Spectator articles from September 2005

Spectator archives from September 2005

Why 'Europe' matters.
September 3, 2005... The Conservative party talks about Europe so little these days that it is becoming unnatural, rather as if the Lib Dems had decided that the issue of PR was irrelevant. Ostensibly, this is because Europe is no longer a 'live' issue. It is no...

Portrait of the week.
September 3, 2005... The Home Office proposed a new offence of having images from the internet of serious sexual violence and other obscene material; it would be punishable by three years in jail. The presumed murderer of an 11-year-old boy in West Lothian was...

Diary.(debit card fraud)
September 3, 2005... It is always nice to get back and find you haven't been burgled. The locks were secure, the windows intact, and with a song in my heart I opened my bank statement. It all seemed pretty satisfactory, if a tiny bit emaciated, and for a second or...

How the anti-intellectual Tory party has betrayed the legacy of Maurice Cowling.(POLITICS)
September 3, 2005... Not long after John Major became prime minister Maurice Cowling, who died last week, asked me to a feast at Peterhouse. In the port-soaked aftermath in a candlelit Senior Combination Room, and between intermittent insults to the then Master,...

The Spectator's notes.(diary)
September 3, 2005... Our children recently went to the stage version of Billy Elliot and, like most, loved it. I am sure it is an inspiring tale about aspiration, disadvantage and dancing. But the politics.... The miners, striking for a year in 1984-85, sing...

Who runs the Tory party? Peter Oborne says that Ken Clarke's leadership bid comes at a time of almost unprecedented anger and chaos in Westminster and the constituencies.(Cover Story)
September 3, 2005... The Prime Minister faced a number of grave problems on his return from his Caribbean holiday this week: the collapse of his policy in Iraq, a sharp downturn in the British economy, a looming funding crisis in the health service. However, one...

Second opinion.(physicians)(Column)
September 3, 2005... I once met a woman who so preferred dogs to men that when her husband demanded that she make a choice between him and her dogs, she unhesitatingly chose his departure. It was she who told me that Dobermann (or Rottweiler, I can't now remember...

Mind your language.(Ann Cole's research on geographical names)
September 3, 2005... If you live in a place ending in -don (or sometimes -ton), such as Toot Baldon, Stottesdon (Shropshire) or Billington (Bedfordshire), you will probably find that the shape of the hill your town is built on differs from those designated by...

The price is right: Hurricane Katrina pushed oil above $70 a barrel, but, says Martin Vander Weyer, high prices are nothing to fret about.
September 3, 2005... It's not easy to get a handle on how much oil we have left, how long it will last and what price we should pay for it. What we do know, however, that at over $60 a barrel--and it jumped to a record high of $70.80 on Monday as Hurricane Katrina...

Flap over nothing: who believes that bird flu may cause as many as 50 million deaths? Ross Clark doesn't, and here's why.
September 3, 2005... I don't personally know anyone suffering from malaria or tuberculosis, but I imagine that if they have been following the Western media they must have found the past week somewhat surreal. Half a billion people are now suffering from malaria,...

The joy of stigma: Rod Liddle is all for tolerance and compassion but has no time for loony campaigns to rid the world of useful stereotypes.(Column)
September 3, 2005... I think my favourite ever name for a campaigning, single-issue pressure group can be found in the New York telephone directory: The National Stigma Clearing House. Its purpose is to stamp upon stigma wheresoever it may arise--and recently it...

Triumph of the poms: England expects to win the Ashes. What's going on? Mike Atherton on the game plan that led to victory.(cricket)
September 3, 2005... Sometime during the last Test at the Oval next week, England expects that Michael Vaughan will become the first England captain for 18 years to hold the little urn aloft. If it happens, the scenes will be rapturous, and reminiscent of the day...

Strange customs.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 3, 2005... From Jill Watkin-Tuck Sir: Having suffered similar humiliation and over-zealous inanity at the hands of British immigration, I can only sympathise with James Hughes-Onslow's friend ('Hop off, you Aussies', 27 August). However, I do have to...

