Spectator articles from January 2006

Spectator archives from January 2006

The wrong track.(David Cameron)
January 7, 2006... Unlike the jubilant Polly Toynbee, we are not convinced that David Cameron's recent pronouncements on big business and the redistribution of wealth quite amount to a repudiation of capitalism, nor even, as she puts it, that the Conservative...

Portrait of the week.
January 7, 2006... The cost of domestic gas and electricity was expected to rise by 15 per cent in the spring, an increase of 50 per cent in three years. Among the New Year's honours, knighthoods went to Tom Jones, the singer; John Dankworth, the jazz musician;...

Diary.(Column)
January 7, 2006... Thanks to the wonderful French health service--specifically, beautiful Dr Jeanne at Salpetriere Hospital, Paris--I'm now much more mobile again, my wounded foot only short of a couple of toes and no further mumbling from US medics about...

David Cameron follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Disraeli.(POLITICS)
January 7, 2006... I had resolved on no account whatever to return to the theme of the Tory leader, David Cameron, this week. Other issues looked more pressing. The decision by Liberal Democrat MPs to destroy Charles Kennedy only months after he had led them to...

The Spectator's notes.(Siegfried Sassoon, UK Conservative Party)
January 7, 2006... In their New Year newspaper advertisement in the Sunday Telegraph, the Conservatives say, 'The right test for our policies is how they help the least well-off in society, not the rich.' That is a good approach, but will it be invariably...

Putin plays the market: Paul Robinson says that Russia was only doing what the EU had demanded when it increased its gas prices this week.(Cover Story)
January 7, 2006... I don't believe that I can be alone in having spent a Russian or Ukrainian winter with the windows of my room wide open. Many buildings in that part of the world are dreadfully overheated, for the simple reason that energy is so cheap. Soon,...

Mind your language.
January 7, 2006... With Balderdash and Piffle on the television this week and Stephen Fry presenting The Joy of Gibberish on the wireless, there is a welcome philological counterbalance to the sackfuls of reality programmes, compilations and makeovers. Hearing...

Spare me those touchy-feely Tories: Geoffrey Wheatcroft believes that David Cameron's new-look party invites derision, and recommends a period of quiet reflection.
January 7, 2006... Come Twelfth Night, and David Cameron has been leader of the Conservative party for just one month--but what a month! Anyone who doubted whether he would make much immediate impression has been stupefied and dumbfounded, and Cameron and his...

Celebrity squares.(UK Conservative Party)
January 7, 2006... It is a long, long, time since the Conservative party had the support of a clever, truculent lesbian. In fact, has it ever happened before? Clever, truculent lesbians are usually very left-wing, in my experience. But now one of them has come...

The Hollywood turkey farm: box office takings are down in the US. James Bowman blames juvenile movies and the anti-war hysteria of some film-makers.
January 7, 2006... The American papers have lately been filled with stories about the heartbreak in Hollywood over the great box-office slump. There were 6 per cent fewer cinema-goers in 2005 than in 2004. More worrying to the studios is the fact that this is the...

Labour of love: Deborah Ross meets the birth guru Betty Parsons, who has helped more than 20,000 mums, including Jane Asher, Rula Lenska, the Duchess of Abercorn ... and the Queen.(Interview)
January 7, 2006... Whether or not you have heard of the legend that is Mrs Betty Parsons depends largely on what you were up to and where you lived between 1956 and 1986. If you lived in Kensington and Chelsea, and had a baby at any point during those years, then...

Murder mystery: Theodore Dalrymple believes that many people kill not because they are evil but because they don't know how to live.
January 7, 2006... When one has prepared a number of reports on murderers, both for the prosecution and for the defence, one begins to discern certain patterns. Of course, it is possible that these patterns are not real, or rather are the consequence of the...

More women MPs, please.(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From Amber Rudd Sir: Rod Liddle's article on women candidates in the Conservative party contains an irritating and often repeated inaccuracy. ('Let's not forget the weirdos and halfwits', 17/24 December). He refers to 'the refusal of women...

