The Sunday Telegraph London back issues from December 2003:
Live in a dirty home and set yourself free FIRST PERSON
Dec 07, 2003; ... `Cleaning is good for the soul," reads the homily on the flyleafof this season's oddest bestselling book, How Clean Is Your House?Written by Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie - a former GoodHousekeeping editor and an ex-cleaner - this harmless-lookingcollection of cleaning tips is an ...
Centre stage at last Interview The actress Jill Balcon has lived her life in the shadow of famous men, including her husband Cecil Day- Lewis and their son Daniel. Now she is the star - in a play celebrating her own 60-year career
Dec 07, 2003; ... The actress Jill Balcon, who is celebrating 60 years of radioperformances, is in the unusual position of having had a famousfather, a famous husband and a famous son. Her father was Sir MichaelBalcon, one of Britain's most illustrious film producers, her husbandthe Poet Laureate Cecil ...
The joy of cheques Lisbet Rausing likes nothing more than giving away her immense fortune. And nothing less than begging letters. Nigel Farndale meets the shy academic who is Britain's biggest charitable giver
Dec 07, 2003; ... Ring the doorbell of Lisbet Rausing's house by Holland Park, inwest London, and you will be greeted by . . . Lisbet Rausing.Although she is an heiress to an estimated pounds 6.3 billionfortune, she isn't big on the trappings of wealth. Not for herbutlers, maids and chauffeurs. Indeed, ...
The best remedy is sometimes a stoic shrug In Sickness and in Health
Dec 07, 2003; ... There is, in medicine, much to be said for doing nothing. The bestprescription is the reassurance that whatever ails you will pass andthere is no need to swallow potent pills to make it better. Rather, aslug of stoicism (and whisky) with a few days' rest in bed are allthat is required ....
Behind the cut glass Patricia Hodge plays the icily alluring Mrs Coulter in the epic adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, about to open at the National Theatre. She tells Jasper Rees about her personal daemons
Dec 07, 2003; ... There is a horrifying scene in Northern Lights, the first ofPhilip Pullman's bestselling His Dark Materials fantasy trilogy. Theyoung heroine Lyra is fastened into a surgical contraption designedto separate her from her daemon. A daemon, in the parallel worldimagined by Pullman, is the ...
High price of trendsetting Dance
Dec 07, 2003; ... The Royal Ballet's mixed bill Beauty and the Beast The Royal Opera House was discreetly padded with invited guestsfor the Royal Ballet's latest mixed bill: a Mark Morris revival plusthree new works by William Tuckett, Russell Maliphant and WayneMcGregor. The chums ...
Blue-eyed and stringy Radio
Dec 07, 2003; ... The philosopher Wittgenstein reviewed the radio once. As hisfriend Dr Drury described, he made a special effort to hear a debateon the Third Programme about "The existence of God" between A.J. Ayerand a theologian, Fr Coplestone, in 1949. "WITTGENSTEIN (laughing): `Oh, we mustn't ...
A bit of spice from Araby Television
Dec 07, 2003; ... After publicly divorcing her first husband for non-consummationafter 14 years of marriage and having the second one lobotomised, mygreat aunt spent the last years of her life happily involved withT.E. Lawrence's youngest brother. From this it can, I think, be seenhow the strain of ...
Christmas presents in the frame Only 15 days left to buy something special and festive from pounds 5. Lucinda Bredin is your guide to affordable art
Dec 07, 2003; ... Photographs Getty Images Gallery 3 Jubilee Place, London SW3 (020-7376 4525, www.hultongetty.com). This Chelsea gallery has a wonderful collection of reportagephotographs by Thurston Hopkins of Picture Post. The images, most ofwhich are from the 1950s, are nostalgic ...
Justin ousts the boyfriends Pop
Dec 07, 2003; ... Justin Timberlake Two hours or so before Justin Timberlake hits the stage for thefirst night of his week-long UK tour, a rather surreal scene unfoldsoutside the National Indoor Arena box office. A local news reporteris conducting vox-pop interviews among the queue of people waiting ...
Romantic and time-obsessed Art
Dec 07, 2003; ... Gerhard Richter Unexpectedly, the contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter turnsout to be an admirer of the Mona Lisa. Da Vinci's celebrated portraitis, according to Richter, just like a casual snapshot - "There'snothing to it." Richter certainly is partial to that ...
