Spectator articles from January 2005

Spectator archives from January 2005

Portrait of 2004.
January 1, 2005... JANUARY Lord Hutton's report declared that the government was not 'dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous'. Mr Mikhail Saakashvili, who had led popular demonstrations in Georgia against Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, won the presidential elections....

Don't mimic Blair.(Tony Blair)
January 1, 2005... It may seem trivial, when so many thousands lie dead on the shores of the Indian Ocean, but we are now perhaps 14 weeks from a general election, and it is time to consider the apparent--the appalling--success of the Labour government. In...

Diary.
January 1, 2005... Heathrow. Crawling back into the country like a whipped cur after another disastrous American book tour. Difficult to pick the most abject humiliation. Dallas, where just one person showed up for the event? Boston, where it was twice that...

It was tribalism that finished Rome, and it will finish Brussels too.(Ancient And Modern)
January 1, 2005... Whenever the subject of the EU comes up, someone is bound to compare it to the Roman empire. If the comparison relates to the beginning and subsequent development of that empire, it fails. But the end of the Roman empire in the West in the 5th...

However bad things may seem, the news for newspapers is good.(Media Studies)
January 1, 2005... As another year looms, I cannot remember such despondency in what used to be called Fleet Street. It is not just that several newspaper groups are losing money: it was ever thus. There is talk of a general decline in newspapers. Some even...

Let the people of England speak: the BNP may be odious but, says Rod Liddle, there is something fishy about the arrest of its leader.(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... In the middle of December last year, five police officers turned up at the Welsh home of Nick Griffin, leader of the British National party, and arrested him on suspicion of inciting racial hatred. Griffin was driven to Halifax police...

Globophobia: a weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade.
January 1, 2005... The favourite fatuous gesture of loony councils in the 1980s was to declare themselves 'nuclear-free zones'--a title which happily they did not take literally, or else it would have meant local hospitals having to decommission their X-ray...

Mind your language.
January 1, 2005... For the New Year, let's begin at A. I've been nursing a little bundle of newspaper cuttings sent from Majorca by Mr Terence Dunn. They got into the bucket for the compost heap when my husband was 'tidying up', but I found them when I was...

Was it all a terrible mistake? Neil Kinnock tells Julia Langdon that he wishes he had never become leader of the Labour party.(Interview)
January 1, 2005... The rooftop view from the sixth-floor office of the chairman of the British Council--at the cheaper end of The Mall up against Admiralty Arch--encompasses the political landmarks of the new occupant. There's the Welsh Office, for the man's...

The bullet and the ballot: conditions in Iraq are far worse now than they were three months ago, says Patrick Cockburn, and the 30 January elections are unlikely to reduce the violence.
January 1, 2005... Baghdad A month before the Iraqi election and Iraqi officials still claim they have the resistance on the run and that life for ordinary Iraqis is slowly getting better. Neither point is true. A better guide to the state of government...

My grubby secret: Mary Kenny says that now she is getting older she finds she is taking fewer baths--and is none the worse for it.
January 1, 2005... We all notice those little signs of the passing years: the difficulty with remembering names, the growing interest in reading obituaries (and carefully scrutinising at what age the deceased passed away), the increase in visits to the dentist...

Religion is never easy, and sometimes it's hard to be a truly faithful Wagnerite.(Shared Opinion)
January 1, 2005... Two weeks ago, quite a few of us in London were at a religious occasion. On the face of it, this was unsurprising since it was just before Christmas. But few competing religious occasions would have had this one's air of reverence. It was the...

The angry Megalosaurus coming fast up Holborn Hill.(And Another Thing)
January 1, 2005... When the new year is young I always have the impulse to do something sensationally novel in writing. But what? Is there anything which has not been done before? I answer: yes--coin a new metaphor. We take metaphors for granted and use them...

We are not evil.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... From the Revd Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP Sir: I am sorry that Steve ('We are all Pagans now', 18/25 December) believes that we Dominicans are evil. I expect he thinks that we are so awful because we are supposed to have run the Inquisition....

Critical error.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... From Sheridan Morley Sir: Could somebody give Toby Young a reliable theatrical history, preferably one of mine? One minor example, taken at random from your otherwise superb Christmas double issue: 'As far as I know,' writes Young of his...

Armenian genocide.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... From John Halford Sir: I have long been an admirer of the work of Professor Norman Stone, so it was with disbelief that I noted his denial of the Armenian genocide ('Vote Turkey this Christmas', 18/25 December). His contemptuous...

Selfish Blunkett.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... From Victor Black Sir: I was surprised to see Matthew Parris (Another voice, 18/25 December), normally so perceptive and original, following other commentators in missing the main point in the 'Blunkett affair'. It is neither the...