Is 'belief' beneficial?(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From Dr John Stoneman Sir: I have considerable regard for Mark Steyn's views on the world. However, I fear he has been rather confused in his article on rationality in your issue of 17/24 December ('O come, all ye faithless'). There is a...

Belt up.(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From Michael Simons Sir: Simon Nixon trivialises Green Belt legislation to a reckless degree ('No bubble, no slump', 31 December). Far from benefiting a mere handful of stockbrokers, it is thanks to the Green Belt that several millions of...

America fair.(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From G.E. French Sir: What a lovely piece of American nostalgia by Geoffrey Wheatcroft ('God Bless America, not Bush', 17/24 December). I too had, and still have, that marvellous continent and its people close to my heart. Warts and all....

Slow bus to Swindon.(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From Philip French Sir: In his review of Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled (Books, 31 December) Grey Gowrie recalls an apparently accidental piece of verse he found in a lavatory by Wells Cathedral. The graffito he saw--'I'd like to...

Lewis vs Pullman.(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From David Watkins Sir: Further to Caroline Moore's spirited defence of C.S. Lewis ('War of the worlds', 17/24 December): however wrong-headed Lewis may have been as a moralist, he was a most open-minded and generous critic. Very often he...

Eye and I.(Letter to the Editor)
January 7, 2006... From Christopher Booker Sir: As a keen student of the ever-growing mythology surrounding the origins of Private Eye, I must congratulate Patrick Marnham for his novel suggestion that Paul Foot was invited to be the magazine's first editor...

The natural party of Gandhi and Geldof.(SHARED OPINION)(David Cameron)
January 7, 2006... First, Mr Letwin became the first prominent politician since Mr Benn publicly to advocate redistribution of wealth. Then it was announced that Bob Geldof would advise the Conservatives about world poverty. Then Mr Cameron, in his New Year...

The Bad Investment Guide's gilt-edged entry: trust in governments, settle for little.(CITY AND SUBURBAN)(Column)
January 7, 2006... This is the time of year for virtuous resolutions, so let us resolve on a visit to the Bad Investment Guide, which now has a gilt-edged new entry. In among all the flaky oil-drillers and flats brought off the drawing board for a quick turn, we...

Three cheers for life and to hell with the pessimists.(AND ANOTHER THING)(Column)
January 7, 2006... When I first came to London, half a century ago, the head of the journalistic profession was Arthur Christiansen. 'Chris' was much admired in the trade. I considered it a signal honour to have a drink with him in what his employer, Lord...

Funsters and fantasts.(Masters of American Comics)(Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... MASTERS OF AMERICAN COMICS edited by John Carlin, Paul Karasik and Brian Walker Yale University Press, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 256, ISBN 030011317X [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 GRAPHIC...

Hunting political snarks.(Crusoe's Secret)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... CRUSOE'S SECRET by Tom Paulin Faber, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 400, ISBN 05 7122157 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Wandering the pavements of those uniquely dismal streets which surround...

The invisible patient.(Napoleon and Doctor Verling on St Helena)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... NAPOLEON AND DOCTOR VERLING ON ST HELENA by J. David Markham Pen & Sword, 19.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 178, ISBN 033048902X [telephone] 15.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Recently an auction house in...

A painful, wonderful world.(Constitutional by Helen Simpson Cape)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... CONSTITUTIONAL by Helen Simpson Cape, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 144, ISBN 02224077945X [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Here are nine short stories, some of them very short indeed, and...

Recent first novels.(This Thing of Darkness)(Rules for Old Men Waiting)(Winkler)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... THIS THING OF DARKNESS by Harry Thompson Review, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 626, ISBN 075530280X [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 RULES FOR OLD MEN WAITING by Peter Pouncey Chatto, 12...

Jaw-jaw about civil war.(War, Evil and the End of History)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... WAR, EVIL AND THE END OF HISTORY by Bernard-Henri Levy Duckworth, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 371, ISBN 0715633368 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Bernard-Henri Levy is possessed of a...

