Spectator articles from December 2006

Spectator archives from December 2006

DIARY.
December 2, 2006... When, 50-odd years ago, I started in what was then known as the Business, later the Arts and more recently the Media, I was warned not to express opinions openly, for fear of alienating the Public. Added to that, my generation of little girls...

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTES.
December 2, 2006... As the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in this country approaches, Tony Blair expresses 'deep sorrow' for British involvement in the trade. Extraordinary that he should feel the need to adopt such a tone when the act commemorated is...

David Cameron must avoid the trap set by Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report.
December 2, 2006... When Ernest Bevin was appointed to run Britain's wartime economy, he saw his chance to fix policy for decades. 'They say Gladstone was at the Treasury from 1860 to 1930', he declared. 'Well, I will be at the Ministry of Labour from 1940 to...

DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY.(Diary entry)
December 2, 2006... MONDAY Trust Labour to go and apologise for the slave trade. The cheek of it! We played just as big a part, if not bigger, in the atrocities of Roots. It's just as much ours to say sorry for, and Dave would have done it so much better. With...

It is a wonderful world: richer, healthier, and cleaner than ever.(improvement in global economy and quality of life)
December 2, 2006... For billions of people around the world, these are the best of times to be alive. From Beijing to Bratislava, more of us are living longer, healthier and more comfortable lives than at any time in history; fewer of us are suffering from...

In Russia, people shrug at Litvinenko's death.(Committee for State Security)
December 2, 2006... Moscow To endure the city's traffic, I school myself in detached contemplation of the dramas of dominance and submission on show in the streets. My quietism almost failed me the other day, however, when a Land Cruiser cut in front of me in...

'I am one of Thatcher's children'.(Andy Burnham, the labour minister)(Interview)
December 2, 2006... Andy Burnham is appalled. I had only asked whether there is any truth in the popular Westminster rumour about the 'Primrose Hill Set' - where he and other young Labour ministers allegedly meet on Sunday afternoons in the north London home of...

Apocalypse now on the US blogosphere.(American bloggers call for demise of Islamic fundamentalism)
December 2, 2006... There is a world, increasingly driven by unreason, in which voices in the wilderness denounce each other as 'traitors', cry out that 'all I want is no more Islam near me', or allege that Prince Charles is 'waiting in the wings to declare the UK...

The BBC is doing well, as far as I can see: no thanks to Michael Grade.
December 2, 2006... According to recent news reports, a vision of Jesus Christ has appeared on a dog's bottom in the Midlands. I have seen the photos and the similarity to those familiar representations of Our Lord - arms outstretched, beard, noble countenance -...

Ancient & modern.(ancient and modern theory on eutherian intelligence)
December 2, 2006... Elephants have been characterised as highly sensitive, socially aware and intelligent because they have noticed in the mirror a white cross marked on their head. What a pathetic test! Jumbo can do far better than that. The ancients...

Zeffirelli: still the Maestro of excess.(Franco Zeffirelli)
December 2, 2006... The opening of the season at La Scala in Milan on 7 December is always a grand affair, and this year will be no exception. Franco Zeffirelli, 83 years old, is directing a new production of Aida, a work that has not been staged at this...

Sego and Dave: are they by chance related?
December 2, 2006... The resemblance first struck me when, spotting Cameron's waxy forehead on the front page of a newspaper recently, I unfolded the paper to find that the forehead belonged to French Socialist party candidate Segolene Royal. It got me wondering...

Why so many state school pupils drop out of Oxbridge.(the political gameplay behind high number of university dropouts in UK)
December 2, 2006... The Laura Spence affair in 2000 enraged Gordon Brown. The fact that Laura, of Monkseaton Community High School, was rejected by Oxford's Magdalen College despite her straight-A predictions, seemed so deeply unfair to Mr Brown that he resolved...

Security v. rights.(Letter to the editor)
December 2, 2006... From the Attorney General Sir: Stuart Wheeler's article ('Why the Tories must say No to torture', 25 November) includes a quote from me about deportation. Taken from a Human Rights Watch report, and by HRW from a BBC online summary of a radio...