Public-school pop.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 3, 2005... From Hugh Massingberd Sir: Among the public-school pop stars not mentioned in Marcus Berkmann's amusing article (Arts, 13 August) were Michael ('Mike') d'Abo of A Band of Angels, which largely comprised Old Harrovians like himself, and...

And more things.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 3, 2005... From Jodi Cudlipp Sir: Poor old Saint Paul Johnson--he's such a coward. He never attacked Hugh Cudlipp during Hugh's lifetime: he wouldn't have dared. But he forgets that I'm still alive and this is his second Spectator attack since my...

Smelling assaults.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 3, 2005... From Pamela Hill Sir: 'The corpulent lecher George IV' could not have asked anybody to become his mistress (Books, 27 August). Even by 1814, when Dorothea Lieven sat on one side of the Prince Regent at a banquet he gave for the Tsar's...

Are Tony Blair and George Bush dabbling in Satanism?(ANOTHER VOICE)(Don Giovanni)(Critical Essay)
September 3, 2005... A super production of Don Giovanni at the Sydney Opera House last week led my thoughts far from Prague, where it was first performed, far from Australia and far from Mozart. The point of departure was the famous moment that marks the real end...

An old German philosopher and the impotence of Europe.(AND ANOTHER THING)
September 3, 2005... The most influential thinker on the Continent is Jurgen Habermas. Indeed, he might be called the Brussels philosopher-laureate. It is said he is the favourite guru of both Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schroder. His advocacy of an EU...

Mandy and Hu He leave M&S's customers to catch a cold in the High Street.(CITY AND SUBURBAN)
September 3, 2005... The long line of young women outside Marks & Spencer, arms folded modestly across their chests as they wait for their brassieres to arrive, is a standing rebuke to the European Single Market. Even Peter Mandelson, now installed as commissioner...

Tragical-comical-historical.(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... AFTER THE VICTORIANS by A. N. Wilson Hutchinson, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 609, ISBN 0091794846 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 After the Victorians opens with a coronation at which 'Land of Hope...

When doctors disagree.(Human Traces )(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... HUMAN TRACES by Sebastian Faulks Hutchinson, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 614, ISBN 0091794552 14.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Though not generally intimidated by big books, I will admit to...

Frantic and fantastic.(Fan-Tan )(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... FAN-TAN by Marion Brando and Donald Cammell Heinemann, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 250, ISBN 043401400 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 There is now an established tradition of busy stars not reading...

The oddness of odds.(Chance)(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... CHANCE by Amir D. Aczel High Stakes Publishing, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 192, ISBN 1843440229 9.60 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 I do find this an extraordinary book. Distinguished as the author is, 'an...

A devotee of Devon.(Court Royal: A Story of Cross Currents )(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... COURT ROYAL: A STORY OF CROSS CURRENTS by Sabine Baring-Gould Praxis Books, Crossways Cottage, Walterstone, Herefordshire, HR2 0DX, 10 [pounds sterling], pp. 424, ISBN 0952842092 The regional novel in England sounds like a dull and worthy...

Reliable friend, less reliable consul.(Joseph Severn: Letters and Memoirs )(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... JOSEPH SEVERN: LETTERS AND MEMOIRS edited by Grant F. Scott Ashgate, 45 [pounds sterling], pp. 752, ISBN 0754650146 36 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 The twin graves lie side-by-side in the Protestant...

Playing the marriage market.(Consuelo and Alva: Love and Power in the Gilded Age )(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... CONSUELO AND ALVA: LOVE AND POWER IN THE GILDED AGE by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart HarperCollins, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 579, ISBN 0007127308 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 In November 1895 the most...

Under the volcano again.(Pompeii: A Novel)(Pompeii: The Living City)(In the Shadow of Vesuvius )(Book Review)
September 3, 2005... POMPEII: A NOVEL by Robert Harris Arrow, 6.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 0099282615 POMPEII: THE LIVING CITY by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence Weidenfeld, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 368, ISBN 0297645609 [telephone] 16 [pounds...