Grand tour of Venice: Andrew Lambirth on the splendour of the Canaletto exhibition at the Queen's Gallery.(ARTS)
January 7, 2006... Magnet for tourists as it is, Buckingham Palace is the perfect setting for Canaletto in Venice, an exhibition devoted to the grandest producer of tourist art of the 18th century focusing exclusively on a city which had already become one of the...

Social outlaw.(Olden but golden)
January 7, 2006... It's the morning of 2 January as I write, and I'm gloomily contemplating my New Year's resolutions. Actually, gloomily is hardly the mot juste. I'm having a complete jelly-livered panic attack about them. It's our family custom to go to...

Small beer.(Theatre)(A Man For All Seasons )(Theater Review)
January 7, 2006... A Man For All Seasons Theatre Royal, Haymarket The Wild Duck Donmar Once in a Lifetime Olivier The decision of Bill Kenwright, the veteran West End producer, to revive A Man For All Seasons has no doubt been prompted by the success of Don...

Importance of hummability.(Music)
January 7, 2006... In a recent article in the Times, Matthew Parris wrote stirringly about the inspiration which may come from listening to buskers: 'Amazing how a snatch of music heard in passing can lift the imagination and spirit.' To him the essence of this...

Politics of decency.(Radio)(Movies with a Message )(Radio Program Review)
January 7, 2006... The film industry, like the media generally, tends to attract people on the left of centre, some anxious to peddle their beliefs, others merely and instinctively slanting it their way on the assumption that everybody thinks like them except for...

Festive viewing.(Television)
January 7, 2006... I can't remember a Christmas where I watched so little Christmas TV as this one, which is a shame in a way, because I do think that mammoth sessions in front of the box are the key to feeling truly Christmassy. Going to church helps, too,...

A rare treat.(High life)(lifestyles)(Column)
January 7, 2006... Gstaad Nursing the inevitable Karamazovian state, I watched the pretty Georgina Rylance on New Year's day playing the heiress in an Agatha Christie TV adaptation of The Mystery of the Blue Train. It didn't help at all. Some of you may...

Cat flap.(Low life)
January 7, 2006... I've been in bed for the last fortnight, my brain numbed by painkillers. Between Christmas and New Year, the owner of the flat I'm recovering in was away visiting relatives, so there was only a cat for company. I detest cats. This...

Mind the gap.(Bridge card game)
January 7, 2006... Espen Erichsen's extraordinary powers of recollection continue to amaze me. Yesterday, I was all set to write up a slam I (mis)played at London's Year End Congress, but I couldn't find the hand records anywhere. After searching high and low, I...

State instrument.(Mikhail Botvinnik chess player)
January 7, 2006... Mikhail Botvinnik was the embodiment of Soviet chess. The USSR had decided as a matter of state policy to win the World Chess Championship, and Botvinnik was the instrument of its success. After Alekhine's death in 1946 a match tournament was...

Nostradamian.(COMPETITION)
January 7, 2006... In Competition No. 2424 you were invited to write a poem naming in each line a startling event which will occur during each month this year, ending with a four-line glimpse of the more distant future. 'Fasten your seatbelts' was the...

1747: food for thought.(CROSSWORD)
January 7, 2006... The unclued lights are connected by a theme. Seven clues contain a definition and a hidden consecutive jumble of the light, including two extra letters. These extra letters, in clue order, spell out the two-word theme. The remaining clues are...

Solution to 1744: job lot.(CROSSWORD)
January 7, 2006... 'A brother to dragons and a companion to owls' is a description of Job. Unclued lights are dragons (11, 19, 21D, 33) and owls (16, 17, 27, 31). First prize: B. Butterworth, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire Runners-up: G. Osborne, Godalming,...

Opium of the people.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(The Victorians; Never Had It So Good)(Book Review)
January 7, 2006... I stoked up some good log fires over the holiday, and with a box or two of Thornton's Continental Selection was snug at the hearth with two British histories on the go, thoroughly enjoying them both: The Victorians by A.N. Wilson and Dominic...

