Spectator articles from August 2003

Spectator archives from August 2003

The new broom or who's in control?
August 2, 2003... ..IS THIS YOUR GAME? KNOW WHAT I MEAN? WERE LOOKIN' FOR A COMPANION/KEEPER FOR CHERIE BLAIR... YES! AND I'M A TRAINED MENTAL NURSE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OK! GAL, THE JOBS YOURS! WHEN CAN YOU START? WHENEVER HI!...

Portrait of the week.
August 2, 2003... Mr Alastair Campbell was expected to resign as the director of communications and strategy at the Prime Minister's office before the Labour party conference at the end of September. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, let it be known through...

Pre-emptive force.
August 2, 2003... It is a sad sign of the times that a man who shot a burglar dead and wounded another should have become a national hero. The frustration that millions of householders feel about the inability or unwillingness of the British state to perform its...

Diary.
August 2, 2003... AS I was staggering round Highbury Fields in a pair of shorts, I saw one I knew and hailed him crying, 'Tom!', because it was Tom Baldwin, the political reporter of the Times and arch-friend of Alastair Campbell. To my surprise, there was not a...

The bushy black moustache which will replace Alastair Campbell. (Thought For The Day).
August 2, 2003... A few years' ago I was at a Labour party conference on behalf of the BBC and--this will not surprise you over much, I expect--missed its most important and defining moment. It was the vote for the party's National Executive Committee and the...

The questing vole. (The Spectator's Notes).
August 2, 2003... Chris Patten, asked by the BBC to characterise the defining moment in his life, says it was the '15 minutes of fame' he enjoyed as a result of his governorship of Hong Kong. He tells a story by way of illustration. 'I remember shortly after I...

Just when you thought it was safe ...: reports of the death of trade union power have been greatly exaggerated, says Ross Clark. As BA shows, privatised industries are being hit by a resurgence of labour militancy. (Cover Story).
August 2, 2003... Lady Thatcher so disliked British Airways s ethnic tailfins that she famously took out a paper napkin and covered up the tail of a model plane on the BA stand at a Tory party conference. Should she be passing a model of a BA plane in the next...

Mind your language.
August 2, 2003... Those trained train staff have come up with a new one. Until now it has been 'Peterborough is the next station stop with this train.' That is a Babylonish dialect, to be sure. But today it was: 'We shall shortly be arriving into Peterborough.'...

How to sack Blair: Tony Woodley, new head of the TGWU, tells Jasper Gerard that he and other union leaders will take back the Labour party.
August 2, 2003... Tony Woodley, the new head of the Transport and General Workers' Union, intends to make sure that Tony Blair suffers. His plan is to call a meeting of top union guns and instigate a new form of entryism that will select left-wing,...

Ancient & modern.(morality and ethics)
August 2, 2003... Dr David Kelly was a government expert but, in his desire to put the record straight about Iraqi arms, found himself crushed between the grindstones of government determination to impose it own views about the weapons of mass destruction,...

Some truths about immigration: Anthony Browne says Britain is already overcrowded, and that pro-immigration arguments are almost all flawed.
August 2, 2003... Something strange is happening when a left-wing government publicly accuses the BBC, riddled with institutionalised political correctness, of--can you think of a more wounding insult?--a 'Powellite anti-immigration agenda'. The Pope publicly...

The Blairs.
August 2, 2003... HUNCHED IN THEIR BUNKER, BLAIR AND HIS HENCHMENT LISTEN TO THE BBC.... BOM! BOM! BOM! BOM! THIS IS THE BBC WORLD SERVICE! EVER SINCE BLAIR AND HIS WARMONGERING FRIEND GEORGE W. BUSH STARTED THEIR WAR ON IRAQ, BRITISH MEN, WOMEN AND...

Plain Hinglish: David Gardner on the fractured and stately English spoken by top Indians.
August 2, 2003... An early-morning phone call the other day alerted me to the news that my midday appointment in New Delhi had been 'pre-poned'. Could I'do the needful', the voice said, and 'get my skates on'. A few months ago, I received an invitation from...