At full throttle: Andrew Lambirth on an artist's relationship with the Llanthony Valley in south Wales.(ARTS)
September 3, 2005... On a warm but dampish day a month ago, I set off for the wilds of south Wales to explore the Llanthony Valley in the Black Mountains. The train takes the visitor as far as Abergavenny, after which you're somewhat reliant on a car, unless you...

Quirky vision.(Keith Holmes' Venice paintings exhibition)
September 3, 2005... Keith Holmes: Venice Is in the Detail The Millinery Works Gallery, 85/87 Southgate Road, London N1 7-25 September, closed on Mondays Venice must be the most painted city in the world. Keith Holmes is among the latest in the long line of...

Dated caper.(Theatre)(Tom, Dick and Harry at the Duke of York's)(Russian National Mail at the Old Red Lion)(Theater Review)
September 3, 2005... Tom, Dick and Harry Duke of York's Russian National Mail Old Red Lion Simplicity isn't a virtue that Ray Cooney has any time for. Here s the set-up for his new farce Torn, Dick and Harry. Childless Tom and his soppy-stern wife Linda...

The scent of sex.(Olden but golden)(Music)(Column)
September 3, 2005... Towards the end of his life, John Betjeman was asked during a television interview if he had any regrets. Ravaged by Parkinson's disease he tremblingly replied, 'Not enough sex.' The effect was at once comic, touching and desperately sad--like...

Unhappy Handel.(Opera)(Glyndebourne's Giulio Cesare at the Proms)(Opera Review)
September 3, 2005... Glyndebourne's Giulio Cesare Proms The new production of Handel's Giulio Cesare has been the hit of this year's season at Glyndebourne, and equally has been one of the year's biggest Prom successes, evoking raptures at the end which may...

Royal scandal.(Radio)(A Right Royal Affair )(Radio Program Review)
September 3, 2005... The Document series on Radio Four is often an absorbing pursuit of information triggered by the discovery of one document which leads to another. The sleuthing involved can be revealing about an historic event and occasionally is of some...

Perfect day.(The turf)
September 3, 2005... Having been carved up brutally at Vauxhall last Saturday by an open-topped Mercedes, I gently indicated a request for better road manners as one does (at least when Mrs Oakley is not there to offer helpful advice) by leaning on the horn,...

Political moves.(High life)
September 3, 2005... Gstaad I know few politicians and speak to even fewer--Lady Thatcher and Lord Tebbitt being the exceptions--so I'm hardly the one to judge whether being a cuckold is good for one's political career or not. I am, of course, talking about...

Mine's a lasagne.(Low life)(Column)
September 3, 2005... Tickets for Who's the Daddy?, which ended last Sunday, were like gold dust. Even co-writer Lloyd Evans couldn't help. I rang and rang the King's Head box office hoping for returns. And then I rang again and the cheerful, cynical lady who...

Crowd-puller.(Bridge)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2005... The current craze for poker leaves me a little sad and a little envious that the same thing isn't happening for bridge. People often assume that this is because bridge isn't a spectator sport. But in fact it has been in the past, and could be...

Red nose day.(CHESS)(Rudolph Spielmann)(Biography)
September 3, 2005... Rudolph Spielmann rose to prominence in the leisured tournaments of the Europe of the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, at a time when standard dress for the games was frock coat, wing collar and smartly polished boots. The young Austrian...

1730: split?(CROSSWORD)
September 3, 2005... Unclued lights are discrete definitions of a homograph, which is concealed in the complete grid and must be shaded. Elsewhere, ignore an accent and an apostrophe. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Name-- Address-- A first prize of 30...

Down but not out.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(Ashes cricket)
September 3, 2005... Never bet against world champions is the sage ringsider's timeless rubric. Certainly not when they look to be cornered and groggy. In what is already the most imperishably thrilling cricket series staged in this country since the whole motley...

Your problems solved.
September 3, 2005... Dear Mary Q. We were recently married and a number of people who had informed us that they were coming failed to appear on the day. Besides the disappointment, our catering was not cheap and these no-shows cost us a considerable sum. We...