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)
January 7, 2006... Q. A friend in the fashion world telephoned me to say that she was sending round a handbag worth 400 [pounds sterling] for my Christmas present. She told me frankly that she would not normally spend 400 [pounds sterling] on me but she had been...

Disrespect.(administration of criminal justice)
January 14, 2006... The Prime Minister is right about one thing: 'The liberty of the law-abiding citizen to be safe from fear comes first.' It is indeed the first duty of the state to ensure that its citizens can live peacefully and go about their lawful business...

Portrait of the week.
January 14, 2006... Mr Charles Kennedy, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, called a press conference and said, 'Over the past 18 months, I've been coming to terms with, and seeking to cope with, a drinking problem.... I've not had a drink for the past two months...

Diary.(gardening, horse racing)(Column)
January 14, 2006... Sky like the inside of a saucepan and a mean little drizzle stinging your face, garden sunk deep in midwinter gloom, except for the winter-flowering cherry trees with small, sugar-pink blossoms prinking from bare branches to lift the heart. I...

It wasn't the booze: Cameron did for Kennedy, and now Blair is the target.(POLITICS)
January 14, 2006... A myth is beginning to be constructed around the events of the last week at Westminster. It needs to be challenged at once before it gains ground and becomes acknowledged fact. It goes as follows: Charles Kennedy was sacked as leader of the...

The Spectator's notes.(UK Liberal Democratic Party)
January 14, 2006... This column's theory that, postdevolution, it is harder for Scottish MPs to lead a British political party seems to be taking some time to come true. Sir Menzies Campbell is considered just the ticket. He looks dignified and trustworthy. Rather...

Why did he do it? Ross Clark says that by rejecting selection David Cameron has abandoned Tory principles and betrayed the bright children of the poor.(Cover Story)
January 14, 2006... While David Cameron was at a Basildon comprehensive on Monday announcing that the Conservative party no longer believes in selective education, my ten-year-old son was sitting the 11-plus at a private school in Suffolk. There are no grammar...

The Blairs.(Cartoon)
January 14, 2006... THE NEW MENS' GROOMING THE COSMETIC RANGE THAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT! RESPECT[TM] FOR MEN WHO GO ON AND ON! COLLECT THE WRAPPERS AND WIN A FREEBIE HOLIDAY THICK SKITE CREAM SMARM JUST SPREAD IT ON WITH A TOWEL ...

Mind your language.(English language)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2006... I am not much comforted by those notices in railway stations and shopping centres reading, 'Caution: slippery when wet.' A variant is, 'Slippery in conditions of ice or rain.' If they can put up expensive signs, why not do something about the...

There is no worldwide terrorist conspiracy: John Major says that war alone will not defeat terrorism. We must address the underlying grievances, and reject knee-jerk responses.
January 14, 2006... If the world is to succeed in combating terrorism, then politicians and statesmen must strip away old prejudices and think afresh. That will not always be a comfortable thing to do, for at times it will mean trying to see things from the...

Lawless in Gaza: Douglas Davis says that Ariel Sharon's wisest decision was his last one--to pull out of the anarchic terrorist hothouse of Gaza.
January 14, 2006... As the dominating presence of Ariel Sharon recedes from the public stage, his lasting legacy is likely to be not his military exploits but his final major political act: unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Israel had tried engagement, and when...

Why Dawkins is wrong about God: TV's Richard Dawkins believes that faith is an infectious disease which spreads intolerance and conflict. In fact, says Roger Scruton, it is our principal source of love and peace.(Television Program Review)
January 14, 2006... Faced with the spectacle of the cruelties perpetrated in the name of faith, Voltaire famously cried 'Ecrasez l'infame!' Scores of enlightened thinkers have followed him, declaring organised religion to be the enemy of mankind, the force that...

Ancient & modern.(patrimonial systems)
January 14, 2006... It is fascinating watching the ancient patrimonial system of appointment at work, and there are few better opportunities to see it in action than when a man like David Cameron, without power and therefore without accountability or...

