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The Lebanon I love will rise once more

Richard Beeston

Wednesday, 19th July 2006

Richard Beeston has known Beirut for five decades, since the days when Kim Philby lived there. Here he recounts a recent visit to the city he loves

I first came to Beirut half a century ago, the year of the Suez War, driving from Amman across the Syrian desert, through the Bekaa Valley and over the mountains of Lebanon. In those days Lebanon, barely a decade after independence from France, was a confident, prosperous nation and Beirut a charming, elegant mix of East and West, Christian and Muslim, with red-tiled Ottoman houses, a delightful coastline of empty beaches and coves, unspoiled mountain villages and a modest ski resort from which you could view the blue Mediterranean.

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The secret letters of the Jonestown death cult

Barry Isaacson

Thirty years after the mass suicides and murders in Guyana, Barry Isaacson unveils a cache of letters he found in his LA home, mapping the pain of one of the families

C’mon Cherie: even Goering stuck up a bit for Hitler

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle says it is no surprise that Gordon Brown has ended up as surly and suspicious as he has: the memoirs of John Prescott, Lord Levy and Cherie Blair are appalling acts of treachery and avarice

I never want to be as insecure as Olivier

Tim Walker

Tim Walker talks to Greta Scacchi about her new role in The Deep Blue Sea, the gaucheness of Bill Murray — and being offered the lead in Basic Instinct

Meet James Purnell: the best hope Labour has of avoiding disaster

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson says that the 38-year-old Work and Pensions Secretary is the best candidate to succeed Gordon Brown. Already surging ahead at his department, he has the gift of sounding like an ordinary human being — and he understands the Cameron Conservative party

An Actor's Life

Joan Collins

Joan Collins lives an actor's life

Pipeline power

Kate Chisholm

Dancing with the Russian Bear (BBC Radio 4); Gould's Mind (BBC Radio 4)

The importance of being serious about France

Denis MacShane

The new French ambassador is a figure of significance

‘We are at war with all Islam’

Mary Wakefield

An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The 28 days debate is a red herring compared to this attack on free speech

Rod Liddle

Samina Malik may be cretinous, but shouldn’t be criminalised

This Middle East summit is a distraction that will achieve little

James Forsyth

The Annapolis Middle East summit won’t produce anything more than a commitment to hold another meeting. But the real worry is that Condoleezza Rice’s intense focus on the Israel Palestine question could distract her from more pressing matters in Iraq, Pakistan and North Korea.