Bring back Beeching: Simon Nixon says that we must build more motorways--and scrap railway lines.
August 2, 2003... Perhaps the most important discovery I have made over the last few years is that the way to stay sane in Britain is never to use public transport. The Department of Health tells us to eat five portions of fruit a day and to give up booze and...

How a lonely recluse surrounded himself with beauties. (And Another Thing).
August 2, 2003... The display of pictures from the Winthrop Collection at the National Gallery is the most delightful treat to be enjoyed in London this summer. It takes us to the heart of American history. Grenville Winthrop (1864-1943), who formed it, was the...

Those who like to laugh abandoned Hope long ago. (Shared Opinion).
August 2, 2003... He may have been born British in the London suburb of Eltham; but the humour of Bob Hope, dead this week at 100, was wholly American. (It was Hope who was dead at 100 this week, I mean, not the humour. Many non-Americans doubt whether that was...

Gilligan misled us. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2003... From Richard Hoare Sir: In your desire to defend a reporter who has contributed to your esteemed organ, and to attack a government that you oppose in Parliament, you seem sadly to be willing to gloss over important facts that do not suit...

Casualties of peace. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2003... From Thomas Choate Sir: The contention of Nicholas Martin in his letter (26 July) condemning the war in Iraq seems to be that we should not interfere with tyranny but allow, it to run its course until it is overthrown by its own people. I...

Tourism sells us short. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2003... From Mr David Gollan Sir: Sadly Leo McKinstry ('Boycott Britain', 26 July) is absolutely correct in his evaluation of British tourism and its lack of value and quality. I say 'sadly' because I know how hard British tourist officials, BA,...

Hubristic Saddam Hussein. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2003... From Anthony G. Brown Sir: Paul Robinson's otherwise insightful piece ('Sword of honour', 26 July) on the Confederacy's having visited calamity on itself through hubris reached a very predictable end: Mr Bush waged war on Iraq from the...

Leave our Hearts alone. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2003... From Christine Smith Sir: Dear, oh dear, you boys do get your knickers in a twist on our behalf! It is very sweet of you to think that we are too stupid or perhaps 'naive' (Michael Lawden, Letters, 19 July) to understand the principles...

Mutually assured admission. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 2, 2003... From Stuart Mott Sir: Charles Spencer's article on 1970s public school life (Arts, 19 July) beautifully described the era and greatly reminded me of a similar situation at my own school, Felsted. I cannot recall whether our 'drugs bust'...

We may snigger at Richard Desmond, but we should not underestimate him. (Media Studies).
August 2, 2003... Is Richard Desmond the new Murdoch? Many lips were curled when he acquired Express Newspapers in November 2000. People said that he had borrowed too much money. It was suggested that as a man whose fortune was built on pornography he knew next...

Did you just put two and two together? 'Don't fence with me, Mr Fildes. (City And Suburban).
August 2, 2003... I was saved from choking last week by a Lord Justice of Appeal, who hit me smartly on the back at a City dinner, so this may have used up my luck with the higher judiciary. Now I must keep out of sight of Lord Hutton, the Law Lord, as he...

Le jour se couche.(FRENCH CINEMA: FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... FRENCH CINEMA: FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT by Remi Fournier Lanzoni Continuum, 24.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 408, ISBN 0826413994 Whatever the intentions of the author of a book on French cinema, it can hardly end up being anything...

The gold crash.(The Cryptographer)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... THE CRYPTOGRAPHER by Tobias Hill Faber, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 264, ISBN 0571218369 Tobias Hill's last novel, The Love of Stones, was a compelling tale about an extraordinary jewel and a girl's quest to possess it. There were several...

The haunting presence of Poe.(THE AMERICAN BOY)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... THE AMERICAN BOY by Andrew Taylor Flamingo, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 485, ISBN 000710961X The American boy is Edgar Allan Poe, whose step-parents, the Allans, brought him to London in 1815, when he was six. Three years later, they...