You can't do both.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... From Joyce Walker Sir: With reference to the article 'Help mothers by cutting taxes' (11 December) I have the perfect answer to all the problems in this article: Don't have children. After all, working mothers are going to see so...

Curiouser and curiouser.(book: Kafka on the Shore )(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... KAFKA ON THE SHORE by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel Harvill, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 656, ISBN 1843431106 Tel: 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Haruki Murakami must be one of the...

Recent sporting audio books.(Audiobook Review)
January 1, 2005... They don't make them like 'Fiery' Fred Trueman any more. Asked how he wanted to be remembered he replied, 'as t'finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath'--and he wouldn't be far wrong. Trueman was the first bowler to take 300 Test Match...

Questing quiz of the year.(Life And Letters)
January 1, 2005... Opening Sentences (name the books) 1) Aaron, Richard Ithamar (19(11-1987), philosopher, was born on 6 November 1901 at Upper Dulais, Blaendulais, Glamorgan, the son of William Aaron (1864-1937), a draper, and his wife, Margaret Griffith (d....

Gamesmanship of the mind.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... THE ART OF ALWAYS BEING RIGHT: THIRTY EIGHT WAYS TO WIN WHEN YOU ARE DEFEATED by Arthur Schopenhauer Gibson Square Books, 9.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 204, ISBN 1903933617 Not a manual for omniscience; rather the aim is always to appear...

Neither fish, flesh nor fowl.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... THE LAST DUEL by Eric Jager Century, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 242, ISBN 0712661905 Tel: 12.99 [pounds sterling](plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 According to a Yale professor, Eric Jager has invented a new genre with this...

Striving ever upwards.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... G. F. WATTS: THE LAST GREAT VICTORIAN by Veronica Franklin Gould Yale, 40 [pounds sterling], pp. 458, ISBN 0300105 770 Tel: 38 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), if never...

General fiction from France ...
January 1, 2005... On 30 August 2004 a woman wrote a letter to Le Figaro registering her dismay at the number of novels scheduled for publication in the three months that constitute the rentree litteraire in France each autumn. She confessed that, although an...

... And a Parisian bombe surprise.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... PIANO by Jean Echenoz, translated by Mark Polizzotti Harvill, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 179, ISBN 1843431807 Tel: 11 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 This is a French novel, a very French novel. The author...

A selection of recent paperbacks.(Books)
January 1, 2005... Non-fiction: Where There's a Will by John Mortimer, Penguin, 7.99 [pounds sterling] Are You Talking to Me? by John Walsh, Harper Perennial, 7.99 [pounds sterling] Make Believe by Diana Athill, Granta, 7.99 [pounds sterling] ...

Artistic sustenance: Andrew Lambirth finds much to enjoy on his gallery trawl round London.(Arts)
January 1, 2005... By no means all commercial galleries run their Christmas exhibitions on into the New Year, but several that are doing so happen to be showing some of the most interesting work that has been around in months. However, if you are venturing out in...

Finding salvation.(Exhibitions)
January 1, 2005... Boom Boom Clusters Southampton City Art Gallery, until 9 January A tragic love story lies behind the jovial title to this delightful exhibition, which unveils the David and Liza Brown Bequest, the largest ever received by Southampton City...

Pain and pleasure.(Olden but golden)
January 1, 2005... The so-called festive season is the time of year all serious drinkers dread. Their favorite pubs are filled with amateurs, largely consisting of braying office parties. It takes for ever to get served at the bar, and there is the ever-present...

'When words fail, art speaks ...'.(Arts)
January 1, 2005... 'When words fail, art speaks...' So says Raphael Chikukwa, the curator of Visions of Zimbabwe, an exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery which showcases the work of ten contemporary artists and three writers from that strife-ridden country. The...

Race and roots.(Comedy Review)
January 1, 2005... Fix Up Cottesloe Aladdin Old Vic fix Up is a sitcom. The traditional formula is honoured in all its structural details. There's a single location, a black bookshop in Tottenham, which serves as a meeting point for each of the show's...

Eclectic taste.(Radio)
January 1, 2005... Stephen Fry was on jovial form when he appeared on Private Passions on Radio Three on Boxing Day, approaching music with an unstuffy blend of reverence and dislike. He told the presenter Michael Berkeley that he'd had strong prejudices about...

That's Rich.(Marc Rich)
January 1, 2005... New York Lest there be some of you that missed it, a lifelong dirty dealer is walking around us free as a bird, and there's nothing any of us who don't flout the law can do about it. Let's start the new year right and not be beastly to Mr...

