Spectator articles from August 2005

Spectator archives from August 2005

Portrait of the week.
August 6, 2005... The Irish Republican Army sent out a digital video disc in which Mr Seanna Walsh, once imprisoned for his deeds, read out a statement saying, 'The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign......

Boosting the gangsters.
August 6, 2005... The speed with which the government propitiated republican opinion since last week's so-called declaration of peace by the IRA suggests a prepared strategy. Within days of this palpably insincere protestation of peace and goodwill the...

Diary.(Column)
August 6, 2005... I have recently returned from a fortnight spent floating around the Baltic. Because of global warming--which seems to be making the Mediterranean very hot--and cheap air travel (which seems to be making it very crowded) I have long suspected...

Why do greens hate machines? The best way to save the planet, says Michael Hanlon, is for the eco-lobby to abandon its ideological aversion to new technology.
August 6, 2005... When George W. Bush last week stunned the world with his plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, no one was more surprised than the green lobby. Human psychology being what it is, no one was more furious. It is not so much the scale of the...

The Blairs.(Cartoon)
August 6, 2005... LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, THIS BOY DIDN'T WANT TO BE A SUICIDE BOMBER! WE MADE HIM THAT! FEEL HIS PAIN! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Muslims are right about Britain: John Hayes says Islamic moderates are correct to despise our decadent culture of gay rights and lager louts.
August 6, 2005... Many moderate Muslims believe that much of Britain is decadent. They are right. Mr Blair says that the fanatics who want to blow us up despise us, but he won't admit that their decent co-religionists--who are the best hope of undermining the...

Stolen Tory votes: Peter Ohorne says the Boundary Commission is doing little to remedy the catastrophic electoral bias against the Conservatives.
August 6, 2005... Matters could scarcely look worse for the Conservative party. Its immediate predicament means that it is incapable of opposition, and Tony Blair has rarely looked more confident. But there is still a strange belief in Tory circles that...

New squawk: Harry Mount on the return of the egret and other beautiful birds to the Manhattan skies.
August 6, 2005... While Rudy Giuliani's zero tolerance policy took care of crime, the Audubon Society, America's RSPB, which celebrates its centenary this year, has been taking care of the birds. After decades when the only bird life that flourished in Manhattan...

War balls: Rod Liddle scorns the government's belief that white grannies are as likely to be terrorists as young Asian men.
August 6, 2005... At times like this you look for clarity of purpose from your government. And what you get, instead, is Hazel Blears. This is what our junior Home Office minister had to say on the Today programme about police stop-and-search operations. Should...

Mind your language.
August 6, 2005... As his contribution to Anglo-Islamic understanding, my husband asked me what the connection was between genius loci and the genie in the bottle. I couldn't say that I knew, although I don't suppose Osama bin Laden knows either. Genius is...

Just the ticket: Matthew Bell on the many virtues of Kate Middleton, who is being tipped to marry Prince William.(Biography)
August 6, 2005... Kate Middleton is a Home Counties brunette with pretty, if not quite supermodel, features who has been Prince William's girlfriend for just over two years, and naturally speculation is flourishing that she will one day be his Queen. The couple...

The evil of Hiroshima.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... From A.N. Wilson Sir: Andrew Kenny's article on the blessedness of dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima had an unpleasant whiff of 1945 propaganda ('Giving thanks for Hiroshima', 30 July). He seems to base his views on his own visits to...

Should Islam reform?(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... From J. W. Hurst Sir: What an excellent and overdue piece by Patrick Sookhdeo on 'The myth of moderate Islam' (30 July). Having read Bernard Lewis, Roger Scruton and Samuel Huntingdon among others, one can only agree that Islam is, and...

Terror tactics.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... From B.J. Clifton Sir: Peter Oborne is spot on (Politics, 30 July) in his appraisal of this posturing oaf of a Prime Minister's gibberish. Blair and his MPs can deny it all they like but London has been attacked by terrorists because we...