Turkey must relent.
September 10, 2005... The issue of how best to approach a friend who has badly let you down is one more commonly dealt with at the back of this magazine, by our agony aunt on etiquette, Mary Killen. But this week it is one that needs to be addressed here. Over the...

Portrait of the week.
September 10, 2005... Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, flew off to China and appeared at a press conference with the Chinese leader, Mr Wen Jiabao, where it was said that there had been a resolution of the dispute over European Union import quotas, which had seen...

Diary.(Column)
September 10, 2005... With my wife's consent, I have just become the lover of a handsome 57-year-old lady. She has a fine round bottom and a comfortable beam. I sought expert advice before embarking on the affair. Ian Burgoyne, marine surveyor, tapped her all over...

The country wants Kenneth Clarke--so why don't the Westminster Tories?(POLITICS)
September 10, 2005... At the worst moment in Labour party fortunes, some point in the mid-1980s, a Labour politician is said to helve emerged from yet another resounding election defeat unrepentant, declaring: there must be no compromise with the electorate. ...

The Spectator's notes.(German elections, 2005)
September 10, 2005... At the weekend, I was in Frederick the Great's palace at Potsdam, attending a conference inspired by the indefatigable George Weidenfeld. As the elections approach, excitement is beginning to mount that Germany might be run by a woman for the...

The grim lessons of Katrina: Walter Ellis says that for many Americans New Orleans revealed the slimy underside of national life.(Cover Story)
September 10, 2005... New York It is tempting when looking back on natural catastrophes to see them as symbols of the affected nation's fatal departure from good sense or moral progress. Hubris is retrospectively invoked to justify the evident nemesis. The...

Is this the end of empire?
September 10, 2005... Washington What did Katrina tell us? Much we already knew. Our politics is as poisoned as in the Nixon era. Even the worst disasters are exploited to score on one's enemy. Where September 11 united us, Katrina divides us anew. No...

It may be hell, but it's home: eat, drink and be merry for this is ... New Orleans: Julia Reed on the deadly delights of her city.
September 10, 2005... Greenville, Mississippi It was bound to happen--in fact it already had. In 1719, one year after Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, established New Orleans as the capital of the French colony of Louisiana, a hurricane destroyed the...

The cowardice of the BBC: Rod Liddle on the key players in the campaign against John Humphrys.
September 10, 2005... The peculiar and very bitter New Labour vendetta against the BBC presenter, John Humphrys, has at last drawn blood. Our government really, really hates the man and it is being aided in its campaign by one or two sycophantic News International...

The Flintoff phenomenon: Michael Henderson talks to the sporting hero who is set to lift England's hearts at the Oval.(Interview)
September 10, 2005... 'Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight!' But when it comes, as it has this summer, what joys fly upon its wings. As the fifth and final cricket Test against Australia takes place at the Oval this weekend, the whole kingdom, it seems,...

Ancient & modern.(Tacitus)
September 10, 2005... Two weeks ago, we wondered how Tacitus, that pillar of the Roman establishment, was able to get away with putting a speech in the mouth of the Caledonian 'terrorist' Calgacus to his troops that sounded so sympathetic to him and his cause. This...

The lie of the land: Alasdair Palmer is astonished by what asylum-seekers get away with when they face the adjudicators.
September 10, 2005... A survey published last week shows that more people tried to claim asylum in Britain last year than in any other industrialised country in the world. That could be because Britain is universally recognised as the best country in the world in...

Mind your language.
September 10, 2005... In a memorable outburst on local radio, the Mayor of New Orleans, Mr Ray Nagin, complained about the distantness of federal authority from the hurricane-struck city. 'They flew down here one time two days "after the doggone event was over, with...

Writing God off: Theo Hobson says that literary atheism is a very British cult--and it is practised with adolescent enthusiasm.
September 10, 2005... Is it a rule that British novelists have to take a simplistic anti-religious position? Is it a precondition for entering the Booker Prize or something? It is a central part of our literary culture. Many of our major novelists and critics have...

