J ohn Prescott has always claimed to be one of the unacknowledged founders of New Labour. It is certainly true that he took an early lead in modernising the party’s structure,...

the Palazzo Grassi, now showing part of his extraordinary modern art collection. For some reason France rejected the collection, saying that there was no suitable venue. Some...

I got the shock of my life the other day. Recording a programme called What Is Right? for Radio Four, Norman Tebbit, that pitiless scourge of touchyfeely tree-hugging...

fasten on the wrong reason why the minister concerned should resign. It is surely good news that John Prescott and his team were playing croquet at Dorneywood on a Thursday...

MONDAY Dave is en famille and not to be disturbed unless it’s urgent DIDs ( Desert Island Discs ) fallout, which means Mr Hague is in charge. Officially. Unofficially, DD...

No. 10 has become the Department for the Prime Minister’s Legacy, leaving the two great domestic departments to slug it out, writes Fraser Nelson . But does John Reid have...

Christopher Lee has played Dracula, a Tolkien wizard and a Star Wars villain. But, Tim Walker writes, he is a legend who carries himself with grace T he waiters at Le Caprice in...

Allister Heath says that those who would appease Iran are ignoring its intolerance of religious minorities — as telling a measure of the regime’s character as its nuclear...

Robert Yates , a self-styled ‘north London liberal’, says he cannot vote for the Tories until they propose a return to selection: only the 11-plus guarantees social mobility...

The new baths in Roman Bath may open at some point in the next millennium, but they will bear no relation to the real thing. Public baths were the Romans’...

Toby Harnden , who has spent much of the past three years in Iraq, finds the political and media class in Washington alarmingly out of touch with the grim reality of the...

W hat follows is meant not so much to defend my responses as to question them. Nor would I detain you with this were it not true that most of us men respond similarly. I think...

S tudying, the other day, Nicholas Hilliard’s exquisite miniature ‘Young Man Among Roses’, I decided that it epitomised everything that was most delicious about...

From Joseph Palley Sir: Boris Johnson laments the declining quality of British universities, with growth in student numbers outpacing funding (‘Farewell to the Young Ones’,...

From Alex Bannister Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 27 May) should perhaps have checked with his fellow Telegraph columnists before launching into his latest...

From Kate Allen Sir: The debate on abortion is a difficult one to have (‘If Amnesty declares the “right to kill”, it will kill itself’, 27 May), but, with proponents of...

From John Bunyard Sir: Rod Liddle’s attribution of unhappiness to a surfeit of choice (‘Profusion of choice makes us unhappy’, 27 May) is imaginative, if difficult to...

Former Next boss David Jones tells Martin Vander Weyer that the key to a well-run company is the relationship between chairman and chief executive ‘W e all have different ways...

James Delingpole About this time last month I was at a party at The Spectator , drunkenly urging anyone who’d listen to buy into this amazing share I’d discovered called...

Neil Collins offers a simple alternative to the government’s latest retirement savings scheme I magine, for a moment, that you have a pension pot worth £100,000 in...

Taught by one of America’s Great Professors R easoning, tested by doubt, is argumentation. We do it, hear it, and judge it every day. We do it in our own minds and we do it...

Richard Northedge asks why companies are so keen to parade their planet-saving credentials T his year’s corporate colour is green. Even Rupert Murdoch has placed a lime tint...

Caroline Moore FLAUBERT by Frederick Brown Heinemann, £25, pp. 628, ISBN 0434007692 A ny biographer of Flaubert is faced with a fundamental irony: he or she will be writing...

Out of the darkness and the bouillabaisse of nebulae and swirling gas we come, out of the toxic argon wilderness, seeking a sanctuary and a home. Be kind. Love one another. The...

Raymond Carr T HE B AYEUX T APESTRY by Carola Hicks Chatto, £25, pp. 358,, ISBN 0701174633 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he Bayeux tapestry records pictorially in...

Graham Stewart A MERICAN A LLY : T ONY B LAIR AND THE W AR ON T ERROR by Con Coughlin Politico’s, £18.99, pp. 419, ISBN 1842751603 ✆ £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Jonathan Cecil T ELLING S OME T ALES by Anna Massey Hutchinson, £17.99, pp. 259, ISBN 0091796458 V £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O n the face of it the actress...