Building a better Britain.(Letter to the Editor)
August 6, 2005... From Shaun Spiers Sir: James O'Shaughnessy claims that Britons 'live in some of the oldest, pokiest, most expensive homes in the world' ('Let them build houses', 16 July). He wants to build vastly more sprawling, low-density suburban...

A call for Sir Nicholas Goodison to save the Stock Exchange for the nation.(CITY AND SUBURBAN)
August 6, 2005... We need a fund for the preservation of financial monuments. Sir Nicholas Goodison--successively chairman of the Stock Exchange, the TSB and the National Art Collections Fund--would be just the man to head it. My fund would have saved Cazenove...

Desecrating Europe's most beautiful mountains in the name of sport.(ANOTHER VOICE)
August 6, 2005... Do you ski? And do you sign petitions against wind turbines too? Yes? Then how dare you? How dare anyone who claims to care about mountain landscapes object to a row of graceful white blades turning slowly on the skyline, then jet off to enjoy...

The magic moment when you go under the great Forth Bridge.(AND ANOTHER THING)
August 6, 2005... There are times when I think that a great bridge is the noblest work of man. I recently had the thrilling experience of travelling under the famous Forth Rail Bridge on a 52,000-ton ocean liner. I was up on the top deck before 7 a.m. to see...

The home of jihad: M.J. Akbar says the legacy of Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, has been squandered by his Islamist successors.(INVESTIGATION)
August 6, 2005... Muhammad Ali Jinnah, aristocrat by temperament, catholic in taste, sectarian in politics, and the father of Pakistan, was the unlikeliest parent that an Islamic republic could possibly have. He was the most British of the generation of Indians...

Welcome, an American Pepys.(Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem With Trials and the Forming of a Conscience)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... JUDGE SEWALL'S APOLOGY: THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS AND THE FORMING OF A CONSCIENCE by Richard Francis Fourth Estate, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 412, ISBN 1841156760 [tel] 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848...

Cleopatra's nose again.(Making It Up)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... MAKING IT UP by Penelope Lively Penguin/Viking, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 247, 1SBN 0670915793 [tel] 14.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 In these eight stories Penelope Lively imagines how her...

The Emperor's real clothes.(Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... DRESSED TO RULE: ROYAL AND COURT COSTUME FROM LOUIS XIV TO ELIZABETH II by Philip Mansel Yale, 19.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 237, ISBN 0300106971 Like Philip Mansel I am a passionate believer in the importance of trivia in history, or...

Marriage a la mode.(Take a Girl Like Me)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... TAKE A GIRL LIKE ME by Diana Melly Chatto, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 280, ISBN 0701179066 [tel] 12.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 It is surely rare to find a book that describes a marriage with...

From the inside looking out.(Death at the Hands of the State)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... DEATH AT THE HANDS OF THE STATE by David Wilson Howard League for Penal Reform, 12.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 143, ISBN 0903683 784 Consider this. Does lightning ever strike twice in the same place? Along the magnolia corridors of...

A beatitude of books.(A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... A READING DIARY: A PASSIONATE READER'S REFLECTIONS ON A YEAR OF BOOKS by Alberto Manguel Canongate, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 253, ISBN 1841956384 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Alberto...

Protecting the infant republic.(The Terror: Civil War in the French Revolution)(Book Review)
August 6, 2005... THE TERROR: CIVIL WAR IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION by David Andress Little, Brown, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 437, ISBN 0316861812 [tel] 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Ever since Edmund Burke...

Celebrating William Blake: Andrew Lambirth visits an exhibition in the first museum of garden history.(ARTS)
August 6, 2005... St Mary-at-Lambeth, built beside the walls of the Archbishop's Palace, was once the parish church of Lambeth, until it fell into disuse in 1972. Thankfully, this handsome building was rescued from demolition some five years later by the...

Orton dazzles.(Theatre 1)(What the Butler Saw)(Theater Review)
August 6, 2005... What the Butler Saw Hampstead How sweet and innocent the 1960s now seem. The state censor, the Lord Chamberlain, operated as a kind of blushing aunt who would cover up society's ears at the slightest hint of impropriety. Taboo-trampling...

