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Friday 21 November 2008

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Features

Maybe Polanski was right to flee America

P.G. Morgan goes in search of the truth about the great director’s flight from the US courts — and uncovers some uncomfortable truths worthy of a scene in Chinatown

For a bit of perspective, try thinking Jurassic

The first takeaways originated about 150 million years ago, says Christopher Lloyd; global travel is pretty ancient, too. And as for democracy...

Don’t confuse conversation with dialogue or quips

Catherine Blyth says that conversation is an art: its essence is the acrobatic business of reading and changing minds — talking with people, not at them

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

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

Arts

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.

Winning formulas

Andy Hamilton was an exceedingly welcome panellist in the days when I did The News Quiz, so I’m biased.

Books

Not always a saint

Sybil Thorndike: A Star of Life, by Jonathan Croall

New light on a dark age

Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, by Tom Holland

Style & Travel

Spain’s secret kingdoms

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

Climb every mountain

Jeremy Clarke tries the high life at the Carlton hotel, St Moritz

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

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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