Spectator articles from July 2006

Spectator archives from July 2006

Suspend the treaty now.
July 8, 2006... Any relationship, 'special' or otherwise, depends upon clarity, fairness and reciprocity. The USuUK extradition treaty signed in March 2003, ratified in this country the following year, boasts none of those features. As a consequence, three...

DIARY.(Column)
July 8, 2006... Australian TV wants to make a documentary about me. Why would a black guy from innercity Birmingham want to buy a farm in the West Country? The usual stuff follows - long interview, shots of me with my lovely Ruby Red cattle and shots with...

Cameron's EPP pledge would not have plagued him if he'd been less evasive.
July 8, 2006... David Cameron had hoped to travel to Prague in secret last week. News that he had entered the final stages of negotiations with his Czech counterparts over the Tories' future in the European Parliament would only increase expectation of the...

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTES.
July 8, 2006... This week, an alliance of bodies concerned about 'heritage', led by the National Trust and including English Heritage and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, launched a campaign called History Matters. It is designed to 'raise awareness of the...

DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY.(Column)
July 8, 2006... MONDAY I hate it when people start talking in acronyms. It always means trouble. The inquest into the Chiz and Bromley byelection is called 'BBI'. The official line is we haven't yet achieved full 'brand penetration' - or 'BP' - which,...

How can you preach democracy and allow Putin to host the G8?
July 8, 2006... For sale, the advertisement might read: One very large Russian energy company. Estimated assets, including oil wells, reserves, refineries: $60 billion. Possible liabilities: four major international lawsuits, a part-time CEO who works...

'Don't come to a beefeating club if you're vegetarian'.(Jose Manuel Barroso)(Interview)
July 8, 2006... Brussels 'I really like your magazine, ' says the president of the European Commission, welcoming The Spectator to the inner sanctum of his suite on the top floor of the Berlaymont building, the EC's headquarters. Euro-schmooze? Of...

The philosophy of Superman: a short course.(Superman Returns)(Movie review)
July 8, 2006... I must declare an interest: as a devotee of DC Comics' Superman since early childhood, I am incontinently prepared in advance to enjoy every radio show, television series and film that features him. So before seeing this one, Superman Returns...

It'll take more than a day at Alton Towers to integrate Britain's Muslims.
July 8, 2006... I am beginning to think that Islam's lord of misrule, the Dajjal - He who will bring about the final conflagration and darkness and cause a great stench to emanate from the earth - has taken up an administrative post at the Alton Towers leisure...

'I couldn't stand. The stroke could have killed me'.
July 8, 2006... When facing an audience of ambulance workers in a speech last Friday, Andrew Lansley had the ideal joke to warm them up. 'People always imagine politicians are a bit brain dead, ' he said. 'Well I am - and I have the MRI scan to prove it.' He...

Desperately seeking Martin - my mad dash to meet Mr Amis.(air travel)(Column)
July 8, 2006... 'We will shortly be landing in Buenos Aires, ' cooed the Iberian Air flight attendant, almost giving me a heart attack. My ticket most definitely said Uruguay, not Argentina. I was being taken to the wrong country. This was nightmare...

Ken Loach is a great director, but it is the Irish, not the British, who understand him.(The Wind that Shakes the Barley)(Movie review)
July 8, 2006... Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley has now reached British screens. It is brilliant. The acting is convincing, especially from those in the small parts such as the old woman who refuses to leave her home after it has been burnt out....

Elite electorates.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2006... From Alan Hall Sir: I was amused by your leading article this week (1 July), criticising New Labour for treating 'the highest office of government' as if it were 'the captaincy of its own team'. You affect to be shocked that the debate on who...

Soft sentences don't work.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2006... From Mrs Sam Jettubreck Sir: In response to Mr Peter Wayne's indignation (1 July) at my letter I would like to offer the following riposte. Firstly, am I right in believing that Mr Wayne is himself serving a prison sentence? While...