Last and least.(SURVIVORS IN MEXICO)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... SURVIVORS IN MEXICO by Rebecca West Yale, 18.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 264, ISBN 0300098863 Rebecca West was in her seventies when she first went to Mexico. She thought she could write a sort of sequel to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon; it...

Getting nowhere slowly.(HOME RULE: AN IRISH HISTORY)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... HOME RULE: AN IRISH HISTORY by Alvin Jackson Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 405, ISBN 01842127241 Generations of commentators have debated whether Home Rule could have reconciled the hopes and fears of the rising Irish...

Taking it with you.(PYRAMIDS: THE REAL STORY BEHIND EGYPT'S MOST ANCIENT MONUMENTS)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... PYRAMIDS: THE REAL STORY BEHIND EGYPT'S MOST ANCIENT MONUMENTS by Joyce Tyldesley Viking, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 262, ISBN 0670893226 The ancient Egyptians faced death in rather the same spirit as I contemplate packing to go on...

18th July 2003.
August 2, 2003... 18th July 2003 He chose the woodland paths he knew and loved. Others will pass Remembering how he found a comfort here In trees and grass. No thrusting faces now, no avid eyes, No constant questioning, no press...

Facing fearful odds.(SILENT REBELS)(BROTHERS IN ARMS)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... SILENT REBELS by Marion Schreiber, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside Atlantic Books, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 308, ISBN 1903809894 BROTHERS IN ARMS by Peter Duffy Century, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 302, ISBN 0712676961...

A story of bark and bite.(THE MIRACULOUS FEVER TREE: MALARIA, MEDICINE AND THE CURE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... THE MIRACULOUS FEVER TREE: MALARIA, MEDICINE AND THE CURE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD by Fiammetta Rocco HarperCollins, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 00025 72028 This engrossing, beautifully crafted history is a parable for our times,...

The splendour and the squalor.(DECISIVE BATTLES)(Book Review)
August 2, 2003... DECISIVE BATTLES by John Colvin Headline, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 0755310705 The British used to claim of themselves, in their glory days, that although they might often lose a battle, they always won the war. Of humanity in...

Giving something back: Sebastian Smee talks to James Fairfax about his gifts to Australia's public galleries. (Arts).
August 2, 2003... In the past, great benefactors to the visual arts have generally doubled as tastemakers. Their success, as the US critic Jed Peri recently noted, is often best judged by the extent to which their avidities become what the culture takes for...

Consummate professional.
August 2, 2003... Euan Uglow: Controlled Passion Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria until 11 October In these dark days it has become a commonplace that we should be offered almost every conceivable kind of distraction and pleasure. It's true that the...

Leonardo and the RAF.
August 2, 2003... One of the inevitable consequences of modern high-tech/low-accuracy warfare is damage to cultural heritage. On the eve of the second world war, the treasures of the National Gallery were evacuated to Wales, ending up in a disused slate quarry...

Impressive murderers.
August 2, 2003... Macbeth Vienna Ernest Bioch's Macbeth was written to a libretto in French by Edmond Fleg, and first performed in 1910 in that language, but the composer, with the help of Alex Cohen, prepared a version in English which uses Shakespeare's...

Should have known better. (Pop music).
August 2, 2003... People who hate pop music--such as Michael Henderson, whose ears have been seen to billow with steam at the mere mention of the words--cannot believe that there can be any good pop music in amongst the vast, tinny, relentless thrum of bad pop...

Feminist tract.
August 2, 2003... After Mrs Rochester Duke of York Pacific Overtures Donmar Warehouse High Society Open Air There's a startling omission in the programme notes of After Mrs Rochester, a play that chronicles the life of Jean Rhys. It mentions her...

Variety act.
August 2, 2003... Richard III Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Roll up, roll up for Richard III! Yet again? This is the third time the RSC has tackled the play in less than five years. Is it on someone's exam syllabus, or are they just doing it for love?...

Pitfalls and tussles. (Radio).
August 2, 2003... Judging by Custodians Of The Word on Radio Four last week (Thursday), researching and writing a biography is the easier part--getting past executors and copyright holders seems harder. Martin Wainwright talked to several biographers about the...