Crosses and turbans.
December 2, 2006... From John Duffield Sir: The case of Nadia Eweida and her cross ('The BA row is about fair play', 25 November) highlights the way in which the entirely laudable aim of ensuring that there is no discrimination against members of special groups...

Bullies of Bristol.(Letter to the editor)
December 2, 2006... From John Weston Smith Sir: In exposing that bullying and bumbling body, TV Licensing, Charles Moore chose a ripe target (The Spectator's Notes, 25 November). Recently I bought a new TV set, and the shop as required notified TVL of my name,...

American charity.(Letter to the editor)
December 2, 2006... From Simon Preston Sir: With reference to Simon Nixon's article ('Philanthropy is back', 18 November) a contributory reason why US charitable giving is double the UK's is that in the USA there has for some time been a vehicle specifically...

Vachement seule!(Letter to the editor)
December 2, 2006... From Richard Soper Sir: David Rennie, in his article on Segolene Royal ('Sego and Sarko: not so different, after all', 25 November), commented on her support for a rare breed of cow. It is not surprising the breed is rare if there are no bulls....

Royal intervention in the affairs of another state is a very risky business.
December 2, 2006... Prince Charles's intervention seems to have played some part, earlier this month, in the release from a Pakistan jail of a British man, Mirza Tahir Hussain, who had languished in prison for 18 years for the alleged murder of a taxi driver. ...

Why Porsche would be mad to bid for Volkswagen.(prediction of acquisition of Volkswagen AG by Porsche Cars North America Inc.)
December 2, 2006... There are only three hard and fast rules in the motor industry, if you want to make money. Never build an orange car; steer clear of Formula 1; and never bet against Porsche. For the last decade the Stuttgart-based manufacturer of...

Think outside the jargon box.(use of business jargon)
December 2, 2006... 'Dinosaurs . . . think inside the box. Dolphins . . . occupy the space outside the box. The dinosaurs' negative headset creates a lose-lose situation, whereas the dolphins' can-do headset enables them to score a try!' 'Set out to leave the...

The myth of affordable housing.
December 2, 2006... The latest non-job in Britain's town halls is the affordable housing officer, a bureaucrat with the brief of bringing down the price of property. What local and central government mean by 'affordable housing' is, of course, housing that is more...

The streets are alive with hip -hop -- but there's still plenty of gold beneath them.
December 2, 2006... In the mountains south of Zurich, as winter approaches, the farmers bring their cows down. The snowbound higher pastures will soon be empty, and the precious cattle walk down in traditional processions, some decorated with small flowers, the...

A very honourable rebel.(Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... DECCA : THE LETTERS OF JESSICA MITFORD edited by Peter Y. Sussman Weidenfeld, [pounds sterling]25, pp. 744, ISBN 0297607456 . [pounds sterling]20 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 In the autumn of 1995 Jessica Mitford, the...

Royal gaffes, writers' mottoes and mating bugs.
December 2, 2006... In the 1960s I lived in Hampstead, though all these years I have managed not to write a novel about Hampstead dinner-parties. The area was, and still is, rich in second-hand bookshops. There was one bookseller, long since dead, whose shop I...

Megalopolis and micro-organism.(The Ghost Map: A Street, an Epidemic and the Two Men Who Battled to Save Victorian London)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... THE GHOST MAP : A STREET , AN EPIDEMIC AND THE TWO MEN WHO BATTLED TO SAVE VICTORIAN LONDON by Steven Johnson Allen Lane, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 299, ISBN 0713999748 . [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Partners on thin ice.(Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... CONRAD AND LADY BLACK : DANCING ON THE EDGE by Tom Bower HarperCollins, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 436, ISBN 0007232349 . [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 My one contact with Conrad Black was an exchange of...

Because We Can.
December 2, 2006... This sensation We say is the nation Acting its destiny. How like is it To the smaller act which here we see, The incomplete Devil paying a visit? We know it is our Fate to lack power -- Is this our excuse That we are very small Among...

Having another go at God.(The Form of Things)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... THE FORM OF THINGS by A. C. Grayling Orion, [pounds sterling]12.99, pp. 243, ISBN 0297851675 . [pounds sterling]10.39 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A. C. Grayling once helped put an end to a romantic relationship of mine...

