Surrogate motherhood M r Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, invited Mr Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, to speak at a meeting of the Cabinet. Mr Blair also met Mr...

We can correct miscarriages of justice. We cannot correct miscarriages of history BRUCE ANDERSON T he first world war was a second Fall of Man. At the time, it was thought to...

BARRY HUMPHRIES A female friend is fond of exclaiming, `Well done' at the drop of a hat. This verbal pat on the head is sometimes bestowed at unexpected moments. For example, I...

The responsibilities of being a judge MATTHEW PARRIS L ibby Purves has always struck me as more than a good columnist and broadcast- er, more than brave and thoughtful. In her...

Actually, there's nothing new about it. It's just that we don't hear much about it because it's not by whites, says Nicholas Farrell THE BIGGEST survey (done once every ten...

THERE works in my hospital a man as unfortunate in his way as any I know. His misfortune is in his face: it is peculiarly thin and fish-like, about as unattractive as it is...

New Labour is attracting huge numbers of new members in the cities. But Anne McElvoy finds that not all their motives suit Mr Blair THE ODDITY is not lost on New Labour. The...

Peter Lilley, Tory leadership candidate, says how he would oppose New Labour AN OLD maxim in politics is that govern- ments lose general elections, oppositions don't win them....

M Chirac is counting on the French elections having suddenly become exciting, says Douglas Johnson Paris EVERYONE saw him. One of the first images to be shown to the French on...

Research by Paul Bew uncovers the continuity between Washington's 1921 Irish policy and now PRESIDENT CLINTON has come to London to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his...

Michael Heath

THE arrival of the Daily Telegraph at Noosa Heads, Queensland, causes something of a stir among the Spectator- reading classes there, if my informant in that pleasant seaside...

How the grinning sinner in the White House can atone for his crimes PAUL JOHNSON I t is all very well allowing Bill Clinton to address our Cabinet, but what are we to do about...

`It's going to cost sixteen billion dollars, Sam.' `Harry, I'll do my damnedest' CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t's easy to forget, said President Harry Truman in old age: 'The reports...

Bucks, should write an uncompromising attack on Sir Jere- my Isaacs for instigating a statue to Oscar Wilde is quite predictable. Nor is it a surprise t0 find it in The...

Sir: In Correlli Bamett's review of Captain Barker's book Beyond 'Endurance' (Books, 17 May), he seems to go out of his way to highlight the author's attack on my late father,...

Sir: At last a worthy, homophobic deprecia- tion of my grandfather, Oscar Wilde (As I was saying, 24 May). He has had almost too good a press in recent years, which has dis-...

Sir: Even in our victim-obsessed age, Richard Tait's claim that his people at poor little ITN (revenues £88 million a year) are being 'harassed' by the 'relatively affluent'...

Sir: Further to my letter published in your columns on 3 May, I have been in corre- spondence with the Deutsches Adelsarchiv in Marburg on the subject of the so-called `Alice...

Sir: Anne McElvoy is a Durham lass but your headline writer betrays non-Geordie origins in 'Howay the lasses!' (17 May). The Tyneside exhortation, 'Ha'away the lads' (i.e. come...

Sir: It is sad that the estimable Sheridan Morley, drama critic, can write (Arts, 3 May) that Barrie's plays 'have been more honoured in the breach than the obser- vance' — a...

Sir: I am sorry to see that Professor Gavin Stamp, once regarded as the archetypal Englishman (was he not the original Young Fogey?), now finds it prudent to suck up to his...

At the voice of Middle England, a lost harmony STEPHEN GLOVER W hy should Lord Rothermere have thrown in his lot with Tony Blair? He is too wily an old bird to have been moved...

Abattoir, yes, hunting field, no: what New Labour hypocrisy! PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE M y main purpose in writing a column — apart from the money — is to help me to come to...

PINK PIGS IN PARAGUAY JOHN GIMLETTE The Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize is award- ed annually to the entrant best able, like the late Shiva Naipaul, to describe a visit to a...

Terrorism, the perfect choice Philip Hensher AMERICAN PASTORAL by Philip Roth Cape, £15.99, pp. 432 I t is surprising, in a way, that more novel- ists haven't taken to the...

Michael Dummett A LIFE IN OXFORD by Anthony Kenny John Murray, £20, pp. 249 A utobiography is a desperately difficult art. Should it be content to have the interest that a...

