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Jeremy Clarke: The power of ‘Bonjour’
In France, or in Provence at least, polite rule number one is to say hello. You must offer a distinct…
Melissa Kite: The death of humour
A vet has accused me of a ‘hate crime’ for making a joke about vets. On the basis that everything…
Low life
Last May we had dinner with a comic who reads a lot and his wife. At one point, he told…
Real life
The Albanian builders have started a turf war in my kitchen. The hostilities broke out suddenly. One minute the builders…
Spare me the encomiums for John le Carré
In Absolute Friends, one of John le Carré’s lesser works, the central character explains his rebirth as a left-wing firebrand,…
A man of his Times - the curious case of Lord Finkelstein
Ennobled after loyal service to the government, Lord Finkelstein embodies the collapse of boundaries between newspapers and politics