The dangers of 'satanic optimism': Andrew Gimson believes that pessimists have a much less dangerous approach to the human predicament than optimists.
January 14, 2006... David Cameron, Polly Toynbee and Paul Johnson make a formidable and alarming trio of evangelists. They preach the gospel of optimism, and exhort even the most fainthearted members of their flocks to convert to this creed. Cameron wants the...

There's a long trail a-winding--and it's an insult to the licence-payer.(THOUGHT FOR THE DAY)(Column)
January 14, 2006... Did you manage to catch the BBC's new drama series Life On Mars" this last week? It's about a policeman who goes back in time to 1973 and gets to drive one of those nice old Ford Cortinas and beat up villains instead of arresting them. I didn't...

Our successful railways.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From Adrian Lyons Sir: Your leading article (7 January) suggested that railway operators are a cartel bent on exploiting their customers, but this is grossly unfair. Fares have risen, but an overall increase of 3 per cent above inflation...

How to live.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From Professor Robin Jacoby Sir: As a psychiatrist who has written reports in more than 30 homicide cases, I can wholeheartedly confirm Theodore Dalrymple's thesis that the majority of murderers are unfit for life ('Murder mystery', 7...

Misplaced generosity.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From Philip Pullman Sir: David Watkins (Letters, 7 January) invents an opinion that C.S. Lewis might have held about my books, if he'd been able to read them, and then chastises me for not being a little generous to Lewis in return. This...

Wanted, subsidised housing.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From Shaun Spiers Sir: Simon Nixon has got it wrong. Scrapping the Green Belt and covering it in new homes won't solve the nation's housing problems ('No bubble, no slump', 31 December). All that a great splurge of sprawl would do is...

Alligator hunt.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From Pamela de Putron Sir: Dot Wordsworth will be pleased to know that the term 'alligator pear', the English substitution for the Aztec word 'ahuacatl' and Spanish 'avocado' (Mind your language, 31 December), is alive and well in Sri...

Dactylic delights.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From John Rattray Sir: Further to Grey Gowrie's review (Books, 31 December), while the 'Higgledy Piggledy' form of comic verse may be of recent invention, the double dactylic is by no means a recently invented poetic form, as will have...

Missing the buses.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2006... From Terry, Muzzell Sir: On the Buses may well have been an 'appalling, witless comedy' ('Celebrity squares', 7 January), but did Rod Liddle ever watch it? The part of Blakey was played by Stephen Lewis, not Deryck Guyler; Blakey's...

Who will be man enough to stand up for big business against Cameron and Brown?(ANY OTHER BUSINESS)(UK Liberal Democrats)
January 14, 2006... Everyone seems to be concocting their own shortlists for the most desirable job in London (I speak, of course, of the leadership of the Liberal Democrats), but the contest that catches my eye is the one to become the next director-general of...

What makes George Galloway strut and fret his stuff?(ANOTHER VOICE)
January 14, 2006... We each of us remember where we were when news reached us that George Galloway MP was to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house. I was on BBC Radio 5 Live. The time was 10.25 on the evening of Thursday 5 January 2006 and I was part of a panel...

What happened to all that 'ivy never sere'?(AND ANOTHER THING)(gardening)(Column)
January 14, 2006... People have mixed feelings about ivy (Hedera helix). It is believed to do unhurried damage to buildings while artfully concealing its depredations. 'Creeping ivy... hides the ruin that it feeds upon,' as Cowper says. Not long ago, Jerome, who...

The most charitable interpretation.(The Cold War)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... THE COLD WAR by John Lewis Gaddis Allen Lane, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 400, ISBN 0713999128 [telephone], 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Late November 1950: United I Nations forces commanded by the...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 14, 2006... Some details of New Bats" in old Belfries by Maurice Bowra, reviewed by Bevis Hillier in the Christmas double issue, were wrong. The book is available from Robert Dugdale, 26 Norham Road, Oxford OX2 6SF, and costs 20 [pounds sterling] by post.

Conundrums that will not go away.(Philosophy: The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... PHILOSOPHY: THE LATEST ANSWERS TO THE OLDEST QUESTIONS by Nicholas Fearn Atlantic, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 304, ISBN 1843540665 [telephone] 14.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Nicholas Fearn has...