HIV no longer lethal.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2006... From Michael Carter Sir: I'm surprised that your fact-checking department didn't notice several inaccuracies in Liddle Britain of 24 June. Sarah Jane Porter was convicted of the reckless transmission of HIV, not of deliberately infecting her...

Mea culpa.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2006... From Brenda Maddox Sir: My devotion to James Joyce seems to have caused my husband, Sir John Maddox, to be unfairly rebuked for bad manners by Charles Moore (The Spectator's Notes, 24 June). Leaving for the Joyce International Symposium in...

The old country.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2006... From Katherine Gillard Sir: Allister Heath, in his 'No wonder the neo-Nazis salute Iran's President' (3 June), writes that 'in 1935 Shah Reza Pahlavi renamed his country Iran'. This is quite wrong. The shah was restoring Iran's ancient name, a...

Lucas and the Lion.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2006... From Eileen Mitchell Sir: Berthel Thorvaldsen did not actually carve the Lion of Lucerne, as Alexander Chancellor writes (Travel, 24 June). He designed it, but then, fearing that he might make a mistake when cutting into the rockface, thereby...

The price of protection in a lawless land.
July 8, 2006... The village clubhouse at Nikolina Gora, a well-heeled dacha village just outside Moscow, is usually a delightfully sedate place. Local residents Mstislav Rostropovich and Sergei Prokofiev used to give recitals for their neighbours on the...

A frozen relic of Soviet days.
July 8, 2006... In Britain, the arrival of Gazprom is so feared that the government started to take legal steps to prevent it from taking over Centrica, and even the Russian energy giant's acquisition last month of a small Cheshirebased gas supplier, Pennine...

The NatWest Three case lacks common sense, proportion -- and a victim.
July 8, 2006... A head of steam is building up behind the campaign to halt the imminent extradition to the US of the NatWest Three, the trio who face trial (and two years in a tough Texas jail before trial) for an alleged $6 million 'wire fraud' against...

Showdown and climbdown.(When Arthur Met Maggie)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... WHEN ARTHUR MET MAGGIE by Patrick Hannan Seren Books, 57 Nolton Street, Bridgend, CF31 3AE. Tel: 01656 663018, [pounds sterling]9.99, pp. 224, ISBN 1854114220 . [pounds sterling]7.99 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Of...

Up the spout and down the drain.(Plundering the Public Sector)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... PLUNDERING THE PUBLIC SECTOR by David Craig with Richard Brooks Constable & Robinson, [pounds sterling]9.99, pp. 320, ISBN 1845293746 . [pounds sterling]7.99 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 This is the first serious work to...

Beauty and bigotry.(Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... TEMPTATIONS OF THE WEST : HOW TO BE MODERN IN INDIA, PAKISTAN AND BEYOND by Pankaj Mishra Picador, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 439, ISBN 0330434675 . [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 When I was a child...

Betjeman's world of trains and buttered toast.(Book review)
July 8, 2006... I am sitting in the London Library as I write this. I am wearing Rafael Nadal tennis shorts, which come below the knee. Obviously, I look ridiculous. But this is the role of the middle-class, middleaged English male, to feel slightly out of...

Victims and /or beneficiaries.(An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... ANIMPERIAL POSSESSION : BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE by David Mattingly Allen Lane, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 622, ISBN 0713990635 'Roman Britain, ' I asked a friend of mine, a committed pacifist and the veteran of endless marches against the...

Where golf is in the blood.(Book review)
July 8, 2006... PREFERRED LIES by Andrew Greig Weidenfeld, [pounds sterling]12.99, pp. 279, ISBN 0297848356 . [pounds sterling]10.39 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Golfers, I have to admit, can be great bores. Just listen to the pros...

The good life lived for others.(Talk Talk)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... TALK TALK by T. C. Boyle Bloomsbury, [pounds sterling]10.99, pp. 340, ISBN 0747584249 . [pounds sterling]8.79 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Capitalism, it might be argued, can be reduced to a simple equation: x + 1 = y...