Web of deceit.(Theatre 2)(Seajanus: His Fall; The Comedy of Errors)(Theater Review)
August 6, 2005... Sejanus: His Fall Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon The Comedy of Errors Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon The other day on Radio Four David Hare set one of his namesakes running when he remarked that the RSC was...

Pure pleasure.(Olden but golden)(Column)
August 6, 2005... I was packing for our holidays on the lie de Re in France, when my son Edward, 12, turned an inquiring eye on the CDs l was taking. Three of these were extraordinarily naff-looking compilations called the Best Air Guitar Album in the World......

Suffering for art.(Music)
August 6, 2005... Having to give concerts on jetlag is a requirement of modern touring. Gone are the days when promoters would pay for their artists to arrive several days before an event in order to acclimatise. Longer gone are the days when artists travelled...

Irresistible nights.(Opera)(The Merry Wives of Windsor; Andrea Chenier)(Opera Review)
August 6, 2005... The Merry Wives of Windsor Buxton Andrea Chenier Holland Park Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor is something I have been longing to see for the whole of my opera-going life. No one, surely, can fail to fall in love with...

Watching over Whicker.(Radio)(The Archive Hour: In 80 Years on Radio Four)(Radio Program Review)
August 6, 2005... Alan Whicker has entertained the nation since he appeared on the pioneering Tonight programme on BBC television in the late 1950s. Apart from the way he looked--unfashionable moustache, slicked-down hair and a London twang much lampooned by...

Sinatra and the Mob.(Television)(Sinatra: Dark Star )(Television Program Review)
August 6, 2005... The height of summer is celebrated by the television networks telling us things we already know. Such as, Frank Sinatra was in hock to the Mafia. Actually, Sinatra: Dark Star (shown on Thursday, BBC1, though made as a co-production with...

King of the sprint.(The turf)
August 6, 2005... After last Saturday's Stewards' Cup, trainer Dandy Nicholls was bouncing around the unsaddling enclosure like one of those rubber balls one always coveted as a child: small and perfectly formed but hard and indestructible, too. He carries...

Spite and envy.(High life)(cruises)(Column)
August 6, 2005... On board S/Y Bushido With plenty of time on my hands to read--television and DVDs are forbidden on board although both are available--I am shocked at the severity, downright viciousness, in fact, of the reviews about my two old friends,...

Picture of health.(Low life)(Gabriele Munter)
August 6, 2005... The crowded hour I spent at The Spectator summer party was prefaced by nine convivial hours on the terrace of a pub at Liverpool Street station that ended with spontaneous community singing. The next morning I put on sunglasses and wobbled...

Hot seats.(Bridge)(Brief Article)
August 6, 2005... Choosing where to sit at the start of a new rubber--the privilege of whoever cuts the highest card--is something most bridge players take deadly seriously. There are few of us who don't insist on changing seats if we've just lost, or staying...

Chess man.(CHESS)
August 6, 2005... The Smith & Williamson British Chess Championship is under way on the Isle of Man. The favourite this year is undoubtedly the defending champion, Scottish grandmaster Jonathan Rowson, who will be seeking to repeat his success of last year,...

Bathos, not pathos.(COMPETITION)
August 6, 2005... In Competition No. 2403 you were invited to supply a poem lamenting the fate of a famous person in which bathos is the keynote. Bathos, or unintentionally falling flat, implies a hoped-for height to fall from. A poet like McGonagall whose...

1726: spine-tingling.
August 6, 2005... The other unclued lights (one hyphened) are 21A. A first prize 0f 30 [pounds sterling] and a bottle of stylish Warre's 1992 unfiltered Late Bottled Port for the first correct solution opened on 22 August, with two runners-up prizes of 20...

The write stuff.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(autographs)(Column)
August 6, 2005... Some of the Australian cricketers, it seems, are cagey about sport's time-honoured hobby of autograph collecting. At Highbury stadium new signs order you never to approach Arsenal players for autographs. There was a minor fuss at the Open golf...

