Spectator articles from May 2009

Spectator archives from May 2009

Sorry, Liz, you're wrong about sex in the country: Rachel Johnson says that Elizabeth Hurley is a wonderful pin-up for rural England, but has fallen for the entirely fictional belief that living there is a great aphrodisiac.(Liz Hurley)
May 16, 2009... Like all red-blooded members of the human race, there is nothing I like more than looking at pictures of Liz Hurley. So this month's Tatler was a particular treat. There she was in wellies, accessorised by tulle and mousseline gowns in dusty...

Standing room.(the organizational system)(Viewpoint essay)
May 16, 2009... Ideally I only ever want to come across the word 'system' when it's used by an astronaut and sandwiched between 'all' and 'go'. 'All systems go!' has a chirpy, optimistic feel. Eliminate 'all' and 'go' however and you're left with no hope. I...

The British Bill Gates finds a formula for bad times: David Crow meets Mike Lynch, the computer scientist whose firm, Autonomy, makes software that knows how humans think--and can spot when they're committing fraud.(BUSINESS)(Interview)
May 16, 2009... The plush Piccadilly offices of Autonomy are decorated with complex mathematical equations, written in buzzing neon lights and frosted onto glass doors. Although the formulas underpin technology that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago,...

The benefit of the doubt.('Wolf Hall')(Book review)
May 16, 2009... WOlf Hall by Hilary Mantel Fourth Estate, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 653 ISBN 9780007230181 [phone] 15.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With her brilliant...

Sawdust Memories.(Poem)
May 16, 2009... Sawdust Memories I grew up on red meat, lots of it refusing bread or crisps, even sausages often sharing weekday lunch too with mum and dad, because as he left to work in Smithfield at 3 a.m. was usually home for...

Darwin's birthday present.(Ida on Charles Darwin's 200th birthday anniversary)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009... The appearance this week of Ida, our lemur-like, 47-million-year-old ancestor, is a bright spot in an otherwise troubled world. Ida is being hailed as the original embryonic primate from which today's great array of monkeys, apes and ultimately...

Diary.
May 23, 2009... Last week I was invited by a charity to contribute to a book of 'words of wisdom' I would like to have heard when I was 16. It made me think of a strange experience I had at that age. My parents were on holiday and some friends came over for a...

Parliament needs radical, not self-serving, change.(POLITICS)(Viewpoint essay)
May 23, 2009... It is typical of Michael Martin that his laughably short resignation statement contained a fundamental misunderstanding of Parliament. 'This House is at its very best when it is united,' he said. The precise opposite is true. Gordon Brown and...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.
May 23, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MONDAY Dave wants an estimate. Says he wants us to 'bottom line it' for him. This is tricky. We've been ringing round constituencies all weekend and seats are coming up all over the place. Jed says we may have...

If we lose hearts and minds, we will lose the war: David Kilcullen, the man who helped think up the strategy that saved Iraq, says that high-tech weaponry is not the answer in Afghanistan. Only a genuine partnership with the people can help us win.(Cover story)
May 23, 2009... Sir Olaf Caroe--a legendary figure of the Raj, ethnographer of the Pashtuns and last administrator of the North-West Frontier of British India--wrote in 1958 that 'unlike other wars, Afghan wars become serious only when they are over; in...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
May 23, 2009... I HOPE THE SPEAKER RESIGNING HASN'T SET A TREND [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Even if the system's to blame, no one forced MPs to milk it: Rod Liddle says that Sarah Teather, the righteous young Lib Dem MP who refused to claim for a second home, proves that it wasn't mandatory for MPs to fleece us.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)(Members of the Parliament)(Viewpoint essay)
May 23, 2009... The worst case of expenses fraud I ever encountered as a journalist came when I worked for the BBC and a foreign correspondent claimed a few hundred quid for a lawnmower. This created a bit of a scandal and the chap was quite speedily sacked....

Mind your language.(flip and redact)(Column)
May 23, 2009... William Barnes, that remarkable Dorset schoolmaster turned rector, with his buckled shoes and knee-breeches, and eccentric ideas on the English language, wrote a poem on milking time: I come along where wide-horn'd cows, 'Ithin a nook,...