Christmas revisited.(Low life)
January 1, 2005... Last February, our last resident died and e house reverted from a Residential Home for the Elderly to a private house. On Christmas Day, there were just two of us swapping presents to the loud tick of the grandfather clock in the day room. If...

Peacocks on parade.(Singular life)
January 1, 2005... So many outfits in so many shapes and colours; so many ruched tight trousers, or legs encased in flowing chiffon; sharp jackets in claret or blue velvet; frilled, slit skirts and shirts with enormous bows. Yes, men have worn all these since the...

Wonder worker.(Bridge)
January 1, 2005... I REMEMBER once hearing about an elderly lady who found herself defending 7NT against the late Terence Reese. She was on lead, holding an ace--so of course she led it, and Reese went down. 'Why on earth didn't you double'?' her partner...

Hastings.(Chess)
January 1, 2005... As the year turns, the annual Hastings tournament returns. For many years this has been the UK's premier annual all-play-all tournament at grandmaster level. This year a complicated new procedure has been adopted to decide on last-minute...

Escaping Xmas.(Competition)
January 1, 2005... In Competition No. 2372 you were given 12 Christmassy words and invited to incorporate them, in any order, into a piece of prose that has nothing to do with Christmas. I take my judge's wig off to you all for the variety of scenarios you...

1695: wishing-well.(Crossword)
January 1, 2005... by Doc The nine unclued lights can be divided into three thematic trios, each of which is associated with one of the words of a three-word phrase revealed within a 20. Ignore three resulting hyphens, and an apostrophe and an accent in two...

Testing time for sky.(Spectator Sport)
January 1, 2005... With 2004's multinational motley done, dusted and delivered, other activities can bloom. The jingo-jangle palaver and babel of the Olympics, European soccer, and the Ryder Cup are now consigned to musty files, and a happy new year is herald to...

Dear Mary.(Your Problems Solved)
January 1, 2005... Q. I have a huge crush on a man who works in the same building as I do, but on a different floor. He lives quite near me but, although I have bumped into him on the Tube from time to time and in the lobby of our building and he seems to find me...

Portrait of the week.
January 8, 2005... To relieve the survivors of the destructive wave in the Indian Ocean, British people donated 60 million [pounds sterling] in a week to the disaster emergency committee co-ordinated by the main aid charities. The Queen, who herself gave a...

From the editor.(Editorial)
January 8, 2005... Last year, you, our readers, gave enough money to pay for over 300 subscriptions for educational establishments across Africa. This year, we would like to do even better. With the help of the British Council, we have identified those...

Labour's attack on the Crown.
January 8, 2005... Since 1997, in a cynical effort to prove that it values power for more than its own sake, the Blair government has sought to tear up the constitutional map and impose its own, 'modernised', ways of doing things. This has not been uniformly...

Diary.
January 8, 2005... This diary is what happens if the editor fails to get a lobotomy. I had rung him to ask whether he'd like to grace Newsnight and the nation with his views on the affair between the former home secretary and the publisher of this journal. His...

There is a simple explanation for the Tories' failure to put up a decent fight: David Davis.(Politics)
January 8, 2005... When Michael Howard became Tory leader, time was desperately short. For six and a half years, the Tories had been unable to convert Labour's negatives to their positives. They had failed to re-establish their political identity. They were still...

The spectator's notes.
January 8, 2005... Hearing about the tsunami on Boxing Day, I remembered Keith and Nicki. Keith Lake used to be my driver when I was editor of the Daily Telegraph and remains a great friend. He and his wife Nicki were on holiday in the Maldives. I felt certain,...

Why China isn't going to be a superpower: China has no exportable culture, she is militarily overrated and her economy is not as successful as it is cracked up to be. Martin Vander Weyer says it's time we abandoned our superstitious dread of Beijing.(Cover Story)
January 8, 2005... Mr Zhang Yuchen, a Communist party member and former official of Beijing's municipal construction bureau, has just built himself a new house in the suburbs of the Chinese capital: it is a replica of the 17th-century Chateau Maisons-Lafitte on...

The blairs.
January 8, 2005... TONY IS GETTING READY FOR THE ELECTION THEY BOUGHT IT LAST TIME WHY DON'T THEY BUY IT NOW!? TOUGHT ON CRIME! TOUGH ON THE CASUES OF CRIME! EDUCATION! EDUCATION! EDUCATION! IM JUST A REGULAR SORT OF GUY! A NEW VITAL N.H.S!...

Mind your language.
January 8, 2005... From 1 January 1888 'all substances, whether compound or otherwise, prepared in imitation of butter' had to be offered for sale under the name of margarine. I can't pretend that this date is exactly a round number, but it seems more admirable...