Special qualities. (High life).
August 2, 2003... Athens The city of Pallas Athena is in the midst a great rebirth, as if Zeus himself had decreed it. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have bet my last euro against Athens meeting the Olympic challenge, and I would have lost. Big...

Missing the point. (Low life).
August 2, 2003... We've moved up from a Festival 30 to a Willerby Bermuda. Or rather my philanthropic aunt has. We knew she was thinking of upgrading this year, but we thought she was going to go for a Festival Super maybe, or at a push an Atlas Fanfare Super...

No hiding place. (Singular life).
August 2, 2003... I looked out of the window the other day and noticed that there was something funny looking about the car (a red Honda, if anyone is interested). The car is always parked overnight in the garage driveway, the entrance to which is strongly...

Unsuitable. (Bridge).
August 2, 2003... ABOUT once a month, I play social bridge with a group of friends. We've known each other for years and keep it very casual, bringing bottles of wine and getting pizzas sent round. But even among friends, rows sometimes break out, and one of the...

Restaurants.
August 2, 2003... Increasingly over recent months, a number of people have suggested I try a Greek-Cypriot restaurant called Vrisaki, which I have resisted until now mainly because it's in N22, which is Bounds Green, and is much further north than I would ever...

Popular chess. (Chess).
August 2, 2003... Victor Mathias is a man with a mission, and the mission is to explain the complexities of chess to the average enthusiast without getting bogged down in too many details. Popular Chess is a quarterly magazine whose aim is to help ordinary...

Tips for travellers. (Competition).
August 2, 2003... In Competition No. 2300 you were invited to write a poem with the above title. In fact this was the title of a poem by Betjeman published in The Marlburian in 1925 (the curious excavator could find some of my own juvenilia there nearly 20...

1625: nourishment. (Crossword).
August 2, 2003... Two unclued lights (one defining three unclued lights, the other defining another three) can be mired to create a key unclued light. Another unclued light, suggested by the title, can also be mixed to create the key light. One unclued light is...

Singing just isn't cricket. (Spectator Sport).
August 2, 2003... The marketing men are at it again. England played the first of the summer's five Test matches against South Africa last week, at Edgbaston, and the players took to the field to the strains of 'Jerusalem'. According to a press release concocted...

Dear Mary. (Your Problems Solved).
August 2, 2003... Q. A few days ago I was in a flat belonging to one of my sister's friends, whom I do not know very well. On visiting the bathroom, I discovered a lavatory, no paper, a bidet and a neat pile of clean fluffy towels. Never mind what I actually...

Portrait of the week.
August 9, 2003... Lord Hutton began his inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence expert on Iraqi weapons, by disclosing part of a letter by the scientist to his superior, in which he said that, judging from the report by the BBC's Andrew...

The new ice age.(global warming)
August 9, 2003... By the time The Spectator goes to press, the record for the highest-ever authenticated measurement of air temperature in the British Isles may or may not have been broken. The only certainties are that the railway industry will have dreamed up...

Diary.
August 9, 2003... It's no good complaining. The rail network inhabits the wrong kind of universe. If the sun shines for more than two days, the network goes down. You can't argue with science. In the last heatwave I travelled back to London from Brighton in a...

The Health and Safety executive is now far more powerful than the House of Commons. (Politics).
August 9, 2003... Before the 1979 election, many senior Tories believed that Thatcherism was dangerous nonsense. If Margaret Thatcher did become Prime Minister, they assumed that she would either learn sense rapidly or have to be replaced by a sensible man....

The Spectator's notes.
August 9, 2003... A single unnamed source telephones to offer a further smear against the Today programme's Andrew Gilligan. A fortnight ago, readers will remember, this column reprinted without so much as the courtesy of a check-call the allegation that Mr...

Is that blood running through Geoff Hoon's veins, or is it refrigerant gas? (Another Voice).
August 9, 2003... Various explanations have been offered for the decision by the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, to leave for his summer holiday before the funeral this week of Dr David Kelly. Mr Hoon himself has let it be known via 'friends' that he would be in...