Standing room.(bicycle commuting)(Column)
May 23, 2009... I am not one of those who believe that God made the highways solely in order for motorists to inherit the earth. But any milk of human kindness flowing through my veins curdles when I am driving on the Embankment during the early morning rush...

Happy birthday Big Ben: though the moral fabric of Parliament is in tatters, its architecture remains an inspiration. Stephen Bayley celebrates Pugin's crazy, magnificent clock tower.
May 23, 2009... Boing. That most familiar sound is now 150 years old. Because I am fortunate enough to live near Westminster, I often hear it during solitary moments at night in the bathroom. But, like the rest of the world, I know it even better from radio....

Green shoots with shallow roots: it's true there are signs of an economic recovery, says Martin Vander Weyer, but we should also beware a 'third wave' of destruction.(Viewpoint essay)
May 23, 2009... It's springtime in North Yorkshire, which traditionally means lashing rain and temperatures like February. But however unseasonal the weather, nature knows when it's time to wake up: in the first few days of May, my beech hedge always sheds its...

Latvian notebook.
May 23, 2009... Monday morning, on the Baltic Air 137 to Riga. I finish a taut John Grisham thriller, dip into Kilcullen's brilliant thesis on counter insurgency, The Accidental Guerrilla, then ponder my editor's benevolent but searching comments yesterday on...

Black as he is painted.(Letter to the editor)
May 23, 2009... Sir: Taki is a wonderful man but his lament about Conrad Black (High Life, 16 May) cannot pass uncorrected. Conrad Black's defence did not suffer because he was forced to rely on 'friendly Canadian lawyers'. One lawyer, Eddie Greenspan, is...

Beagles lead the way.(Letter to the editor)
May 23, 2009... Sir: The historic vote at the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) on 18 May marks an important moment in the campaign to restore balance to one of this country's greatest institutions (Letters, 16 May). The...

Pius XII and the Jews.(Letter to the editor)
May 23, 2009... Sir: Simon Caldwell provides a somewhat one-sided view of Pius XII and his attitude to the Jews ('Time to reprieve Pius XII', 16 May). To investigate Pius XII's true position, the Holy See set up the International Catholic-Jewish Historical...

Sleeping with Agatha Christie and the ghosts of guests past in Syria's Baron Hotel.(ANOTHER VOICE)
May 23, 2009... Do you believe in ghosts? I wish I did, for were I to entertain the flimsiest hope that some relic of a personality could haunt a place where once they were, then I should not have slept a wink last night, for the thrill of who might linger....

It's Groundhog Day for Obama's economic team: the President and his men keep claiming to see green shoots, says James Doran, but their failure to impose reform in the banking sector means the financial crisis is far from over.(BUSINESS)(Barack Obama)
May 23, 2009... In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, there lives a fat rodent called Phil whose job it is in the middle of every winter to tell us how much longer we must suffer through the cold and dark until spring. Phil is a groundhog and his annual prediction is...

Brown's nemesis awaits--and his name is Brian: Matthew Lynn identifies the men who may soon declare the British government incapable of repaying its debts.(PUBLIC BORROWING)(Brian Coulton on Gordon Brown)
May 23, 2009... Who will finally sit Gordon Brown down with a bottle of whisky, a loaded revolver and a copy of his own book on courage, and tell him the game is up? You might imagine the task would fall to Jack Straw, flanked by a couple of union bosses. In...

New wine in old bottles: Lucinda Baring meets Simon Berry, chairman of a 200-year-old company that's more modern than it looks.(FAMILY BUSINESS)(Company overview)
May 23, 2009... Berry Bros & Rudd in St James's Street epitomises the idea of an old-fashioned wine merchant. Outside, the facade has remained largely unchanged for centuries. Inside, the panelling, desks and uneven wooden floor transport you to an era long...

Darkness at dawn.('D-Day: The Battle for Normandy' and 'The Forgotten Voices of D-Day')(Book review)
May 23, 2009... D-DAY: THE BATTLE FOR NORMANDY by Anthony Beevor Viking, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 590, ISBN 9780670887033 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 THE FORGOTTEN VOICES OF D-DAY ...

Running on envy.(Deadly Sins)(Book review)
May 23, 2009... DEADLY SINS by Nicholas Coleridge Orion, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 486, ISBN 978072403444 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Please, someone give...