Hemispheres of influence.(Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 )(Book review)
July 8, 2006... EMPIRES OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD : BRITAIN AND SPAIN IN AMERICA , 1492-1830 by John Elliott Yale, [pounds sterling]25, pp. 546, ISBN 03000114311 . [pounds sterling]20 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Comparisons between...

When toleration goes too far.(Londonistan: How Britain Is Creating a Terror State Within)(The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... LONDONISTAN : HOW BRITAIN IS CREATING A TERROR STATE WITHIN by Melanie Phillips Gibson Square, [pounds sterling]14.99, pp. 304, ISBN 1903933765 . [pounds sterling]11.99 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 THE SUICIDE FACTORY :...

The maze of the mind.(Your Face Tomorrow: Dance and Dream, , vol. 2)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... YOUR FACE TOMORROW 2: DANCE AND DREAM by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa Chatto, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 341, ISBN 0701179759 . [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 With the publication...

Shaggy dog story.(William Wegman: Funney/Strange)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... WILLIAM WEGMAN : FUNNEY /STRANGE by Joan Simon Yale, [pounds sterling]29.95, pp. 292, ISBN 0300114443 . [pounds sterling]23.95 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Until 1970 when he got his first Weimaraner from a litter in Long...

Carpenter of colour.(Paul Cezanne)
July 8, 2006... On Monday 15 October 1906, Paul Cezanne was painting on the hillside above his Les Lauves studio on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence when he was caught in a violent rainstorm. Having sacked his coachman the week before in a row over money,...

Creative struggles.
July 8, 2006... Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the 19th Century National Gallery, until 28 August An examination of the artist's image is an excellent idea for an exhibition, and it has been thoroughly and effectively realised in this new...

Boy's own capers.(Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest )(Movie review)
July 8, 2006... Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 12A, nationwide However wicked pirates are, they're still cool. They've got funkier outfits and superior gear: skulls-and-crossbones, cutlasses, gold doubloons, crazy superstitions, clever pets,...

Floreat Etona.(actors)
July 8, 2006... Old Etonian actors are everywhere. The school magazine lists two dozen -- all of them fairly recently out of school -- as working in 2005. That's a big improvement on 20 years ago when it was generally reckoned that there were more Old Etonians...

Always different.(City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra)(Concert review)
July 8, 2006... Amidst the interminable tundra of centennial Shostakovich the very thought of an 'Igor Fest' is refreshing. And Birmingham's four-year plan to play every note by the 20th century's representative composer got off to a marvellous start last...

Mozart had it easy.(music)(Column)
July 8, 2006... Watching the progress of my friends through the examination season I am reminded of all the nonsense that was pumped into me years ago at this time, and the high seriousness with which it was pumped. It was the notion that one's future...

Stirred by Ravel.(King Arthur)(Opera review)
July 8, 2006... Ravel double bill Royal College of Music King Arthur English National Opera It's rare that both of Ravel's operas appear in one programme, indeed that they appear at all. The RCM, as one might expect, did the fullest justice to both of...

In the line of duty.(The Somme: From Defeat to Victory)(Television program review)
July 8, 2006... Back at church after a few weeks' absence, I found the vicar in a terrible state. 'Oh my dear chap, we've all been thinking of you. Is it true?' he said. 'What?' I said. 'What you said in The Spectator about getting divorced, ' he said. 'You...

Personal rapport.(How to Succeed at Summits)(Radio program review)
July 8, 2006... What really goes on between world leaders at summits? Sir Christopher Meyer, former press secretary to John Major and later ambassador to Washington, told us in How to Succeed at Summits (Sundays, repeated Wednesdays), an entertaining two-part...

Summer luxury.(Product/service evaluation)
July 8, 2006... It's the luxury car time of year. Sun breeds indulgence, expansiveness, living for today, not heeding the cost because the sun will shine again tomorrow (until it doesn't). It influences which cars I think about, encouraging thoughts not only...

Robots and winners.
July 8, 2006... When was the last time one cried for having to leave London at a weekend for two days on a beautiful sailing boat in the south of France? Actually, last week, when the mother of my children gave me an ultimatum to come down or else. Why, oh...