A choice of gardening books.(In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World)(Images of the Mondrian Garden)(Icons of Twentieth-Century Design)(The Anxious Gardener)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... Aspiration. Aspiration. Aspiration is still the watchword for publishers of gardening books. How many heavy, glossy productions filled with Get-theLook pictures does the average gardener need? Especially when what is always peddled and praised...

Liking to be beside the seaside.(The Fortnight in September )(Book review)
December 2, 2006... THE FORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER by R. C. Sherriff Persephone Books, [pounds sterling]10, pp.326, ISBN 1903155576 This is the second time The Fortnight in September has been reviewed in The Spectator. On its first appearance, my predecessor...

A mixed bag of memories.(Out of Print and Into Profit: A History of the Rare and Secondhand Book Trade in Britain in the Twentieth Century)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... OUT OF PRINT AND INTO PROFIT : A HISTORY OF THE RARE AND SECOND -HAND BOOK TRADE IN BRITAIN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY edited by Giles Mandelbrote British Library/Oak Knoll Press, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 414, ISBN 0712349200 In 1958, half...

American Midas and Maecenas.(Mellon: An American Life)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... MELLON : AN AMERICAN LIFE by David Cannadine Penguin, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 560, ISBN 0713995084 . [pounds sterling]24 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 In this current climate of diminishing government funding, it is...

Christmas art books.(The Royal Tombs of Egypt)(Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting)(Still in the Serenissima: Palladio's Venice)(Rembrandt's Universe)(Rembrandt: Images and Metaphors)(Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, vol. I)(Sickert: Paintings and Drawings)(Visiting Picasso)(Now Scrap Book)(Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Biography)(Carved Altarpieces: Masterpieces of the Late Gothic)(Book review)
December 2, 2006... The seemingly unstoppable rise of the exhibition catalogue happily does not mean that nothing else gets published, and my selection of glossy delights to drive away the Boxing Day blues has more than its fair share of goodies that were not born...

Prize-winning novels from France.(Les Bienveillantes by Jonathan Littell)
December 2, 2006... The Prix Goncourt was awarded, as of right, to Jonathan Littell for Les Bienveillantes (Gallimard). Les Bienveillantes, the Kindly Ones, is the name usually given to the Furies. The narrator of this masterly novel, Max Aue, the director of a...

Roth marches on.(Joseph Roth's works)(Critical essay)
December 2, 2006... Writing here (18 November), Anita Brookner described Joseph Roth's reports from France 1925-39, The White Cities, as 'her best read of the year'. I've had a copy for several months now, and I keep dipping into it and always finding something...

Flying high with music and words.(Jonathan Dove)(Critical essay)
December 2, 2006... The titles of Jonathan Dove's musical works -- Flight, Tobias and the Angel, Palace in the Sky, The Little Green Swallow, Man on the Moon -- might lead one to consider his winged surname a highly appropriate one. However, while the composer...

Talent show.(The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain National Gallery of Art)
December 2, 2006... The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, until 18 March 2007 The National Gallery of Art in Washington presented a feast for the eyes this week. Three feasts, in fact. To celebrate Rembrandt...

Playing with the past.(Louis le Brocquy's paintings)
December 2, 2006... Louis le Brocquy: Homage to his Masters Gimpel Fils, Davies Street, W1, until 13 January 2007 (closed 22 December to 7 January) Louis le Brocquy is 90 this year and his new show at Gimpel's is merely one of four current celebratory exhibitions....

Heaven and hell.(Stanley Spencer and Francis Bacon's paintings)
December 2, 2006... Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, until 10 December Stanley Spencer: Painting Paradise Reading Museum, Town Hall, Blagrave Street, Reading, until 22 April 2007 Stanley...

ARTS.(Mary Newcomb and her landscape painting)(Brief article)
December 2, 2006... Mary Newcomb (born 1922) has a poet's curiosity about human behaviour, and the ability to express her observations with unclouded enjoyment, humour and brevity. Her landscapes are alive with delight: pylons like pagodas, balloons like...

So-so, actually.(Stranger Than Fiction)(Movie review)
December 2, 2006... Stranger Than Fiction 12A, Nationwide Honestly, before I took up this beat I had no idea how many new movies aren't that great and aren't truly terrible but are simply so-so and when it comes to so-so Stranger Than Fiction is just so...