Guidelines.(Poem)
May 23, 2009... GUIDELINES After Elizabeth Bishop The art of using isn't hard to master; so many rules seem filled with the intent to be abused, but it isn't a disaster. There are inquiries: expect the fluster of lost receipts, a...

Moving swiftly on.('Chaplin's Girl' and 'Love Child')(Book review)
May 23, 2009... CHAPLIN'S GIRL by Miranda Seymour Simon & Schuster, 15.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 369, ISBN 9781847371256 [telephone] 12.79 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 LOVE CHILD by Allegra Huston...

Lost and found.('Making an Elephant: Writing from Within')(Book review)
May 23, 2009... MAKING AN ELEPHANT: WRITING FROM WITHIN by Graham Swift Picador, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 400, ISBN 9780330451017 [telephone] [pounds sterling]xx.xx (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Sounding a different note.('Midsummer Nights')(Book review)
May 23, 2009... MIDSUMMER NIGHTS edited by Jeanette Winterson Quercus, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 329, ISBN 9781847248046 [telephone] 15.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 What is inspiration and how does...

Capturing a moment: Stephen Pettitt on how Sir Roger Norrington and others started the debate about 'authenticity'.(ARTS)(London Classical Players)
May 23, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the late 1970s, the conductor Sir Roger Norrington, at the time in charge of the late and lamented Kent Opera, created the London Classical Players. With this act Norrington, who has just turned 75, joined a small...

Personal treasures.(The Intimate Portrait: Drawings, Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence)
May 23, 2009... The Intimate Portrait: Drawings, Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence British Museum, until 31 May In Room 90 at the BM is one of the free exhibitions the Department of Prints and Drawings do so well. This one has been...

Beyond words.('Giselle')(Dance review)
May 23, 2009... Giselle; Triple Bill The Royal Ballet In my view, the debuts of Marianela Nunez and Lauren Cuthbertson in Giselle have been the highlights of London's current ballet season. I wish I had the writing abilities of Theophile Gautier, the...

Shut your eyes and enjoy.('Peter Grimes', 'L'elisir d'amore' and 'Norma')(Opera review)
May 23, 2009... Peter Grimes English National Opera L'elisir d'amore Royal Opera House Norma English Touring Opera, in Cambridge ENO's advertisement for its new production of Peter Grimes under David Alden, and the front of the...

Swedish idyll.('Everlasting Moments' and 'Awaydays')(Movie review)
May 23, 2009... Everlasting Moments 15, Key Cities Awaydays 18, Nationwide Oh, what heaven, what joy, and if you don't bother to see Everlasting Moments, then you are a bigger fool than I thought you were. (If it were possible.) It's a...

Discreet charm.(Television)('Inspector Fluffy and His Agreeable Pipe', 'Martin Clunes: Islands of Britain', '1066: The Battle for Middle Earth' and 'The Incredible Human Journey')(Television program review)
May 23, 2009... I've got this brilliant idea for a Sunday night TV series. It's called Inspector Fluffy and His Agreeable Pipe. Every week, Inspector Fluffy (Stephen Fry) will travel to a picturesque corner of Britain in his battered Morris Traveller, giving...

Real lives.(radio programs)
May 23, 2009... On Go4it, Radio Four's shortly to be axed Sunday-evening programme for children, we heard from children in Swaziland who have created their own radio station, Ses'khone Radio. Their topic for the week was human rights, which for them meant...

Celebrity worship.(High life)
May 23, 2009... New York This being my last week in the Bagel, the butterflies have arrived with a vengeance. Stuttgart, I am told, will be no picnic. Two top judokas, one Japanese, the other German, are in my age group, which I find quite ironic. My boat is...

Essential values.(Low life)('A Fortunate Life')(Column)
May 23, 2009... My last day in Australia I spent in Sydney. In the afternoon, under a blackening sky, I took the ferry out to Manly, sat on the beach and wrote a letter to my boy, enclosing a sample of Manly sand between the pages. Then I returned by ferry to...

Inner wisdom.(Real life)
May 23, 2009... There was something hideously inevitable about the whole thing. I should have known it was going to happen. It was the most obvious thing in the world, when you think about it. I picked up my car from the Peugeot garage, having spent 1,200...