Charles Saumarez Smith PICTURES IN THE GARRICK CLUB by Geoffrey Ashton Garrick Club, f96, pp. 570 T here is a long and honourable tradition of publishing catalogues of private...

Philip Glazebrook THE UNDECLARED WAR by David Puttnam HarperCollins, £18, pp. 413 T he undeclared war of this stylish and entertaining book is the conflict, old as cinema,...

Anne McElvoy NAZI GERMANY AND THE JEWS: THE YEARS OF PERSECUTION, 1933-39 by Saul Friedlander Weidenfeld, f20, pp. 436 I n April 1939, the Jewish Kulturbund in Berlin was able...

Andrew Barrow SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE by Jonathan Keates Chatto, £12.99, pp. 193 I wonder if Mr Keates will forgive me if I begin by confessing that I got seriously...

David Profumo BEYOND THE BLUE MOUNTAINS by Penelope Lively Vikin& £14.99, pp. 152 W riters notoriously disagree about the requirements for a good short story, but it is typical...

Jane Gardam CITIZEN LORD: EDWARD FITZGERALD, 1763-1798 by Stella Tillyard Chatto, f16.99, pp.335 I n 1765 the majestic Emily, Duchess of Leinster, wrote from her great country...

Whose film is it anyway? Margaret Leclere on why the screenwriter has become invisible and the director all important T he auteur theory, formulated in the Fifties, sought to...

Knowingly oversold Robin Holloway F ilm music, once a dirty word, is now high praise. When Miklos Rozsa was Radio Three Composer of the Week recently the presenter's hype was...

Yield Woods on fashion in La Serenissima, from 20-inch platform shoes to brocaded damask clothes T he fashion capital of Italy has shifted over the centuries. In the 19th...

Odd Nerdrum: New Paintings (Forum Gallery, New York, till 27 June) Disturbing Odd Roger Kimball O dd Nerdrum is certainly one of the most brilliant figurative painters now...

A Quality of Light (Tate Gallery St Ives, till 27 July) Parochial approach Andrew Lambirth S t Ives needs a new image: the plage isn't good enough, and neither is the past....

Manon Lescaut (Glyndebourne) Frightful predicament Michael Tanner W hile there seems to be widespread, though naturally not universal agreement that Glyndebourne's new...

Alan Powers calls for more imaginative ways of combining culture and sport M ens sana in corpore sano, as they used to say, but did they allow for the fact that the boredom of...

After October (Chichester) Mrs Warren's Profession (on tour) Steaming (Piccadilly) A waspish world Sheridan Morley D rama critics do, just occasionally, have their uses: it...

Big Night (15, selected cinemas) Feast your eyes Mark Steyn I heartily recommend both Big Night the film and Big Night the CD, though for dif- ferent reasons. The CD features...

Trippy or what? James Delingpole I don't know what the nation's one- to five-year-olds make of Teletubbies (BBC 2) but by God it frightens me. From its sinis- ter opening shot...

Too old, too posh Michael Vestey F rank Muir is to Radio Four what a decibel is to sound. His comedy writing and performing for the network and its prede- cessors goes back...

Late developers Robin Oakley I nvited in for a glass of champagne by Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, the chairman of the Sandown race committee, after his Croft Pool had won...

In the money Jeffrey Bernard E ery year I feel somewhat childishly flattered that my birthday is always listed in the Times `Today's Birthdays' column. Although I think...

Swiss defence Taki t is not the smartest thing to do right now, but somebody has got to defend good old Helvetia. My mentor, Professor Van Den Haag, is utterly opposed —...

Rock of ages Leanda de Lisle This impression hardened when I was taught about the Reformation and learnt that my own family had chosen to stick with the 'old religion'. We...

Manipulation Andrew Robson JOHN POUT is a well-built bridge player who used to be a line-backer in American Football. His bridge is normally as solid as his physique, but even...

OR ISLE OF WWI MALI SCOTCH WHIM COMPETITION 100 years later Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1984 you were invited to open a dystopian novel set in 2084, using George Orwell's...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND CHESS The ostrich option Raymond Keene IN 1992, I was one of the organisers of the first ever world championship in any type of event...

A first prize of f„30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 16 June, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK...

The running battle Simon Barnes TRACK and field athletics is an explo- ration of the limits of human endeavour. Statisticians talk about the Right Wall: the vertical line on...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I come up to London from the Kent coast fairly regularly and I am getting increasingly concerned about problems with London Underground. Although I try not to...