The littoral truth: Andrew Gilligan on some of the myths the media have been peddling about the tsunami.
January 8, 2005... Colombo The staff of Unicef's Sri Lanka operation are in their Colombo offices dealing as best they can with a flood of desperate people, people at the end of their tether, people in overwhelming need of immediate help. CNN's Christiane...

The agony and the osteopathy: Lloyd Evans was left a whimpering wreck when his back seized up. Then an alternative therapist got her hands on him ...
January 8, 2005... I was attacked last November. It happened without warning as I was crossing a car park. My back seized up and I collapsed to the ground in agony, unable to move. My lower spine had been grumbling at me all summer, needling me, pinching me, and...

Phoney war: Max Hastings says it's about time our leaders stopped playing political games and accepted that 'international terror' cannot be defeated by conventional military means.
January 8, 2005... If the leaders of the Western world want to do our security a favour, they could adopt a New Year resolution to economise on the use of the word 'terrorist' in their rhetoric. This proposal is based not upon indulgence towards al-Qa'eda or the...

Globophobia.(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... The national 'giveathon' provoked by Boxing Day's tsunami in the Indian Ocean is an admirable response to an emergency. Rather less can be said of the thousands who fell for this year's fashionable Christmas present: sending a goat to the Third...

Ancient & modern.
January 8, 2005... The Archbeard of Canterbury has proclaimed that the tsunami disaster in Asia justifies people's doubts about the existence of any God, let alone a good one. If he needs comfort on the matter, Seneca (the millionaire philosopher and adviser to...

The faithful departed: these are hard days for Methodists, but even as their numbers decline they are fighting the good fight. Sholto Byrne talks to their General Secretary.
January 8, 2005... 'Where have all the Methodists gone?' This question, posed in the kind of fusty second-hand bookshops where those behind the counter actually read, or at least take an interest in, the wares they sell, led to a baffled silence. The toppling...

Wodehouse.(Spectator Bookshop)(Brief Article)
January 8, 2005... P.G. Wodehouse is still one of the world's best-loved writers. Nearly thirty years after his death, over fifty-five of his novels are still in print. His Jeeves titles sell over 10,000 copies per year. In his new biography based on research...

Sex, war and the word.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Virginia Price Evans Sir: It is interesting how people reveal their prejudices by the words they use. So, to A.N. Wilson ('Holy Sage', 18/25 December) those who oppose homosexuals taking high office in the Church of England are...

Involuntary tyranny.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Graham Booth MEP (Ukip) Sir: Peter Jones (Ancient & modern, 1 January) has some interesting perspectives on the inevitable collapse of the EU, but is wildly incorrect on one central issue. The EU has been constructed carefully and...

Charter for road hogs.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Laurence Kelvin Sir: The Spectator has often taken the line that too much government is bad for individuals and society, and in your issue of 1 January ('Taking liberties') Mark Steyn recommends the town of Christianfield in Denmark,...

Lock them up.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Frederick Forsyth Sir: My friend Bruce Anderson (Politics, 11 December) gives yet another outing to that grand old chestnut: there are far fewer burglaries in the USA because many Americans keep a handgun in the house. In fact there...

Policing is difficult.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Jeremy Rhodes Sir: Unlike Rod Liddle ('Have the Tories no spine?', 18/25 December), I can see that on occasion ID cards would make life easier for the police. However, I can't help thinking of some words from Orson Welles's Touch of...

Camilla's religion.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Colin Armstrong Sir: Contrary to your editorial ('Let them marry', 18/25 December), Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles is not a Catholic, though her former husband, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, is. Colin Armstrong Belfast

Country smells.(Letter to the Editor)
January 8, 2005... From Paul Waters Sir: Mary Kenny's piece encouraging people not to wash ('My grubby secret', 1 January) is dangerously irresponsible. One need only be caught among a herd of tweedy middle-aged women up from the country visiting an...

When newspapers turn to God, they become as confused as churchmen.(Media Studies)
January 8, 2005... These days the media do not show much interest in God. On television He was long ago shunted into the backwaters, though it is true He retains a bailiwick on Radio Four. You could read a red-top tabloid for a year and not be aware that anyone...

Not really the right job for a chap with a collection of trophy penises.(Another Voice)
January 8, 2005... Pitch it in your imagination, somewhere between Louis XIV on his couch at Versailles and a down-and-out on his cardboard litter under the railway arches at Charing Cross. Now come with me to a wide shallow salt lake 80 feet below sea level at...