Vintage year.(The Turn of the Screw)(Opera review)
December 2, 2006... Cosi fan Tutte; The Turn of the ScrewGlyndebourne Touring Opera, Norwich Glyndebourne on Tour is having a vintage year, and that's not counting its Die Fledermaus, which, favourite work of mine as it is, I couldn't bear to see again in...

Spanish steps.(Gilded Goldbergs)
December 2, 2006... 'He's composing me!' cries the horrified poet in Strauss's Capriccio as the musician takes the new sonnet and violates its purity by setting it to music. But violation can also be fulfilment (as the opera gradually reveals); and this my...

News values.(trends in television news broadcasting)(Column)
December 2, 2006... The death of Nick Clarke, The World at One, Any Questions and Round Britain Quiz presenter, jolted many commentators -- and listeners -- to bewail the loss of a news broadcaster noted for his courtesy, his integrity, his ability to ferret for...

After the tsunami.(Tsunami: The Aftermath)
December 2, 2006... There was much pre-publicity around Tsunami -- The Aftermath (BBC1, Tuesday) implying that the second anniversary of the disaster was a little early to turn it into drama, and that the film would be distressing and demeaning for the victims'...

Pride of Wales.
December 2, 2006... 'You won't have to stray too far from Paul Nicholls's elbow today, ' Henrietta Knight told me after the second at Newbury on Hennessy Gold Cup day. Sure enough, Nicholls and his stable jockey Ruby Walsh took the third race with Saintsaire,...

Talking turkey.
December 2, 2006... There won't be any wild turkeys eaten in Britain this Christmas. However, a few of these birds, which are indigenous to north and central America, are being reared in south-west England. It is possible that one or two dark-plumaged turkeys may...

Nojoke.(anti-semitic and racist remarks of Michael Richards)
December 2, 2006... New York First it was Mel, as in Gibson, now it's Michael, as in Richards. I'm sure none of you has ever heard of the latter, but he's a big shot in America, especially among those with brains smaller than a pea. Richards played a...

The baroness and me.(an evening in a club with a french baroness)
December 2, 2006... I studied the seating plan of the Club Taurino of London's 47th anniversary dinner without recognising any of the other names. (I'm a relatively new member. ) The CTL is an extraordinarily diverse collection of people noted for their...

Social services.(depletion of postal services in a village in Birmingham constituency)
December 2, 2006... We lost our post office five years ago, long before losing post offices became fashionable. So we had to run our 'stop the closure' campaign without the support of a national newspaper. The only media coverage that we achieved was an angry...

RESTAURANTS.(Upper Glas)(Restaurant review)
December 2, 2006... First off, I should say I'm no great expert when it comes to Swedish food. Yes, I've been to Ikea -- so many veneers, so little time! -- and, yes, I've had the meatballs in the cafe but, judging by the taste and texture, I think even they were...

The nitty gritty.(dealing with hair lice)(Column)
December 2, 2006... I went to see a friend the other day. At the door, she clutched at her Pre-Raphaelite, wheaten locks and cried, 'Don't come any closer, we've all had nits for months!' I embraced her anyway, and our blonde hair mingled. But she really shouldn't...

All shook up.(American and British place names)(Column)
December 2, 2006... There is a romance attached to American place names that simply doesn't exist in their English counterparts. Although Bradford and Milton Keynes undoubtedly have their own stories to tell, for a music fan like me, those that resonate are...

HOTEL OF THE WEEK.(Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel)(Brief article)
December 2, 2006... ELVIS PRESLEY'S HEARTBREAK HOTEL 3677 Elvis Presley Blvd, Memphis, Tennessee Tel: 001 901 332 1000 www. elvis. com This boutique hotel takes as its example the legendary hospitality and personal style for which the king of rock'n'roll was...

Outside Artland.(The Gallery)
December 2, 2006... Over the past few months, a building on the wrong side of Soho has been discreetly reinventing itself by virtue of the personalities who have begun to inhabit it. The graffiti artist Banksy -- every Londoner feels that they 'own' their local...

