions I have seen successful...

Back and the future Leanda de Lisle B ad backs are as common in Leicester- shire as bad consciences in Westminster. Every town and village has an army of quacks to manipulate...

BRIDGE Find the lady Andrew Robson THE stakes were high and South was play- ing a vulnerable grand slam. He reached the crucial decision point and did the wrong thing. He had...

ACCORDING to Peter Harden, whose invaluable guide, London Restaurants 1997, has just appeared, there are some 3,000 Indian restaurants in Greater London. This makes the...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN•THE•STRAND In Staunton's honour Raymond Keene THE WORK of the Howard Staunton Society, with Nigel Short as its president, is proceeding apace....

i U RA SAGA vc, ,o101 XXIA1 ISLE OF j U RA SINUF MI, UN .111511 COMPETITION Books and life Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1955 you were invited to supply a piece of prose...

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1990 Port for the first correct solution opened on 11 November, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

Life and works Simon Barnes Thus a hagiography becomes by easy stages a hatchet job. The biographer who feels his love has been betrayed by the life of his love-object reacts...

Dear Mary.. . Q. Every time I come to London I find other pedestrians bump into me in the street rather a lot. How can I go about pre- venting this annoyance from happening?...