Small things.(Bridge)(Brief article)
May 23, 2009... What are the most painful words any bridge player can utter? 'We lost by an imp.' An imp is an 'international match point', and is every bit as small as it sounds: a mere overtrick in a part score is worth an imp. To lose a match or a...

Spectator mini-bar offer.(Stone, Vine & Sun wines)(Buyers guide)
May 23, 2009... We're promised a 'barbecue summer', though in contrast to my own efforts--blackened sausages, chicken that's burnt on the outside and raw in the middle, steaks too tough to give the dog--I would rather have a cold picnic summer, including...

Oliver's army.(CHESS)(Oliver Cromwell)
May 23, 2009... Novelty chess pieces are perennially popular, including sets made to represent Romans v Barbarians as well as the Battles of Hastings, Trafalgar and Waterloo. Several years ago an English civil war set used to be on the market. Now, at this...

A is for Asbo.(COMPETITION)
May 23, 2009... In Competition No. 2596 you were invited to submit an alphabet primer designed for children of the Noughties. A far cry from the piety and moral lessons of primers past, yours were designed for a generation-in-waiting of Heat-reading (J is...

1915: having one too many.(CROSSWORD)
May 23, 2009... Eight answers have one letter too many for the space; a letter must be removed from each such solution, always leaving a real word. The removed letters spell out, in clue order, a word (hyphened) which is a suitably 18 definition of the other...

Status anxiety: I flatter myself that I'm a Vegas insider, but in fact I'm just a regular sucker.
May 23, 2009... I am spending the entire month of May in Las Vegas making an American television programme and I am not having a good time. Before embarking on this trip, I indulged in all sorts of fantasies about what might happen to me in Sin City. Would I...

Ancient & modern.(government transparency)
May 23, 2009... The general public, never having felt politicians can be wholly trusted, already believe any discreditable rumour about them that comes their way. Even though the recent expenses scandal has fingered fewer than 10 per cent of MPs, the situation...

Britain's got talons.(local elections)
May 30, 2009... Next Thursday, voters in the UK's 12 European constituencies, 27 shire counties and seven unitary authorities will go to the polls in the most extraordinary circumstances. There is, as Martin Vander Weyer argues on page 25, no shortage of local...

Diary.(Column)
May 30, 2009... There's a moment in late May in town when the flags go up, and the bunting gets hung, when you know that the festival in Hay is starting to swing. The bookshops' windows are spectacular, the restaurants are stockpiling wine and leaves, and if...

David Cameron leads Alan Johnson in the new battle to be the boldest reformer.(POLITICS)
May 30, 2009... The last thing any politician wants to be seen as at the moment is a defender of the political status quo. So this week we have had Alan Johnson's call for PR and David Cameron's 'power to the people' speech. The Prime Minister is expected to...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
May 30, 2009... Mr Brown, I'd like to thank you and the other parties for all your help. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Standing room.(work and family)(Column)
May 30, 2009... Last week I celebrated a big birthday. When I was younger (old habits obviously die hard and you have to forgive me for not automatically writing 'when I was young'--it's just going to take a bit more practice), I used to find a particular...

1843 and all that: murder and a 'crooked' parliament: a venal House of Commons, a time of economic dislocation, an unpopular PM: Sian Busby sees eerie resonances in the strange case of Daniel McNaughten.
May 30, 2009... When Daniel McNaughten, a young Glaswegian wood-turner, shot Edward Drummond Esq on a freezing January afternoon in 1843, the widespread reaction was dismay but not astonishment. Such atrocities were only to be expected at a time of economic...

Labour has left Britain on the fringes of Europe: William Hague responds to David Miliband's claim in The Spectator that the Tory EU policy is suicidal and says the government's own strategy has been an abject failure.(Viewpoint essay)
May 30, 2009... Three weeks ago in these pages David Miliband bravely took up the challenge of defending Labour's record on Europe and claimed that the Labour government has been shaping the European debate. Yet the reality is that this government has brought...

Mind your language.(revelations, disclosures and files)(Column)
May 30, 2009... I was struck by Neil Tennant's story (Diary, 23 May) about a message in a seance spelling out to a group of teenagers 'My dear children, you are so young. Do not make my mistake.--Oscar Wilde.' It reminded me of that passage in G.K....