Grey hair and fireworks.(classical music concert)(Column)
July 8, 2006... 'You know you're getting old if when you bend down to tie your shoelaces you wonder if there's anything else you can do while you're down there.' Sir Richard Baker, OBE was at the microphone telling jokes about getting old that were suitable...

SPECTATOR MINI-BAROFFER.
July 8, 2006... Organic wine is increasingly popular, in spite of the fact that few people know what the term actually means. The rules seem to be strict but variable, work differently from country to country, and are monitored by a bewildering number of...

The rough guide to smooth travel books.
July 8, 2006... As thoughts turn to summer villas in Tuscany and Mallorca, the issue of the dreaded house present looms ominously. How to thank someone richer than you for bed and breakfasting the entire family (including the nanny) for two weeks is a...

Tails you win.(fashion)
July 8, 2006... I recently discovered that until the early 1900s it was considered the height of bad manners for gentlemen to take off their hats indoors. As a mark of great favour, the hostess might ask those sitting closest to her to remove their hats, in...

PUTTING ON THE RITZ.
July 8, 2006... RALPH LAUREN 1 New Bond Street, London W1 Tel: 020 7535 4600 www. polo. com THEO FENNELL 18ct white gold with black and white diamonds skull and snake cufflinks, [pounds sterling]5,500 Tel: 0207 591 5000 CLERMONT DIRECT Clermont Hall,...

Goodbye Leningrad.(St. Petersburg)(Column)
July 8, 2006... In 1980 I made my first pilgrimage to St Peterburg, then called by its Soviet name of Leningrad. I'd been working in Finland in the art department of the Hollywood film Reds, creating the St Petersburg of the Russian Revolution in the streets...

HOTELS OF THE WEEK.
July 8, 2006... GRAND HOTEL EUROPE Nevsky Prospekt, Ul. Mikhailovskaya 1/7, St Petersburg, Russia Tel: 007 812 329 6000 Fax: 007 812 329 6001 Email: res@grandhoteleurope. com HOTEL ASTORIA St Isaac's Square, Ul. Bolshaya Morskaya 39, St Petersburg, Russia...

Hurrah for history.(Hitler's Olympics)(Book review)
July 8, 2006... Forget the football, a bizarrely exotic touch of history reverberates around the World Cup final in Berlin's Olympiastadion tomorrow evening. Listen to this: 'Berlin was crowded with foreigners and the streets beflagged. Went for a walk down...

Love isn't all you need.
July 15, 2006... The language of priorities is the religion of socialism, said Nye Bevan. In fact, the setting of priorities is the basis of all practical politics. This is one of many reasons that David Cameron's speech on social justice and crime this week...

DIARY.(World Cup soccer)
July 15, 2006... Berlin, 9 July. It wasn't meant to be like this. High in the Olympiastadion - Block 28, Row 4, Seat 22 - at 7.45 p. m. local time, I shut my eyes and imagine the sights and sounds which I'd hoped to experience. For a few seconds, this...

The Chancellor will tack right to unsettle Cameron: this is a good time to buy Browns.
July 15, 2006... One day at the Commons recently, just before Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron found himself in the gents next to Gordon Brown. The two said a brief hello and then silence fell. As Mr Brown left, he said to the Conservative leader over...

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTES.
July 15, 2006... Because everyone can see that the government can no longer do anything worth doing, there is a widespread assumption that its days are numbered. But this is a non sequitur. In the past, Labour governments could do things only in the short gap...

DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY.(Column)
July 15, 2006... MONDAY Leaked email trails - 1 (v bad); imploring phonecalls to Dave's office pretending will have nervous breakdown if sacked - 15 (seems to have worked! ); hooded tops delivered to office - 135 (think we've struck a chord. Plus some of them...

The rich have never been richer: their predecessors were small fry.
July 15, 2006... For the rich and successful, these are the best of times. They are earning more than most had ever dreamt possible and are celebrated in popular culture and courted by the political establishment as never before. Millionaires have become...