God save the nation: gay bishops, dwindling congregations: the Anglican crisis continues, and some are calling for disestablishment. But, says Peter Hitchens, the link between Church and State is vital for our well-being. (Cover Story).
August 9, 2003... If the Archbishop of Canterbury does not crown our next monarch, then who will? The president of Europe? A multi-faith collective? Nobody at all? In which case, what sort of country will we then be and where will ultimate authority and...

Banned wagon: global: a weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade.
August 9, 2003... The council estates of King's Lynn, Harriet Sergeant recently revealed, are groaning with Chinese migrant workers, 50 to a house. The Daily Mail, naturally enough, is outraged by this threat to society and house prices, playing on rumours that...

Mind your language.
August 9, 2003... I was looking for an obscure work by Richarde Weste (fl. 1609-16) when I came across a real treat. The DNB told me Weste's book was edited by Frederick Furnivall in the Early English Text Society series. It was, but what a plum-pudding of...

Sleeping with Freda: as the care crisis worsens, Jeremy Clarke recalls the strange final years of a spinster who lived in a residential home run by his parents.
August 9, 2003... Miss Busby's room--room five--had a westerly facing seaview. Latterly, if it was shaping up to be a particularly beautiful one, and there was nothing on telly, I'd go and sit with her and watch the sunset. We'd sit side by side in a pair of her...

Collapse of England: Simon Heffer believes that Mr Blair's touchy-feely society is undermining cricket by reconciling it to mediocrity.
August 9, 2003... Since it is always helpful to blame the government for most things, it might be some consolation to those of us who sat shellshocked at Lord's last weekend, and watched South Africa obliterate England, to reflect on how politics has brought...

Ancient & modern.
August 9, 2003... The MP John Redwood has hired a London PR firm to raise his profile. The firm is keen for him to feature in lifestyle articles, when he will talk about his great love of windsurfing, films and theatre. 'John is happy to talk about a wide range...

How to kill a burglar: Aidan Hartley on how a friend of his shot dead a robber and wounded another in Kenya last year, without having to go through Tony Martin's agony.
August 9, 2003... Nairobi One evening in the Kenyan capital late last year, my friend Sean Culligan endured an experience that, in several instructive ways, can be compared and contrasted with that of the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin. Sean is a mild-mannered...

The rising tide of cliches: the BBC is staffed by people bristling with academic qualifications, says Tom Fort, but they don't know English.
August 9, 2003... In more tranquil times, before the Gilligan storm broke over his head, the BBC's admirable and honourable director of news, Richard Sambrook, contributed a foreword to one of the corporation's periodic attempts to remind its journalists of...

Gardener's question time: is the taxpayer about to stump up another 16 million [pounds sterling] for the Duchess of Northumberland's pet project, Alnwick Garden? Mary Keen investigates.(Editorial)
August 9, 2003... To him that hath shall be given, and to the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland hath been given quite a lot. We are talking public funding here. The 11.5m [pounds sterling] Lottery sum awarded to secure the Duke's Raphael for the nation is a...

Second opinion.(Editorial)
August 9, 2003... It is often said that one shouldn't judge by appearances, but it is rather difficult to see by what else one might judge, at least in the first instance. Besides, appearances are not always as deceptive as they are sometimes claimed to be....

Bum rap for Jamaicans: Theodore Dalrymple says that young Jamaicans have been corrupted by victimhood and the musico-industrial complex.
August 9, 2003... Whenever I have a patient who belongs to the first generation of Jamaican immigrants, I cannot help but ask myself what England has done to the Jamaicans. How has such a charming and humorous community been turned into the sullen, resentful...

When distinguished holiday guests unmask a chicken thief. (And Another Thing).
August 9, 2003... Much as I like and admire our courageous Prime Minister, I can't approve of his taste in holidays. Chiantishire was bad enough, but to borrow or hire a pop singer's villa in Barbados is the last cheese straw. Hot sun, warm water, high humidity,...