Pius and the Jews.(Letter to the editor)
May 30, 2009... Sir: Contrary to the assertions of Jeffrey Pike (Letters, 23 May) my view of Pope Pius XII is not one-sided but is supported by evidence and the testimonies of witnesses, many of them Jewish. Mr Pike is obviously unaware that Pope Benedict XVI...

Claiming goats.(Letter to the editor)
May 30, 2009... Sir: As a junior researcher at a rich ITV company in the 1960s I sat in a corridor with my own portable Olivetti typewriter on my knees doing research notes for various producers and directors. After a couple of months the typewriter ribbon was...

Oakley's tips.(Letter to the editor)
May 30, 2009... Sir: Robin Oakley has again demonstrated his modesty in his review of the stable he selected for the latest jumps season (The turf, 23 May). Yes, his stable won fewer races than expected and perhaps recorded a deficit of 115 [pounds sterling]....

If you think politicians are mad, wait till celebrities are running the country.(SHARED OPINION)(Viewpoint essay)
May 30, 2009... Clearly they should just have a different Speaker every time. Like on Have I Got News For You? since they sacked Angus Deayton. Do you remember the one with Sir Trevor McDonald? Brilliant. Because we never saw it coming, did we? We all thought,...

I don't give a toss about my MP's flat, but I'm bloody livid about council tax.(ANY OTHER BUSINESS)(Members of the Parliament)(Viewpoint essay)
May 30, 2009... Next Thursday's elections have been so overwhelmed by the scandal of Westminster expenses that candidates for the major parties have scarcely shown their faces in my part of the world. And voters, content to fulminate at the daily pageant of...

Straitened circumstances.('The Little Stranger')(Book review)
May 30, 2009... THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters Virago, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 501, ISBN 9781844086016 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There are more...

Paradise lost.('The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica')(Book review)
May 30, 2009... THE DEAD YARD: TALES OF MODERN JAMAICA by Ian Thomson Faber, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 370, ISBN 9780571227617 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Capital crimes.('The Dead of Winter')(Book review)
May 30, 2009... THE DEAD OF WINTER BY RENNIE AIRTH Pan Macmillan, 16.99 [Pounds sterling] pp. 460, ISBN 9780230714847 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Rennie...

Familiar and unfamiliar.('Footprints in Paris: A Few Streets, A Few Lives')(Book review)
May 30, 2009... FOOTPRINTS IN PARIS: A FEW STREETS, A FEW LIVES by Gillian Tindall Chatto, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 336, ISBN 9780701181024 [telephone] 14.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION...

Counselling.(Poem)
May 30, 2009... COUNSELLING My advice is this: if you must assault a person, Offer them a hand up afterwards. Others don't. And if you will add rape to the assault, Never indulge on a regular basis. If you have to rape a person...

Success at last.('Poland: A History')(Book review)
May 30, 2009... POLAND: A HISTORY by Adam Zamoyski HarperPress, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 426, ISBN 9780007282753 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A couple of...

Depression and dictators.('The Morbid Age')(Book review)
May 30, 2009... THE MORBID AGE by Richard Overy Penguin, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 499, ISBN 9780713995633 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For Professor Overy...

Half measures.('Falstaff')(Opera review)
May 30, 2009... Falstaff Glyndebourne There was an interesting, startled article in the Independent a couple of weeks ago in which the writer recorded that, contrary to the expectations of everyone in 'the media', as the credit crisis squeezes...

Grecian jewel.(Opera 2)(Apollo Theatre)
May 30, 2009... I am sitting in the town square of Hermoupolis, capital of the Greek island of Syros, when I am approached with great courtesy by a gentleman carrying a bundle of papers, on the top of which I can make out the words Notenbuchlein fur Anna...

Poetic evocation.('Sleep Furiously' and 'Fireflies in the Garden')(Movie review)
May 30, 2009... Sleep Furiously U, Key Cities Fireflies in the Garden 15, Key Cities Sleep Furiously is a film (obviously) which, by rights, should make you Sleep Soundly (very) as there is no narrative, almost no dialogue to speak of, and...