Your problems solved.(SPECTATOR SPORT)
August 6, 2005... Dear Mary Q. I was entertaining a friend to drinks one evening after the pub. When he left (at approximately 1 a.m.) he called up to me from the pavement to say that as he was leaving he had heard one of my neighbours (there are six flats...

Portrait of the week.(counter-terrorism policy, Robin Cook)
August 13, 2005... Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, floated all kinds of schemes to counter terrorists, with legislation to be introduced in the autumn, including the amendment of the Human Rights Act in respect of the provisions of the European convention on...

Women in Iraq.
August 13, 2005... For the dwindling band of us prepared to admit that we backed the war in Iraq, there appears to be yet more bad news from Baghdad. By next Monday the Iraqis are supposed to have agreed a new constitution, and early indications have been that it...

Diary.(Eglish countryside)
August 13, 2005... I have always thought I was allergic to the English countryside: too melancholic, too dark, too many Daily Mail readers. So it was with some misgivings that I received the news from my wife that we had taken a lease on a cottage in Oxfordshire....

Blair's frivolous and impractical plan is designed only to please the tabloids.(Tony Blair, counter-terrorism)
August 13, 2005... For security reasons newspapers have been asked not to name the holiday destination to which Tony Blair departed last weekend. This is fair enough, but Spectator readers will nevertheless be reassured to learn that the most characteristic...

Don't blame religion: Theo Hobson says that the suicide bombers are not inspired by a belief in an afterlife so much as by political ideology--like the kamikaze pilots of the second world war.(Cover Story)
August 13, 2005... Heaven is the problem. That is what the atheists are saying. Religion is dangerous because it hooks us on heaven; it encourages us to prefer another world to this one. Once people are gulled into believing in eternal bliss, they are likely to...

Allow Bakri Mohammed to spew out his rubbish.(Omar Bakri Mohammed)
August 13, 2005... I remember a very clenched-buttocked editorial in The Spectator some years ago on the subject of homosexuality. The gist was this: leave individual homosexuals alone but attack, relentlessly and with vigour, the practice of homosexuality. The...

The real threat to Britain: Andrew Gilligan says that reducing our liberties in response to terrorism will make us less safe.
August 13, 2005... In these frightening days, we must seek our consolations where we can; and one of mine, over the last month, has been running a private contest to log the most idiotic remark made by one of the battalions of 'security experts' on standby at...

Let them build nukes: Bruce Anderson says it is dangerous to try to bully the Iranians into abandoning their nuclear ambitions.
August 13, 2005... It would appear to be another August crisis. From Washington to Tel Aviv there are expressions of alarm and despondency, especially in Brussels. It looks as if European diplomacy has failed. The Iranians seem determined to press ahead with...

Sardonic genius: Geoffrey Wheatcroft recalls his friendship with the writer Shiva Naipaul, who died 20 years ago.(Obituary)
August 13, 2005... On the morning of 13 August 1985 I was at my desk at the London Evening Standard when Mary Kenny rang; she had left a message the previous evening on my answering machine at home which I had failed to pick up. Shiva Naipaul had held his 40th...

Terror camps in the Lake District: West Yorkshire chief constable Colin Cramphorn talks to Dean Godson about the hunt for the bombers.(Interview)
August 13, 2005... Colin Cramphorn, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, occupies one of the two hottest seats in British policing today. Since it emerged that all four British suicide bombers of 7 July came from his patch, he has scarcely drawn breath....

How long before the police round up the Notting Hill Set?(SHARED OPINION)(Column)
August 13, 2005... Two of the suspects who appeared in court this week in connection with the attempted London bombings were arrested--on a balcony, hands up before armed police--in Notting Hill. This confirms a theory many of us have had about districts of large...

Here's a better way to run Gordon's asylum: pay attention to the inmates.(Gordon Brown)
August 13, 2005... To put the lunatics in charge of the asylum makes admirable sense. They are the market for its services. They know where the straitjacket pinches. The Commissioner in Lunacy may think that he knows better, but the sum total of their knowledge...