D. J. Taylor A LENTEJO B LUE by Monica Ali Doubleday, £14.99, pp. 297, ISBN 9780385604864 V £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 B rick Lane , Monica Ali’s first novel,...

Sebastian Smee THEFT: A L OVE S TORY by Peter Carey Faber, £16.99, pp. 260, ISBN 0571231470 P eter Carey’s ropy, visceral prose casts a powerful spell. It has a swarming,...

Deborah Devonshire recalls the arrival of the Kennedy family in London in the heady summer of 1938 ‘C oming out’ had a different meaning in 1938 to what it has today. Nearly...

M. R. D. Foot I N THE B UNKER WITH H ITLER by Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, with François d’Alençon Weidenfeld, £12.99, pp. 207, ISBN 0297845551 R ather late, we have...

S ometimes at book festivals I am asked which historical novelists I most admire and enjoy. ‘Alfred Duggan,’ I say first, and am usually met with a blank response. This is...

Andrew Lambirth visits an enthralling show of Outsider Art at the Whitechapel S urrealism is in the air, what with the Hayward and Max Ernst shows (reviewed in these pages last...

Laura Gascoigne Nigel Hughes: Maritime Still Life Paintings St Barbe Art Gallery, Lymington, until 10 June Curassows, Guans and Chachalacas The Fine Art Society, from 7 to 22...

Michael Tanner Fidelio Barbican The Mariinsky Theatre Opera Birmingham F idelio , Beethoven’s simple and sublime opera, presupposes a belief in a set of values and their...

Charles Spencer T his column is in disgrace. Last month, with both the deadline and a flight to New York looming, I found myself in the position of the rabbit staring at the...

Olivia Glazebrook United 93 15, selected cinemas A s I’m sure you are aware, United Airlines’ Flight 93 was the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11 — the one that did not...

Giannandrea Poesio Rambert Dance Company Sadler’s Wells Theatre Sleeping Beauty Royal Opera House O ne of the many strengths of Rambert Dance Company is excellent...

Peter Phillips K illing time in Beverley Minster the other day I caught sight of the list of past organists painted up on a board. Within the past 200 years this magnificent...

Lloyd Evans The Changeling Barbican Rabbit Old Red Lion T here’s an amazing pace and energy about Declan Donnellan’s production of The Changeling at the Barbican. The story...

Patrick Carneg y Antony and Cleopatra Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Romeo and Juliet Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-uponAvon I n my first report (13 May) from the...

Michael Vestey M ention of the late Brian Johnston in last week’s column about his Down Your Way programmes reminded me of the loss his death was to Test Match Special on...

Simon Hoggart T he Summer of ... Love, 1967 (BBC2, Saturday) was the first in a series about famous summers. Golly, it was cringemaking. It took the celebrated era entirely on...

Robin Oakley W atching the woman in front of me in the Ascot Tote queue backing five horses in the same race on Saturday reminded me of Lloyd Bentsen, one of the best US...

Taki O n a sad trip to Athens for my friend Yanni Goulandris’s funeral. Throughout the years, mostly in these pages, I have always referred to him as Professor Yohannes...

Jeremy Clarke A t the weekend my brother and his wife plus children and terriers came to stay. My brother is a large rugby-playing policeman. His wife, also an agent of law and...

Roy Hattersley I was brought up in a vanishing village. It did not disappear overnight under the waters of a reservoir. Nor was it suddenly deserted on the orders of the...

Juliet Nicolson reflects on costume dramas T he first grown-up I saw with no clothes on was Bridget Bardot. It was 1962 and my brother Adam and I were staying in the small...

Lindy Woodhead nominates her dream creams I t’s just as well that 50 is the new 40. In the West we live and work in such an ageist, youth-obsessed society that panic seems to...

Kathy Lette reports from Anguilla and discloses her hot spot M y favourite destination is a cosy little spot which goes by the name of ‘G’, only men can never find it....

FRANK KEATING I n the euphorically barmy delusions of upcoming World Cup invincibility the English never used to be so insanely carried away when their teams even had a real...

close since she ‘saved my life’ ten years ago, having arranged help for me during a medical emergency. But since my retirement a year and a half ago, my attempts to meet for...

of a novelist in Notting Hill. Everything about the arrangement is perfect — the location, the accommodation, our daily walks in the garden square with the dog, good...