Playing Ibsen for laughs.('A Doll's House' and 'The Observer')(Theater review)
May 30, 2009... A Doll's House Donmar The Observer Cottesloe Amazing guy, Ibsen. Still scribbling away at the age of 181, the Norwegian genius has teamed up with underrated Spooks writer Zinnie Harris to create a new version of A Doll's...

Chabrier's treasure.(Music)(Chabrier's Le roi malgre lui)(Opera review)
May 30, 2009... Irresistible, the allure of a snatched weekend in Paris to catch a rare, adored opera, Chabrier's Le roi malgre lui. This glorious cornucopia of intoxicating invention has 'enjoyed' a history of bad luck: the delirious imbecility of the...

Hare on the move.(Radio)('Wall' and 'Letters to Mary')(Radio program review)
May 30, 2009... 'Consider the depth of despair,' suggested the playwright David Hare in his half-hour reflection, Wall, on Monday evening (Radio Four). It is extraordinary how Israel's construction of a 486-mile barrier along its eastern border, at a cost of 2...

Mixed messages.(Television)('Britain's Got Talent', 'A Poet's Guide To Britain' and 'My Life In Verse')(Television program review)
May 30, 2009... So it could be that ITV is saved not by a cigar-chomping, hot-shot showbiz executive but by a spinster from a Scottish village. The appearance of Susan Boyle in the first semi-final of Britain's Got Talent (ITV, all week) was greeted with...

Drinking with Papa.(High life)(Column)
May 30, 2009... Fifty-four years ago this month, dizzy with happiness at having been freed from the jail that was boarding school, I ventured down New York's 5th Avenue looking for fun and adventure. I knew a place called 'El Borracho', Spanish for drunkard,...

Siren's call.(Low life)(Column)
May 30, 2009... 'Looking for love?' said a junk-mail invitation to join an online dating site free of charge. They'd hit the nail on the head. I signed up and followed the step-by-step instructions to compiling and posting my profile. First I had to describe...

Nowhere to turn.(Wild life)(Zimbabwe)(Personal account)
May 30, 2009... Zimbabwe 'Ah, and no cake to offer you!' Mrs H--said. 'I would have baked one if only I'd known you were coming.' It was teatime in Zimbabwe. A golden afternoon sunlight streamed across the shrivelled garden lawn and the mopani woodland...

Taking flight.(Slow life)(Viewpoint essay)
May 30, 2009... Just slightly less brilliant than it had been outside, the weather suddenly became ordinary again: the heavens giving the correct salute to everything returning to routine. It had been a perfect long weekend. I can't remember a nicer one. All...

In hot water.(Bridge)(Brief article)
May 30, 2009... There are more coups at the bridge table than there are in Central America, and I love 'em all. Reading about them, discussing them, executing them. Thrilling. Perhaps most exciting of all is foiling them, which usually takes a lot of...

Head case.(COMPETITION)
May 30, 2009... In Competition No. 2597 you were invited to submit a report written by a social worker on a character from Shakespeare. Congratulations all round: you were on top form. All the biggies--Hamlet, Lear, the Macbeths, Richard III--were...

Czech mate.(CHESS)(Miroslav Filip)
May 30, 2009... I am saddened to report the death of the celebrated Czech grandmaster Miroslav Filip, who died towards the end of April at the age of 80. Filip twice qualified for the World Championship Candidates tournaments and defeated three world champions...

1916: aka.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
May 30, 2009... The unclued lights are of a kind, though they can be divided into two distinct groups. Each unclued across light can be paired with an unclued down light. Elsewhere, ignore an apostrophe. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A first prize of 30...

Las Vegas is the polar opposite of the nanny state. Which is why it's under threat.(STATUS ANXIETY)(Travel narrative)
May 30, 2009... My friend Rob Long, an American television producer, once joked that he couldn't understand the movie Leaving Las Vegas. 'I just don't get it,' he said. 'Why would anyone want to leave Las Vegas?' After spending four weeks here, I'm beginning...

Ancient & modern.(Gaius Verres)(Column)
May 30, 2009... The saga of MPs' allowances brings to mind the depredations of Gaius Verres, Roman governor of Sicily 73-71 BC. Not that there is any real comparison between MPs' money-grubbing and Verres's ruthless looting of the island on a scale that would...