Far from easy. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Michael Scott Rohan Sir: Much as I agree with Ross Clark's general point ('Just when you thought it was safe... ', 2 August), he is wholly wrong to use easyJet to castigate BA's supposed overmanning. My wife and I booked to fly...

Plan for that plinth. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Martin Sewell Sir: I was reading Anthony Browne's excellent article ('Some truths about immigration', 2 August) last Saturday morning while listening to Radio Four. The Today programme was revisiting the question of the empty plinth...

Miller's tail. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Maurice Hardaker Sir: Poor Frank Johnson (Shared opinion, 2 August). As a 72-year-old Englishman, I was one of millions who found that Bob Hope's humour 'kept us smiling in the grim years of the war'--and after. And for Johnson to...

Royal rip-off. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Carola Zentner Sir: Re Leo McKinstry's article on rip-off Britain ('Boycott Britain', 26 July), perhaps the Queen could set a good example by abolishing the 1 [pounds sterling] handling charge levied on Internet bookings to see...

Shirley's sweetener. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Shirley Doltis Sir: The description of Shirley Porter as an 'arch-crook' (The Spectator's notes, 26 July) was grotesque. Without going into the details of the Westminster case, it remains a fact that she was unequivocally reared of...

Best of Hinglish. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Eric Dehn Sir: David Gardner ('Plain Hinglish', 2 August) maintained that Indians are 'impeccably logical' in their mastery of our phraseology. I am not quite sure whether this is disproved or confirmed by the reply of a teacher in...

Fantastic. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2003... From Sir Christopher Bland Sir: Chuck it, Johnson! The 'particularly brilliant Spectator interview' which he referred to in his diary piece on 2 August was almost entirely invented by its author, Petronella Wyatt. It was followed up by a...

New Labour is hated by its natural friends, so why don't the Tories get a good press? (Media Studies).
August 9, 2003... To lose one loyal media friend may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Not long ago the government could depend on the instinctive support of the BBC. That has been forfeited as a result of the row over Andrew...

Governments' hunger for money is limitless, so bond markets melt in the heat. (City And Suburban).
August 9, 2003... August is a sticky month. So often in markets, this is when the trouble starts. The Swiss banks' chief dealers cool themselves by the Italian lakes, the City's better element heads for the grouse moors, its opposite numbers on Wall Street keep...

Double, double, toil and trouble.(ELECTRIC SHEPHERD: A LIKENESS OF JAMES HOGG)(Book Review)
August 9, 2003... ELECTRIC SHEPHERD: A LIKENESS OF JAMES HOGG by Karl Miller Faber, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 401 ISBN 0571218164 Earlier this year; the Scots writer Andrew O'Hagan published a novel whose title was Personality. Its preoccupations came in...

Local colour laid on thick.(THE CLERKENWELL TALES)(Book Review)
August 9, 2003... THE CLERKENWELL TALES by Peter Ackroyd Chatto, 15.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 213 ISBN 1856197069 What makes Peter Ackroyd's new novel a failure as fiction is also, strange to say, what makes it so enjoyable. The book, set in London (where...

The only stranger in town.(THE FACTORY OF LIGHT: LIFE IN AN ANDALUSIAN VILLAGE)(Book Review)
August 9, 2003... THE FACTORY OF LIGHT: LIFE IN AN ANDALUSIAN VILLAGE by Michael Jacobs John Murray, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 274, ISBN 0719561639 Astrange Englishman has settled in the village. Of course Frailes is the best village in the world. We are...

Spivs and shysters.(AN UNDERWORLD AT WAR)(Book Review)
August 9, 2003... AN UNDERWORLD AT WAR by Donald Thomas John Murray, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 429, ISBN 071955 7321 Joe Walker, the street-smart spiv of Dad's Army, could be relied on to come up with the goods. In his rakish trilby, he supplies the platoon...

The way they lived then.(GOOD FAITH)(Book Review)
August 9, 2003... GOOD FAITH by Jane Smiley Faber, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 417, ISBN 057121843 1 Another great American novel, but perhaps not great enough to arouse concern for the more modest native product. Like Donna Tartt, like Don DeLillo, Jane...