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Sunday 23 November 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

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Columnists

Another Voice

I blame those who worked with Brown, knew what he was really like, but stayed silent

The other day, the 9.56 bus to the nearest train station was late and the people at the stop — of whom I was by far the youngest — began to grumble a little. Then, looming out of the mist, appeared the driver.

Ancient & Modern

Barack Obama has risen to power on the back of an enviable oratorical ability. But it is a two-edged sword. Ancient Greeks, who had a word for it (rhetoric) and were the first people to analyse and describe its rules, were both captivated by and fearful of it. One thinker, Gorgias, likened it to magic for its ability to charm you into unexpected courses of action.

Another Voice

We need a new language to describe time, preferably without spatial metaphors

Arts

Due discretion

During the two previous recessions it was not unknown for Rolls-Royce and Bentley owners to replace their cars covertly.

Glorious gadgets

Is Christmas creeping up on you, unawares? Again? Have you found yourself, even at this late hour, facing a nil-all draw as far as presents bought, and presents asked for, is concerned? Never mind.

Books

Extraordinarily ordinary

Wartime Courage: Stories of Extraordinary Courage by Ordinary People in World War Two, by Gordon Brown

Three men and a singer

The China Lover, by Ian Buruma

Style & Travel

The mad hatter

Joseph Connolly reveals a life-long obsession with hats

Spain’s secret kingdoms

Few tourists see the buildings, birds and flowers of Leon and Burgos, says Simon Courtauld

Thank goodness we can have a run on the pound when we need one

Martin Vander Weyer looks ahead to next week’s Pre-Budget Report and reflects on George Osborne’s contentious remarks about the devaluation of sterling. It looks like Gordon Brown is getting away with his borrowing binge — leaving the Tories isolated

Martin Vander Weyer

I loved Oliver Stone’s Bush film — and I know why the critics hated it

The movie W. did not provide the crude anti-Bush agitprop that the reviewers craved, says Rod Liddle. This was precisely its strength: we need to get inside the minds even of those we most deplore

Rod Liddle

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