Two-horse race.(British football)(Column)
December 2, 2006... Football's European Champions' League awaits the serious new year stuff once a few loose ends are tied on Wednesday. Arsenal and Manchester United each need only to draw, respectively against Porto and Benfica, and only abject pessimists in red...

The bitterness of Brown sugar.(Gordon Brown's economic policy)
December 9, 2006... Gordon Brown's rhetoric in his tenth and presumably final pre-Budget report on Wednesday was as robust as his morning appearances on radio and television were reassuringly amiable. This was a Chancellor setting out his stall for the top job,...

DIARY.(putting a stop to media violence)(Diary entry)
December 9, 2006... I was completely taken aback by the brutality of Casino Royale. I had asked various friends who had seen the film, including two mothers who had gone with their children, whether they would recommend it. One mother told me that she and her...

If Britain had its own Baker report on Iraq, this is what it would say.(James Baker's report)(UK withdraws its army from Iraq)
December 9, 2006... After so deftly avoiding any Iraq inquiry at home, Tony Blair will be cursing his luck to have walked straight into one in Washington. His talks with President Bush were planned months ago: it was a 'happy coincidence' (as his spokesman said...

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTES.(happenings in UK)(Column)
December 9, 2006... It is strange to find myself at odds with several fellow Thatcherites, but it seems to me obvious that David Cameron's first year as Tory leader, which falls this week, has been a success. What his critics cannot get into their heads is that...

DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY.(Diary entry)
December 9, 2006... MONDAY I despair. All this nonsense in the papers about Sam's [pounds sterling]300,000 bonus totally misses the point of everything we've been trying to explain for the past year. For the last time, all you Thatcherites at the back, wealth is...

A man who believes in Darwin as fervently as he hates God.(Richard Dawkins)
December 9, 2006... In the downstairs loo of Richard Dawkins's house in Oxford there's a framed award from the Royal Society; to remind visitors, or maybe Richard himself, that here lives a man of some purpose, some gravitas and intellectual clout. The...

'When we are bloodied, we bloody someone else'.(Bob Kagan condems the Iraq war)
December 9, 2006... 'Innocent people can't do any good in the world. First of all, there are no innocent people, and, second of all, exercising power is not an innocent activity.' This is not the kind of straight talk you expect to hear in Brussels, but Bob Kagan...

Kinnock: 'Reid should not stand in Brown's way'.(Neil Kinnock says John Reid is no contest for Gordon Brown)
December 9, 2006... 'C all me Neil, for God's sake, ' says Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty when he welcomes me to the chairman's office at the British Council with its panoramic views over Whitehall and the South Bank. 'That title makes me sound like the bloody Royal...

A terror so great we forgot it at once.(terrorism in the UK)
December 9, 2006... Dhiren who? Mention Dhiren Barot to anyone and the chances are that you'll be met with a blank look. At best, some might say, 'Oh, wasn't he that guy who, er, that trial recently, yeah, bit worrying. . . .' Thus the British have somehow failed...

Anglicanism is alive and well in Umbria.
December 9, 2006... On the first Sunday in Advent it is so cold in the 12th-century church of Sant'Andrea that puffs of breath hang in the air as we sing - not 'O Come All Ye Faithful', nor even 'Adeste Fideles', but 'Venite Fedeli' which, in Italian, doesn't...

The way out of this row is to privatise Oxford.(University of Oxford)
December 9, 2006... Oxford University has become headline news again, with everybody chipping in to say how they think it would best be run. The reasons for this newfound interest are radical proposals put forward by its vice chancellor, John Hood, which suggest...

'If you want to destroy the Conservative party as it has existed for 150 years, press one'.
December 9, 2006... It must be odd, joining the Conservative party today. What do newcomers favour? The worldly-wise have long explained that Conservatism does not stand for much. It is what Tory politicians have to say to the voters in order to win office. ...

The green gospel.(Letter to the editor)
December 9, 2006... From Paul Horgan Sir: I read the article by Allister Heath ('It's a wonderful world: richer, healthier and cleaner than ever', 2 December) with interest. The author is correct to point out that the optimism of Indur Goklany's book will be...