To solve the Afghan crisis, get tough on Pakistan.
July 15, 2006... Helmand, Afghanistan For all the heated debate taking place about Britain's deepening military commitment to Afghanistan, the government is proving remarkably reluctant to discuss the most important factor of all - the role of Pakistan....

The Bombay blasts were an attack on India's future.
July 15, 2006... We were sitting in the airconditioned tedium of a traffic jam close to that great monument to the Raj, the Gate of India, where soldiers and civil servants arrived and departed in the closing years of the Imperial age. Outside, the evening...

The lesson of France's black football players.
July 15, 2006... For all that was made of the 'diversity' of the French World Cup side, what was truly striking about the team that took to the field to face Italy in Berlin's Olympic Stadium was its very lack of diversity. For all but three of the players who...

Who is David Aaronovitch to tell me what I can and can't ask John Prescott?(Column)
July 15, 2006... Reading about Albert Einstein in my morning newspaper earlier this week, I was immediately put in mind of our Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. Now, come on, credit it where it's due. How often do you read an opening paragraph...

'The special relationship is safe with Cameron or Brown'.(Robert H. Tuttle)(Interview)
July 15, 2006... AmI about to become the 'Spectator One'? Having cleared the first airport-style security check at the US Embassy on Upper Grosvenor Street, I reach a second perimeter inside the building itself. This time the X-ray machine picks up a mysterious...

I would like to think that Cameron is right that we are One Nation. I fear he is wrong.
July 15, 2006... Columnists reckon that on the whole we are not paid to air our uncertainties. Given a case to make, we make it with confidence and force. Readers (we suppose) prefer this. But the argument which follows may be wrong. To advance it even...

Tories must leave the EPP.(Letter to the editor)
July 15, 2006... From Douglas Carswell MP Sir: Fraser Nelson should ask himself why Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and the rest of Old Europe's political elite are so desperate to keep the Conservatives in the EPP (Politics, 8 July). It is precisely because...

Essay question.(Letter to the editor)
July 15, 2006... From Patrick Pender-Cudlip Sir: My history pupils never have to fill in 'boxes' and they are writing essays by the age of 14. For GCSE History they have to write one (long) essay, and for A-level no fewer than five. Can things be so very...

Murder muddle.(Letter to the editor)
July 15, 2006... From Nigel Jones Sir: Michael Vestey has (understandably) got his Scottish royal murders mixed up. (Radio, 8 July). He writes that Jacques Delors was 'awed . . . by being given the room at Holyrood that was the scene of the murder of Mary,...

Food for thought.(Letter to the editor)
July 15, 2006... From Angela Mackworth-Young Sir: To alleviate Paul Johnson's modern novel starvation (And another thing, 8 July) I suggest that the novels of Rose Tremain, A.S. Byatt, William Golding, John Fowles, Robertson Davies, Andrea Levy, Salley Vickers,...

'Bill Gates is just a figurehead. I am actively engaged'.(George Soros)(Interview)
July 15, 2006... In the bookcase in George Soros's South Kensington drawing-room, neatly lined up beside works on Kant, Adam Smith and Karl Popper, are multiple copies of Open Society, written by one of today's aspiring philosophers: Soros himself. The...

The new dependency culture: private consultants.
July 15, 2006... The Royal Mail needs help reporting figures to its regulator; London Underground needs someone to improve its organisational effectiveness; Medway National Health Service Trust wants its data analysis sorted out; Scottish Water can't handle its...

A compost heap of hot stocks.
July 15, 2006... 'A piece of sh*t' was the non-technical term used by Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget to describe a dotcom stock called 24/7 Media, back in October 2000. To him, it was just another 'new paradigm' company to foist on an overheating market....

Reflections on the book trade from the man who wants his shops back.(Column)
July 15, 2006... The week in which HMV completed its [pounds sterling]63 million takeover of Ottakar's - and announced that Ottakar's bookshops will be rebranded as Waterstone's, which HMV already owns - seems a good moment to contemplate the future of the book...