The saponaceous opera of newspaper dynasties and villainies.(Rupert Murdoch)
August 13, 2005... As a historian I am fascinated by dynastic rows, and as a journalist I am particularly devoted to the shattering disputes which poison the lives of press barons, pitting father against son and brothers against each other (and cousins). Rupert...

Our 'decadent' society.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
August 13, 2005... From Brian Binley MP and others Sir: As Conservative MPs elected at this year's general election we represent a new generation unencumbered by the political baggage of the past. In this spirit we enthusiastically endorse the rejection...

We greens are the realists.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
August 13, 2005... From George Monbiot Sir: If we could burn all the straw men Michael Hanlon constructs, Britain would never be short of fuel ('Why do greens hate machines?', 6 August). He proposes technological cures to all ills, ignores the drawbacks,...

The bomb saved lives.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
August 13, 2005... From Andrew Kenny Sir: A.N. Wilson's attack on my Hiroshima article (Letters, 6 August) indicates not only complete ignorance about radiation, not only an approach to history based on guesses and dogma, but also that he had not actually...

Capital gains and losses.(Victorian London: The Life of a City, 1840-1870 )(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... VICTORIAN LONDON: THE LIFE OF A CITY, 1840-1870 Picard, Liza Weidenfeld, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 363, ISBN 0297847333 London is such a Victorian city in its substance that one forgets that it would have seemed a very different place in...

One damned thing after another.(Love Is Strange)(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... LOVE IS STRANGE by Joseph Connolly Faber, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 495 ISBN 0571227082 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Love is Strange is, like love, strange. It is a sprawling...

The day of the underdog.(1776: America and Britain at War)(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... 1776: AMERICA AND BRITAIN AT WAR by David McCullough Allen Lane, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 386, ISBN 0713998636 [telephone] 23 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 To a British reader who knows the subject, 1776...

The Smell.(Poem)
August 13, 2005... The Smell I hate the smell of myself as I grow old. No longer a comfort in secret, It drags with it all the scurf, all the old stuff, Hanging about in the ruins of myself. Nothing can stop it for long, as I brush my...

Bogeyman but not bigot.(Carson: The Man Who Divided Ireland)(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... CARSON: THE MAN WHO DIVIDED IRELAND by Geoffrey Lewis Hambledon & London, 19.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 277, ISBN 1852854545 Edward Carson: even today, almost 70 years after his death, the name of the barrister and Unionist leader has the...

Payment on delivery.(Place of Reeds)(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... PLACE OF REEDS by Caitlin Davies Simon & Schuster, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 436, ISBN 074325953X [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.2.5 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Picture this scene: in the delivery room of a Botswana...

Arms and the man himself.(Collected Poems)(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... COLLECTED POEMS by John Meade Falkner John Meade Falkner Society, Greenmantle, Main Street, Kings Newton, Melbourne, Derbyshire DE73 8BX, 15 [pounds sterling], pp. 88, ISBN 0954779908 Everybody who reads John Meade Falkner's novel The...

Mid-life midsummer madness.(Zimmer Men)(Book Review)
August 13, 2005... ZIMMER MEN by Marcus Berkmann Little, Brown, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 212, ISBN 0316728381 [telephone] 14.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Many things lead to addiction and obsessiveness, even...

Using our imagination: Selina Mills feels her way round an exhibition designed to appeal to the blind.(ARTS)(Critical Essay)
August 13, 2005... Sensory deprivation has, it would seem, become fashionable these days. As well as restaurants opening in Paris and London for seeing people to experience not seeing (dining in the dark), there is now a dating service where you meet your 'blind'...

The reality of things.(Life National Gallery arranges for touring exhibition 'The Stuff of Life')
August 13, 2005... The Stuff of Life National Gallery, until 2 October The Westminster Retable National Gallery, until 4 September The fourth in the National Gallery's series of touring exhibitions (remember Paradise in 2003 and Making Faces last year?)...