Hellish motorway experience.(A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man )(Audiobook Review)
January 14, 2006... Listening to Jim Norton reading The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on this outstanding recording is a first-class way of either revisiting James Joyce's autobiographical novel or of dipping your toe in the water for the first time. I am...

The long arm of technology.(Supper with the Crippens)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... SUPPER WITH THE CRIPPENS by David James Smith Orion, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 344, ISBN 0752867423 [telephone] 15.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 According to George Orwell, even homicide had its...

A brilliant autopsy on a dead regime.(The Successor)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... THE SUCCESSOR by Ismail Kadare Canongate, 9.99 [pounds sterling], p1). 207, ISBN 1841957631 [telephone] 7.99 [pounds sterling](plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Although writers in languages of lesser currency suffer a cruel...

Cleverly out of step.(Balliol College: A History)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... BALLIOL COLLEGE: A HISTORY by John Jones OUP, 65 [pounds sterling], pp. 392, ISBN 0199201811 In his second, revised edition of a history of Balliol College, John Jones --vice-master, chemist and archivist--shows the same sure touch that...

The return of the colonel.(The Vengeance of Rome)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... THE VENGEANCE OF ROME by Michael Moorcock Cape, 17. 99 [pounds sterling], pp. 620, ISBN 0224031198 [telephone] 14.39 [pounds sterling](plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 This is a great Homeric return. With The Vengeance of...

Giving three cheers for Plato.(Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... CONFESSIONS OF A RADICAL TRADITIONALIST by John Michell Dominion, Waterbury Center, Vermont, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 0971204446 This author believes in God (the Creator) but is not religious. He believes in the Book of...

England's 16th-century Stalin.(The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... THE KING'S REFORMATION: HENRY VIII AND THE REMAKING OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH by G. W. Bernard Yale, 29.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 672, ISBN 0300109083 [telephone] 23.95 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Henry...

Silent Wires.(Poem)
January 14, 2006... Silent Wires The silent wires are hanging in the still December air. No ripples move upon the muddy pool where wet clay clods from tractor tyres were flung. They still lie there dissolving, like the smoke of...

But mad north-north-west.(Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon)(Book Review)
January 14, 2006... LORD MALQUIST AND MR MOON by Tom Stoppard Faber, 7.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 208, ISBN 0571227236 [telephone] 6.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 In 1966, a proud Tom Stoppard went to Foyles', where to his...

A selection of recent paperbacks.
January 14, 2006... Non-fiction: Mind the Gap by Ferdinand Mount (Short Books, 8.99 [pounds sterling]) Louis XVIII by Philip Mansel (John Murray, 10.99 [pounds sterling]) The Road to Katmandu by Patrick Marnham (Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 8.99 [pounds...

Man of distinction: Andrew Lambirth on the great talent of a 17th-century gentleman amateur painter.(ARTS)(Nathaniel Bacon)
January 14, 2006... The name of Bacon in the 17th century inevitably suggests Sir Francis, first baron Verulam and viscount of St Albans, Lord Chancellor and natural scientist, philosopher and writer. Of an acutely inquiring mind, Sir Francis died of a chill...

That elusive something.
January 14, 2006... The Art of White The Lowry, until 17 April There's a central chapter in Moby Dick where the narrator Ishmael traces his fascination with the whale to the colour white. For all its associations 'with whatever is sweet, and honourable, and...

Dreaded question.(Pop music)(Column)
January 14, 2006... The Christmas party season has finally passed, and we are all tending our wounds. Most of mine seem to be self-inflicted, the engrained habits of talking too much and listening not quite enough having worked their usual deadly magic. It was...

Pleasure count.(The Bartered Bride )(Opera Review)
January 14, 2006... Hansel and Gretel Opera North The Bartered Bride Royal Opera House Humperdinck's minor masterpiece Hansel and Gretel is one of those operas that disappears for a time and then comes in waves. I hope that Opera North's splendid new...