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Tuesday 2 December 2008

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The latest culture as recommended by our staff

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A chilly professional

The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby, by Angus Hawkins

How to write a wrong

‘When young lips have drunk deep of the bitter waters of Hate, Suspicion and Despair, all the Love in the world will not wholly take away that knowledge.’

The power of the evasive word

The Economist Book of Obituaries, by Keith Colquhoun and Ann Wroe

Deadlier than the male

When does a novel stop being a novel and become a crime story? It’s often assumed that there is an unbridgeable gap between them, but that’s not necessarily so.

Not just Hitler

The Third Reich at War, 1939-1945, by Richard L. Evans

Arts

Life lessons

Talking to my dentist, as one does, we discover a mutual enthusiasm for Radio Three’s Composer of the Week (Monday to Friday) and especially its presenter, Donald Macleod.

Apocalypse now

The TV programmes you watched as a child are like acid flashbacks.

Books

The done thing

The Politics of Official Apologies, by Melissa Nobles

Highs and lows on the laughometer

Just What I Always Wanted: Unwrapping the World’s Most Curious Presents, by Robin Laurance

Style & Travel

Pink and potent

Never gamble your pension on a food fashion.

Stocking- filler fizz

Stuck for stocking-filler ideas and feel like raising an insouciant middle finger to the credit crunch?

Brown has played into the hands of the Tory Bullingdon Boys he loathes

Fraser Nelson says that the Pre-Budget Report killed off New Labour without landing a punch on the Tories. It has paved the way for a new Conservatism, in which Cameron woos aspirational voters, focuses on government debt and looks for responsible spending cuts

Fraser Nelson