The waters of the River Avon, recounted the vicar of Bengeworth, outside Evesham, 'reached almost to the keystone of the arch of the bridge, and extended up Port Street to the...

DOUGLAS MURRAY Iam registered as a voter in EalingSouthall and have a problem. Though a member of the party, I could not vote Conservative. The candidate put up by 'David...

CHARLES MOORE David Cameron was in a tight spot because of the floods. He had arranged to address the Rwandan parliament, and this fitted with his wish to proclaim his welcome...

By Tamzin Lightwater MONDAY Good news at last. Dezzy and Paddy (sorry, Mr Swayne and Mr McLoughlin) have successfully identified the traitors who are calling for a vote of no...

Bad polls and MPs demanding a vote of confidence: David Cameron is facing true adversity. Fraser Nelson asks a question that would have seemed ridiculous until recently: who...

Clemency Burton-Hill reports from the Tory leader's controversial visit and hails his determination to embrace the global issues that truly shape domestic politics Kigali He was...

The historian Norman Stone talks to Harry Mount about his happy exile in Turkey, the 'hand of lunacy' he encountered at Oxford and the trouble with co-education 1 t's four in...

Tom Gallagher condemns Alex Salmond's refusal to confront the Islamist threat and the SNP's opportunistic appeal to groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood Acivic...

Graham Lord is appalled by the spread of bad English: nouns used as verbs, inappropriate prepositions, modern slang. And, he says, journalists are deeply culpable Ive all know...

Surveying the deluge, Rod Liddle says that we would not need so many new houses were it not for the workers converging on Britain to do low-paid jobs with all the consequences...

Sir: I'm very encouraged to see you doing such wonderful work supporting Boris Johnson in his bid to be Mayor of London (Leading article, 21 July). Yes, it'll be a great laugh...

Sir: I am astonished by Robert Stewart's review of my most recent book, The Fears of Henry IV (Books, 21 July). Why exactly is it 'graceless' of me to point out that Henry IV is...

Sir: I disagree entirely with Gavin Beck (Letters, 21 July). Major Maxwell's letter suggesting the reintroduction of National Service was sensible and imaginative The lack of...

Sir: It comes as no surprise to hear that the EU has classed the tomato as a 'World vegetable' (Life, 14 July). The EU operates in a world of its own but in the real world the...

Sir: Deborah Ross's review of Hany Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was unworthy of The Spectator (Arts, 21 July). I had better set out my stall: I'm afraid I am among those...

HUGO RIFKIND There was a photograph in one of the Sunday papers, and it caught my eye. It showed a cheery bald man in some drowned Gloucestershire village traversing the...

PAUL JOHNSON At this time of year my thoughts often dwell on the Loch Ness Monster. Let me recapitulate what we know about this beast. It was first spotted on 22 July 1932. It...

Martin Jacomb worries that greater disclosure by private equity investors may provide more fuel for their critics private equity investment, backing venture capital and...

Oliver Gilmour ROBERT SCHUMANN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A MUSICIAN by John Worthen Yale, £25, pp. 496, ISBN 9780300111606 John Worthen, a D. H. Lawrence specialist, approaches Robert...

Frequenting a corner of an eye, Like a thing one didn't really see, Its dodges reconcile me To the way you get undressed, Affording less than a glimpse! As for the one apparent...

Philip Hensher HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS by J. K. Rowling Bloomsbury, £17.99, pp. 608, ISBN 9780747591061 £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 When, ten years ago,...

Jonathan Mirsky GRAND CANAL, GREAT RIVER: THE TRAVEL DIARY OF A TWELFTH-CENTURY CHINESE POET translated with a commentary by Philip Watson Frances Lincoln, £20, pp. 255, ISBN...

Philip Ziegler INDIAN SUMMER: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE END OF AN EMPIRE by Alex von Tunzelmann Simon & Schuster, £20, pp. 464, ISBN 9780743285889 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Jonathan Keates OUT STEALING HORSES by Per Petterson translated by Anne Born Vintage, £7.99, pp. 264, ISBN 0099506130 © £639 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Here is a remarkable...

Carole Angier MISTER PIP by Lloyd Jones John Murray, £12.99, pp. 223, ISBN 9780719564567 £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 We won't know the Man Booker Prize longlist until...

Going Dutch Andrew Lambirth delights in the National Gallery's exhibition of a Golden Age J've been reading Still Life with a Bridle by the poet Zbigniew Herbert in preparation...

Michael Tanner Cosi fan tutte; Summer Concert Royal Opera House The Royal Opera, for its last revival of the season, got Jonathan Miller to make over his 1995 production of Cosi...

Tom Rosenthal The Naked Portrait Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 2 September, then Compton Vemey, Warwickshire, from 29 September to 9 December rr he...

Patrick Marmion utograph-hunters are easily maligned. When not frequenting sci-fi conventions, they are to be found lurking like discomfited pigeons at film premieres or the...

Deborah Ross The Simpsons Movie PG, Nationwide s you'd expect — doh! — The Simpsons Movie has some glorious lines in it. Lisa to Marge: `I'm so angry.' Marge to Lisa: 'You're a...

Robin Holloway 'Vidle mood — perhaps prompted by the news of terrible further flooding — I've just listened for the first time in many years to Peter Grimes. Idleness scarcely...

Lloyd Evans Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Adelphi The Hothouse Lyttelton In Celebration Duke of York's Adorable, sensational Joseph. I was bowled over by this...

James Delingpole Which super power would you choose? When I was young, the one I quite wanted was invisibility. I imagined myself sneaking into the bedrooms of all the girls I...

Kate Chisholm wenty minutes is reckoned by psychologists to be the most that any of us can concentrate without the mind wandering, the legs becoming restless, the eyes gently...

Ursula Buchan Ithought it wouldn't happen. I thought that because the natural world is free, and because gardening is principally about doing, rather than getting and spending,...

Jeremy Clarke My boy's mother's husband was plastering a wall last week when a sack of lime fell off the scaffold and landed on his dog, which was lying at the foot of the...

Taki On board S 117 Bushido My closest friend Yanni Zographos, who died 11 years ago, had a system for picking up women with young children in tow. As he passed a mother pushing...

Aidan Hartley Northern Kenya Isat down to write this next to the skull of a Samburu cattle rustler who recently fell in battle. Nothing remains of him for us to bury today...

Dylan Jones discovers the Milan that exists behind closed doors 1 once called Milan the ugliest city in Italy, which in hindsight is unfair, if still not far from the truth....

Dear Maly Q. A member of my social circle, a local celebrity of sorts, has created a Facebook group the title of which contains a glaring spelling error. I feel unable to accept...

FRANK KEATING Acolumn's seasonal staple: what to read on the beach this summer? Usual form is a rave notice, in matey holiday spirit, for any new book by an old friend. I plead...