The Voltaire of St Aldates.(Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson)(Book review)
July 15, 2006... LETTERS FROM OXFORD : HUGH TREVOR -ROPER TO BERNARD BERENSON edited by Richard Davenport-Hines Weidenfeld, [pounds sterling]20, pp. 326, ISBN 0297850849 . [pounds sterling]16 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Ah Oxford!...

The twitcher on the thread.(The Man Who Went Into the West: The Life of R. S. Thomas)(Book review)
July 15, 2006... THE MAN WHO WENT INTO THE WEST : THE LIFE OF R. S. THOMAS by Byron Rogers Aurum, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 314, ISBN 1845131460 . [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Ordained in 1936 when he was 23, R. S....

Castrated by a grateful nation.(The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer)(Book review)
July 15, 2006... THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH : ALAN TURING AND THE INVENTION OF THE COMPUTER by David Leavitt Weidenfeld, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 319, ISBN 0297846558 . [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Some people's...

A tendency to collect kings.(The Letters of Martha Gellhorn )(Book review)
July 15, 2006... THE LETTERS OF MARTHA GELLHORN selected and edited by Caroline Moorehead Chatto, [pounds sterling]30, pp. 400, ISBN 070116952 . [pounds sterling]24 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Some day this book may be in the footnotes of...

Painter, dreamer, governor, spy.(Sketches From a Secret War)(Book review)
July 15, 2006... SKETCHES FROM A SECRET WAR by Timothy Snyder Yale, [pounds sterling]22.50, pp. 347, ISBN 030010670X . [pounds sterling]20.25 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Of all the odd, forgotten corners of eastern Europe, the province...

More than meets the eye -- or not.(Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman )(Book review)
July 15, 2006... BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN by Haruki Murakami tr. by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin Harvill Secker, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 334, ISBN 1843432692 . [pounds sterling]13.59 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Not long ago I...

Under the influence of Mars.(Captain Professor: A Life in War and Peace)(Book review)
July 15, 2006... CAPTAIN PROFESSOR : A LIFE IN WAR AND PEACE by Michael Howard Continuum, [pounds sterling]19.99, pp. 221, ISBN 0826491251 . [pounds sterling]15.99 (plus [pounds sterling]2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 It is no surprise that Michael Howard after...

A choice of first novels.(Critical essay)
July 15, 2006... In Cold Skin, a brilliantly suspenseful debut novel by Albert Sanchez Pinol set in the years after the end of the first world war, a young man arrives on a desolate Antarctic island, where for the next 12 months he will study the local climate....

Rampant fascism near Henley.(Sherman's Wife: A Wartime Childhood Among the English Aristocracy)(Book review)
July 15, 2006... SHERMAN'S WIFE : A WARTIME CHILDHOOD AMONG THE ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY by Julia Camoys Stonor Desert Hearts, [pounds sterling]16.99, pp. 347, ISBN 9781898948797 There can seldom have been a better first sentence in a book by a daughter about...

Prince of self-pity.(Hamlet)(Critical essay)
July 15, 2006... TS. Eliot thought Hamlet an 'artistic failure', Shakespeare being unable to reconcile the theme of the old revenge tragedy on which the work is based with the conception of the character of Hamlet himself. One may agree with this while still...

Charleston charm.(Charleston Farm)
July 15, 2006... Viewers of The Culture Show on BBC2 recently might have been surprised to see Patti Smith, Seventies punk icon and sometime lover of Robert Mapplethorpe, wandering through the rooms and gardens of Charleston Farmhouse in east Sussex (former...

Easy on the eye.
July 15, 2006... Modigliani and his Models Royal Academy, until 15 October Hard on the heels of the National Gallery's show Rebels and Martyrs, about the changing perception of the artist, comes this exhibition of Modigliani's paintings. The title makes a...

Misreading Beethoven.(Fidelio)(Opera review)
July 15, 2006... Fidelio Glyndebourne When Glyndebourne mounted its new production of Beethoven's Fidelio in 2001, with Simon Rattle conducting and Deborah Warner directing, it was perilously close to being a flop. Perhaps that is why they waited the...