Something rotten in the state of Louisiana.(ANY OTHER BUSINESS)
September 10, 2005... I have mixed memories of New Orleans. The hospitality was gracious and the cuisine was fine, but there was a pervasive whiff of something rotten which must have a bearing on the city's lack of preparedness for the present disaster. I once spent...

If you are a Tory politician, why not be fat and sexist?(SHARED OPINION)
September 10, 2005... Female Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, while out of the Speaker's earshot, have been caught making personal remarks about the Conservative MP Nicholas Soames. Mr Soames was going about his lawful business, for which he was duly elected, of...

RSPCA is off target.(Letter to the Editor)
September 10, 2005... From Peter Luff MP Sir: Simon Heifer was right to warn about the danger to shooting, and Charles Moore was equally right last week (The Spectator's Notes, 3 September) to point to the real issues that shooters must address. But whatever...

Two ways of trading.(Letter to the Editor)
September 10, 2005... From Ronald Stewart-Brown Sir: Your clarion call to the Conservatives to 'keep up the fight for an open, free-trading Europe' ('Why "Europe" matters', 3 September) reads oddly alongside your reference to the 'hard logical necessities of...

Today's Tamerlane.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 10, 2005... From Justin Marozzi Sir: You say that in the mass murderer stakes Tamburlaine, or Tamerlane, 'comes a long way behind' Lenin (Diary, 3 September). I'm not so sure. In many ways, the Tatar warlord--who used to bury people alive in cement...

Sad but true.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 10, 2005... From J.M. Hallinan Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 27 August) despairs of 'the sheer moral, emotional and intellectual emptiness of the universe' as seen by the Dawkins-Darwinists. I felt much the same about dental extraction when...

Tempting fate.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
September 10, 2005... From Eric Brown Sir: What possessed Mike Atherton to write an article predicting an England victory ('Triumph of the Pores', 3 September)'? And why on earth have the England and Wales Cricket Board already booked Trafalgar Square for a...

From Robespierre to al-Qa'eda: categorical extermination.(AND ANOTHER THING)(intellectuals)
September 10, 2005... An intellectual is someone who thinks ideas matter more than people. If people get in the way of ideas they must be swept aside and, if necessary, put in concentration camps or killed. To intellectuals, individuals as such are not interesting...

How to live for ever: Boris Johnson on the relationship between Horace the poet and Augustus the emperor, and why the poet identified with Mercury.(INVESTIGATION)(Column)
September 10, 2005... I found myself in disgrace a while ago when I contrived to fly my family to a Greek airport called Preveza, only to discover on arrival that they didn't have a hire car big enough for our purposes. It was about 11 p.m. and I was standing...

Running on empty: Alan Judd on the state of the once-mighty British motor industry.(MOTORING)
September 10, 2005... Did Bertrand Russell drive? His elder brother, Frank, certainly did; described by the police as a 'hooligan driver', he stayed up all one night in 1903 to secure A1, the first British registration number. Since those days of idiosyncratic and...

Second-hand gang.(MOTORING)(Column)
September 10, 2005... 'I know,' Boris mumbled to me in the voting lobby late one night, 'write a piece for us on a motor car.' He ruffled his hair and grinned, 'Any car will do.' Before I could answer he continued, 'Good, excellent!' One more ruffle of the hair,...

Reviving the classics.(MOTORING)(Column)
September 10, 2005... I had admired it, gleaming and blue in the street, for a couple of years. Its clean lines and low-built structure recalled a large cat about to pounce; its cream interior, which was in perfect condition, reeked of the heyday of...

The decent limits of forgiveness.(Two Lives)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... TWO LIVES by Vikram Seth Little, Brown, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 503, ISBN 0316727741 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 A titbit from the Strange But True file. The last time Vikram...

Keeping an eye on the Wall Street ball.(Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... DARK GENIUS OF WALL STREET: THE MISUNDERSTOOD LIFE OF JAY GOULD, KING OF THE ROBBER BARONS by Edward J. Renehan Jr Basic Books, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 0465068855 [telephone] 14.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds...