Instant ethics--just open the package and give your conscience a break.(City And Suburn)
January 8, 2005... How convenient it would be if we could find something out of a package--a computer programme, presumably--to do our conscience's work for us. Then we could switch off and stop worrying. Happily, in the world of investment, this need has been...

How to survive the American economic meltdown 2005-2006: just when you think it's time to buy stocks again, the greatest financial catastrophe since 1974 is about to demolish your pension, investments and savings.(Advertisement)
January 8, 2005... LONDON--January 2005 We are in stage one of a cycle that ruined millions in the UK in the 1970s when inflation soared... gilts collapsed... property prices slumped... and unemployment skyrocketed... Now it's about to happen again. ...

The decline and fall of the femme fatale.(And Onother Thing)
January 8, 2005... My old friend Peregrine Worsthome was deploring the other day the decline in the quality of courtesans. And it is true that those who get themselves into the headlines today, either by the voracity of their sexual appetite or their status as...

Unsparing, frivolous candour.(book: The Diaries of Charles Greville)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... THE DIARIES OF CHARLES GREVILLE edited by Edward and Diana Pearce Pimlico, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 368, ISBN 1844134040 16.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Charles Greville? you may wonder. 'Who...

Failure to bore.(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... MOMENTS OF VISION: A MEMOIR by Elizabeth Basset For most of those who remember her, Elizabeth Basset was an old lady of wisdom, generosity, seraphic good-nature and an inexhaustible interest in other people. She took life's problems with...

A woman of some importance.(book: The Pope's Daughter)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... THE POPE'S DAUGHTER by Caroline P. Murphy Faber, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 315, ISBN 571221076 14.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Whosoever wants to do as they wish, should not have been born a...

King's gambit accepted.(book: Evening in the Palace of Reason)(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... EVENING IN THE PALACE OF REASON by James Gaines Fourth Estate, 15.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 328, ISBN 0007153929 13.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Although for more than a century Johann Sebastian Bach...

Bronx charm and cheer.(book: Sleeping Arrangements )(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS by Laura Shaine Cunningham Bloomsbury, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 228, ISBN 0747576270 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 At a time when publishers are chasing celebrity memoirs,...

The man who lost control of Ground Zero.(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... BREAKING GROUND: ADVENTURES IN LIFE AND ARCHITECTURE by Daniel Libesldnd John Murray, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 288, ISBN 0719566541 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 'Unmoglich! Unmoglich!' or as we would...

Survival, escape, hope.(book: In the Garden of Memory )(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... IN THE GARDEN OF MEMORY by Joanna Olezak-Ronikier, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones Weidenfeld, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 322, ISBN 0297645498 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 This book will delight...

The battle of the breasts.(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... FATHERHOOD: THE TRUTH by Marcus Berkmann Vermilion, 10.99 thcir, pp. 282, ISBN 0091900638 Once upon a time, long, long ago, people used to argue about politics. Now they argue about parenting. Thirty-five years ago, the issue that defined...

Not poor or lowly.(book: The British Stable )(Book Review)
January 8, 2005... THE BRITISH STABLE by Giles Worsley Yale, 45 [pounds sterling], pp. 320, ISBN 0300107080 Which is the finest 18th-century building in England? Not a royal palace, not a library, not a cathedral, but a stable block: that designed by James...

Something for everyone: Andrew Lambirth looks at the treats we can expect over the coming year.(Arts)
January 8, 2005... To get the year off to a good start is the eye-catchingly titled William Orpen--Politics, Sex & Death at the Imperial War Museum (27 January-2 May). Is this an exhibition or a manifesto? (From its title, difficult to tell.) Sir William Orpen...

Wise work.(Gateshead)
January 8, 2005... According to the leader of Gateshead Council, it wasn't long ago that the River Tyne was like an open sewer. No one went near it unless they had to; inadvertently taking the waters meant a trip to hospital. The area around the river was dead,...

Ring of hope.(Opera)(Theater Review)
January 8, 2005... Das Rheingold Royal Opera House After seemingly endless drumrolls and fanfares, with the conductor Antonio Pappano and the director Keith Warner giving countless interviews on the radio and in the papers, the Royal Opera's new cycle of...

Judging tallis.(Music)
January 8, 2005... This year is rich in composers' anniversaries, if one takes a moment to look for them. Sir Michael Tippett, who was born on 2 January 1905 and has already been celebrated on the airwaves, remains vivid in the memory as a public figure almost up...

Escape from blackpool.(Radio)(Biography)
January 8, 2005... I wasn't sure there was much more to say about the late Alistair Cooke, who died at the end of last March at the age of 95. An excellent biography of him had been published while he was alive, and Radio Four broadcast tributes to him after his...