States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia) assembled in Gleneagles to discuss Africa, climate change and that sort of thing. The Live 8 concert for...

F or those who are fed up with the guff-filled platitudes of European diplomacy, there was something magnificent in the remarks of M. Chirac about British cuisine. Not since...

I ’ve been invited to address the annual meeting of the Canadian Investment Dealers Association on the subject of ‘why China isn’t going to be a global superpower’ — a...

T he agenda for the G8 is now clear: economic revival through better trading conditions; the elimination of corruption; the humbling of dictators; possibly even regime change....

Guardian , rather cautiously worded, said that its signatories ‘supported the overall aims’ of those lobbying the G8 leaders and recognised ‘the complexities of the...

Vicki Woods says Eton is probably the best school in the world, and does her best to forgive OEs their grating charm and intimidating good manners T he craze for internet...

Mark Steyn says that the plans for Ground Zero are a wimp-out and a betrayal of Western values New Hampshire I n the summer of 2002 I wrote in this space that the President...

George Osborne on the lessons we can learn from Eastern Europe D ucking into the mediaeval Church of the Holy Ghost in Tallinn last week to escape the Baltic rain, I stumbled...

Aidan Hartley went on a pub crawl to find out what ordinary Africans think about such weighty matters as debt forgiveness and Bob Geldof Nairobi H ardly anybody bothers to ask...

Danny Kruger lives next door to the so-called ‘Asbo family’, and reports that in many ways they are an example to us all ‘E leven kids hell family!’ yodelled the Sunday...

Alan Ryan tells Sholto Byrnes why he thinks state schools should be abolished I f the Prime Minister really wants some of that ‘blue sky thinking’ of which he is so fond,...

From William Shawcross Sir: It is nonsense to suggest, as Michael Wolff tried last week (‘The nation wobbles’, 2 July), that the war in Iraq is almost lost. Terrorists are...

From Giles Watson Sir: The Spectator has recently contained a fair amount of criticism of the Live 8 concert in aid of Africa (‘How African leaders spend our money’, 25...

From John Jenkins I enjoyed James Buchan’s review of Guy Deutscher’s The Unfolding of Language (Books, 25 June), particularly his jeu d’esprit at the expense of staider...

From Sarah Bradford Sir: Ian Thomson, in his review of Gaia Servadio’s Renaissance Women (Books, 25 June), makes two factual errors. He asserts that ‘when Lucrezia...

From Anthony Weale Sir: Max Hastings tells a story about two well-known MFHs who argued at dinner about the relative size of their private parts (Diary, 2 July). In the 1930s...

From James Hogg Sir: The drinking of gin and treacle, or whistlejacket, was not confined to Yorkshire (The Spectator’s Notes, 2 July). On 8 September 1792 Boswell recorded in...

I t is remarkable that the English, so reserved in their emotional displays in ordinary existence, should have always shown such capacity, even genius, for enacting them on the...

M y last column on this page was about pasta. The column testified to a lack of enthusiasm for boiled flourand-water paste, accused pasta followers of pandering to fashion, and...

M eetings can be a substitute for work, and an expensive one, at that, which is why the thrifty bankers at HSBC had a rule about them. A note had to be kept of every meeting,...

Backing the Americans in Iraq has not served the national interest, says Paul Robinson ; we’d be more secure if we adopted a less interventionist foreign policy and reduced...

Sam Leith T HE L ETTERS OF R OBERT LOWELL edited by Saskia Hamilton Faber, £30, pp. 852, ISBN 0571202047 ✆ £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 ‘T omorrow morning some...

William Rees-Mogg D AVID AND W INSTON by Robert Lloyd George John Murray, £20, pp. 303, ISBN 0719565847 ✆ £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T his is an ideal John Murray...

Sebastian Smee A RTHUR BL G EORGE by Julian Barnes Cape, £17.99, pp. 352, ISBN 0224077031 ✆ £15.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 H e’s damn good, Julian Barnes; no...

Alexander Masters T EN S ORRY T ALES by Mick Jackson Faber, £9.99, pp. 160, ISBN 0571225489 HERMIT WANTED Free meals and accommodation. Situated on grand estate. Would suit...

Byron Rogers HAW-HAW by Nigel Farndale Macmillan, £20, pp. 374, ISBN 0333989929 V £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W ho killed Lord Haw-Haw? It was I, said Hartley...

James Fleming F INDINGS by Kathleen Jamie Sort of Books, £6.99, pp. 190, ISBN 0954221745 K athleen Jamie is a poet. This might be described as her occasional book, in the...

Alan Judd T HE S OMME by Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson Yale, £19.95, pp. 358, ISBN 0300106947 T HE S OMME by Peter Hart Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 589, ISBN 0297847058 ✆ £18...

Andrew Lambirth on the Courtauld’s superb exhibition of work by Gabriele Münter I n this country we’re not familiar with Gabriele Münter (1877–1962). Some may know her...

Michael Tanner Otello Royal Opera Così fan tutte Royal College of Music The Birds St Andrew’s, Holborn S upposing many of the Royal Opera’s recent productions of Verdi...

Giannandrea Poesio Royal Danish Ballet Sadler’s Wells Theatre T he preservation of specific choreographic styles from the past is the main obsession in today’s world of...

Marcus Berkmann I ’m confused. Did five-sixths of the world’s population really watch Live8? If so, what did the other sixth think they were doing? Did they ask permission?...

Mark Steyn War of the Worlds 12A, selected cinemas H ollywood is in the middle of its worst box-office slump in decades. Well, they hope it’s the middle, if not halfway...

Lloyd Evans Three Women and a Piano-Tuner Hampstead The Canterbury Tales Southwark Playhouse H ere’s a phrase you don’t hear very often. High drama at the Hampstead...

Michael Vestey I ’m glad I avoided listening to or watching any of the Live8 concert in Hyde Park last Saturday because the report about it on Radio Five Live’s Weekend...

Simon Hoggart L ast Saturday. BBC1 was showing the most exciting women’s Wimbledon tennis final for many years and Sky Sports had what turned out to be a thrilling tied...

Robin Oakley A n American Treasury official was commenting recently on Tony Blair’s efforts to get one item on the G8 agenda. ‘We said no over dinner,’ he declared. ‘We...

Taki A note from Jeremy Sykes enclosing an article about a friend of mine who died 40 years ago last Tuesday, on 5 July 1965. In his kind letter, Jeremy Sykes assumes that I...

Jeremy Clarke W hen I flicked on the telly at one o’clock on Saturday and there was Bono, our first living secular humanist saint, in pink goggles, I’d seen all I wanted to...

FRANK KEATING I fancy that quite a few of the apparent zillions who turned up at, or tuned into, what someone on Radio 5 described as ‘Bob Gandalf’s pop festival’ spent...

Pretoria, South Africa, later this year, although they both live in London, where they have their established home. They would prefer guests not to give them presents they would...

have been occasions when we see seats in the middle of the rows. The seats near the aisles are taken, necessitating us moving past people already seated to get to the vacant...

rectors and vicars have equal status and have tried to back up their argument using only the vulgar modern yardstick of money. In fact, the two letters disclose that,...