Oxbridge dropouts.(Letter to the editor)
December 9, 2006... From Geoff Parks and Mike Nicholson Sir: Your article 'Why so many state school pupils drop out of Oxbridge' (2 December) is highly misleading. Oxford and Cambridge have the lowest drop-out rates among undergraduates of any UK higher education...

Invasions of the Bruce.(Letter to the editor)
December 9, 2006... From K.R. Houston Sir: In his review of the recently published biography of Conrad and Barbara Black, Byron Rogers recounts a spat he once had with Lord Black over what constituted the last serious invasion of England. Mr Rogers states that a...

I've seen the future of food retailing - and it works.
December 9, 2006... It's simple, this internet grocery shopping. Log on, pick what you want, pay with your credit card and get on with your life while you wait for the doorbell to ring. No need to schlep to the supermarket, fight your way to the checkout, lug all...

'This is not an industry for pussycats'.(Leigh Clifford )
December 9, 2006... If you built a composite portrait of Leigh Clifford from the handful of newspaper profiles ever written about him, you would be presented with an archetypal Aussie miner, as tough as the rocks his company digs from the earth. Shortly before...

Enough, says Blair - but is anyone listening?(Tony Blair)
December 9, 2006... Given that the government's lust for setting targets has done so much to increase bureaucracy in public services, one could be forgiven for a little scepticism regarding the Prime Minister's latest target: to reduce red tape by 25 per cent....

The perils of insouciance.(economic conditions)
December 9, 2006... A good general rule for investors is to take no notice of consensus predictions about what is going to happen in the next 12 months. The track record of year-end investment punditry is consistently poor. That makes the Christmas and New Year...

A cold fish in deep water.(Alexis de Tocqueville )(Book review)
December 9, 2006... ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE by Hugh Brogan Profile, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 448, ISBN 1861975090 . [pounds sterling]24 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 There are many studies of Tocqueville's books and writings. The publication of...

Heads that wore the crown.(Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity)(Book review)
December 9, 2006... MONARCHY : FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO MODERNITY by David Starkey HarperCollins, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 319, ISBN 0007247508 . [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 David Starkey's latest book has a Gibbonesque...

Kofi.
December 9, 2006... A limp soft-soaper, he wouldn't say Boo to a goose. Cautiously neutral, he tried emollience, thereby creating genocide - the massacre of the Tutsis by the Hutus. He similarly failed in Bosnia where Unprofor, the UN mission, vetoed the use...

A map of the road to Hell.(Book review)
December 9, 2006... THE BEST INTENTIONS : KOFI ANNAN AND THE UN INTHE ERA OF AMERICAN POWER by James Traub Bloomsbury, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 464, ISBN 0747580871 . [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Few organisations reward...

Up close and personal.(New York: Life in the Big City )(Book review)
December 9, 2006... NEW YORK : LIFE IN THE BIG CITY by Will Eisner Norton, [pounds sterling]19.99, pp. 423, ISBN 039306106X . [pounds sterling]15.99 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 My apologies to the young, attractive couple in Perry Street in...

Lesser lives in the limelight.(biographies)
December 9, 2006... If James Boswell could glance at a few recent issues of The Spectator, he would be delighted to see that the literary form he did so much to modernise is thriving. In the last month or two, biographies of Hardy, Empson, Janacek and Betjemen...

Christmas cookery books.(Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook)(The English at Table)(British Regional Food)(Made in Italy: Food and Stories)(A Year in My Kitchen)(Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own)(Tom Aikens Cooking)(Sound Bites)(The Year of Eating Dangerously)(Breakfast, Lunch, Tea)(The Lebanese Cookbook)(Sunday Suppers at Lucques)(Book review)
December 9, 2006... Last year Jamie Oliver was seen on television grinning with pleasure as a class of tiny Italian children accurately named every vegetable he held up to them. He later grimly despaired of finding a class of English children who could do the...

Amixed blessing.(Muriel Pulls It Off)(Book review)
December 9, 2006... MURIEL PULLS IT OFF by Susanna Johnston Arcadia, [pounds sterling]17.99, pp. 175, ISBN 1905147244 . [pounds sterling]14.39 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 'Lonely hopelessness' assails Muriel Cottle. Her life is 'one long...