The calm and solid Cubist.(Georges Braque: A Life)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... GEORGES BRAQUE: A LIFE by Alex Danchev Hamish Hamilton, 35 [pounds sterling], pp. 440, ISBN 0241140781 [telephone] 28 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 The personalities of only a handful of artists...

Take-over bid by a stranger.(Slow Man)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... SLOW MAN by J. M. Coetzee Seeker, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 263, ISBN 0436206110 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 This is a novel on a rebarbative theme: incapacity. Not the...

The spacious firmament on high.(The Planets)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... THE PLANETS by Dava Sobel Fourth Estate, 15 [pounds sterling], pp. 271, ISBN 1857028503 [telephone] 12 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 This is the most dazzling era in astronomy that human history...

Waiting.(Poem)
September 10, 2005... Waiting How many more farewells? A brittle fan of bones, Once your hand, Waves across your face Like a metronome slowing down. The one good eye, still aquamarine As a Turkish sea, Cannot, thank God, see...

Gone but not forgotten.(The Book of Lost Books)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... THE BOOK OF LOST BOOKS by Stuart Kelly Viking, 15.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 390, ISBN 0670914991 [telephone] 12.79 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 The complete works of the poet Gallus (who was...

A Norfolk not an Essex man.(Humphry Repton's Memoirs)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... HUMPHRY REPTON'S MEMOIRS edited by Ann Gore and George Carter Michael Russell, 15.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 160, ISBN 0859552950 A special thrill when visiting country houses--as I used to do every week in the unconvincing guise of what...

Top marks for charisma.(Olivier: The Authorised Biography)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... OLIVIER: THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY by Terry Coleman Bloomsbury, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 607, ISBN 0747577986 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 In the delightful correspondence (1944)...

Lucky dip for lovers.(The Ladles' Oracle)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... THE LADLES' ORACLE by Cornelius Agrippa Bloomsbury, 6.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 110 ISBN 0747579059 [telephone] 5.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 First published in 1857, The Ladies' Oracle...

A selection of recent paperbacks.
September 10, 2005... Non-fiction: The Strange Death of Tory England by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Penguin, 8.99 [pounds sterling] History Play by Rodney Bolt, HarperPerennial, 8.99 [pounds sterling] The Rare and the Beautiful: The Lives of the Garmans by...

Campaigning on the campus.(Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and its Discontents)(Book Review)
September 10, 2005... FACULTY TOWERS: THE ACADEMIC NOVEL AND ITS DISCONTENTS by Elaine Showalter OUP, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 166 ISBN 019928332X Do campus novels reflect the reality of university life? When I was a Fellow of Peterhouse, back in the...

'Take a break from shopping': Josie Appleton on how libraries are becoming things of the past. Enter, instead, the Idea Store.(ARTS)
September 10, 2005... On 22 September, a new flagship 'Idea Store' will open to replace Whitechapel library in east London, which closed its wood-panelled doors on 6 August. Idea Stores (this is the third in Tower Hamlets) have book collections, but are emphatically...

Discovering a master.(David Milne Watercolours: Painting Towards the Light)(Critical Essay)
September 10, 2005... David Milne Watercolours: Painting Towards the Light British Museum, until 25 September The Canadian painter David Milne (1882-1953) is not known in this country. His name is shamefully overlooked by the Yale Dictionary of Art & Artists,...

Lovers' charm.(Romeo et Juliette by the British Youth Opera)(Opera Review)
September 10, 2005... Romeo et Juliette British Youth Opera British Youth Opera is an institution which I have somehow not come across until now, to my loss. They, or it, are at the Peacock Theatre until 11 September, alternating Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and...

Life transformer.(Music)
September 10, 2005... The revival of interest in what was called 'early music' in the 1970s and 1980s was a cultural event which went beyond a new way of making sounds. There was, for example, the dress code and the eating habits which were said to go with it. There...

Soft option.(Pop music)
September 10, 2005... There can't be many terms in the rock'n'roll lexicon that have come under such sustained critical attack as 'chillout'. Maybe it's the connotations of the 'chillout room' in a club, where people used to go to snog desultorily or sleep off...