Too many bangs.(Justice at the Old Red Lion)(The Reappearance of Christ in the East End at the White Bear)(Theater Review)
August 13, 2005... Justice Old Red Lion The Reappearance of Christ in the East End White Bear The Old Red Lion is a relaxed and civilised pub with an atmospheric little theatre upstairs. Many great plays have been staged there. Christopher Hanvey's new...

Flower power.(Gardens)
August 13, 2005... The rose has long been an international symbol of peace and reconciliation. A striking example is 'Peace', which was bred by Meilland in the south of France, smuggled out to the United States during the last war, and became the first rose to be...

Tainted love.(Otello at Glyndebourne)(Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera)(Opera Review)
August 13, 2005... Otello Glyndebourne Boris Godunov Royal Opera Otello is the most simple of Verdi's operas, from a narrative point of view, and in the motivations of its characters, while being the most sophisticated musically, Falstaff as always excepted....

Old school.(analysis of Pop music and musicians)
August 13, 2005... It's always delightful to welcome a new star to the pop firmament, if only because it means that there's someone else to take the mickey out of. James Blunt's emergence increases the number of old Harrovian army officers currently making hit...

Mystery man.(Radio)(life of John Le Mesurier)(Biography)
August 13, 2005... It's strange to think that John Le Mesurier has been dead for 22 years, a reminder that came in an affectionate profile of his life as a character actor, Conked Out--but Not Forgotten!, on Radio Four this week (Tuesday). I don't suppose it's...

Crash landing.(Television)(Lost)(The Slavery Business: Sugar Dynasty)(Television Program Review)
August 13, 2005... Unfortunately I was in deepest Wales on the day when TV made me briefly famous so I missed all the phone calls from friends saying nice things. I did pop into Builth Wells the next day, wearing the same glasses I wore on my TV programme, just...

Perchance to eat.(Food for thought)(Perch)
August 13, 2005... I have recently acquired a charming little book by Ambrose Heath called From Creel to Kitchen. Published in 1939, it offers recipes for 20 species of freshwater fish caught in our rivers and lakes, including barbel, chub, gudgeon, roach and...

Papa on a boat.(High life)(life of Earnest Hemingway)(Biography)
August 13, 2005... On board S/Y Bushido In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain and the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the...

Poor reception.(Low life)
August 13, 2005... In summer we let half the house out to paying visitors, who generally stay for a week, from Saturday to Saturday. Before the guests arrive we always worry about whether they'll like the place; whether they'll feel that their hard-earned money...

Ivor Abrahams, RA is one of that select band of outstanding British artists who defy categorisation.(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... Ivor Abrahams, RA is one of that select band of outstanding British artists who defy categorisation. In his case it is intrinsic, his preoccupation to subvert canons and categories. 'The pomposity of sculpture has always been a favourite target...

Age advantage.(Bridge)(Brief Article)
August 13, 2005... People often ask me whether bridge has improved my memory, but in truth I'm not sure it's improved my memory for anything except cards. I can still be supremely scatty in other ways--like shutting my front door and realising I've left my keys...

Spectator wine club.(selected wines from Corney and Barrow)
August 13, 2005... This is an exciting selection--eight wines from six countries--offered by Corney & Barrow, though it could be too exciting for the company's MD, Adam Brett-Smith. A look of mild distress passed over his face when I reminded him of the fabled...

Fair trade.(CHESS)
August 13, 2005... Two of the most exciting young players on the current chess scene are the teenage grandmasters Sergei Karjakin and Teimour Radjabov. Their clash in the recently concluded European Individual Championship was a classic battle where the younger...

Gods or dogs.(COMPETITION)
August 13, 2005... In Competition No. 2404 you were invited to supply a poem beginning, 'I do not know much about gods; but...', substituting, if you prefer, 'dogs' for 'gods'. As I know almost nothing about either, I judged this with a benevolently neutral...

1727: Yasmin.(CROSSWORD)
August 13, 2005... 26/37/38 (two words), 26/16A/9 & ID (five words) /8 (three words) are connected by a theme. Italicised clues each contain a misprint in the definition part. Correct letters spell out a helpful surname. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]