An unholy mess Theatre
Dec 07, 2003; ... Messiah Skellig Duck A Chorus Line Steven Berkoff's Messiah, at the Old Vic, opens with Jesus on theCross and Roman soldiers casting dice for his clothes. Then we workour way through earlier episodes of his story, and circle back to theCrucifixion. En route we ...
A wormhole to end all wormholes
Dec 07, 2003; ... Timeline (12A) A soldier surveys the battlefield and turns to his king: "There bea goodly number of trebuchets, my lord." Yep - it's yet anothertights 'n' turrets flick, this one adapted from a Michael Crichtonnovel and set in 1357 France, where Billy Connolly has got stuckafter ...
Teenage hell of sex, drugs and tantrums Cinema
Dec 07, 2003; ... Thirteen Wilbur (Wants to Kill Himself) There's a telling vignette in Thirteen (18) - the film co-writtenby Catherine Hardwicke and a real-live 13-year-old, Nikki Reed - inwhich assorted schoolgirls are discussing their class projects. "I'mdoing mine on J-Lo," one chirrups ...
Handel brings the house down Music
Dec 07, 2003; ... Serse Lucia di Lammermoor LSO/Walton It has taken me many years to appreciate Handel's operas, but thelight has dawned over the last decade or more thanks mainly to suchear-and-eye-opening productions as Nicholas Hytner's ENO Xerxes andto the conducting of Sir Charles ...
Two legs good, four legs better The best new sports books show that heroism comes in many shapes and sizes, says Leo McKinstry
Dec 07, 2003; ... Martin Johnson: The Autobiography Headline, pounds 18.99 THE publishers of this autobiography of England's heroic rugbycaptain should be congratulated for their astonishing logisticalachievement in producing the book just days after the World Cupvictory. The most ...
Making an exhibition for yourself Martin Gayford selects the most stimulating and sumptuous of this season's art books
Dec 07, 2003; ... Goya: `To Every Story There Belongs Another' by Werner Hofmann Thames & Hudson, pounds 45 SUDDENLY, it's raining books on Goya. Hardly has the hoopla overRobert Hughes's high-profile study died down, than this large volumeappears. Inevitably, one makes ...
Take three scullery maids . . . There are fewer television chefs among this season's best cookbooks, according to Gina Thomas
Dec 07, 2003; ... TWO NEWS items make grim reading for food lovers in this country.This year we learnt that Britons eat more ready-made meals than anynation other than America. Publishers also report a decline incookbook sales. We have, it seems, tired of celebrity chefs ontelevision and the boom they ...
Simply the last word in dictionaries Dictionaries of everything from idiocy to music feature in Nicholas Bagnall's choice of reference books
Dec 07, 2003; ... The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs ed by Jennifer Speake Oxford, pounds 14.99 IT'S GOOD to see a new edition of this treasury of homespun wisdomwhich first appeared 20 years ago and now includes some freshexamples hitherto overlooked, such as the ones about bad ...
Natural beauties, unnatural beasts Aileen Reid travels from London to Africa to outer space in her selection of the year's best books of photographs
Dec 07, 2003; ... Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 13 foreword by Simon King BBC, pounds 25 NEXT TIME you hear a Booker Prize judge whine about having to read160 novels, save your pity, instead, for the judges of the WildlifePhotographer of the Year prize. This most ...
In the gutter, looking at the stars From Julia Roberts to Spike Milligan, from big screen to little, Mark Sanderson chooses the best 'star' memoirs of the year
Dec 07, 2003; ... Julia Roberts Confidential: The Unofficial Biography by Paul Donnelly Virgin, pounds 18.99 A CANTER through the cuttings about the highest-paid actress inHollywood. The Georgia girl with the winning smile now expects atleast $20 million to star in a ...
Presents and correct These books have this in common: they make ideal gifts, says Michael Prodger
Dec 07, 2003; ... The Doodle Book: Draw! Colour! Create! by Taro Gomi Thames & Hudson, pounds 9.95 THE INTERNET is blamed for all manner of ills, from spreading pornto encouraging child illiteracy . . . it has also played an activerole in the decline of the doodle. Aimless web- ...
Jokes, ancient and modern There's something reassuringly familiar about the best new humour books, says Oliver Pritchett
Dec 07, 2003; ... The Penguin Dictionary of Jokes compiled by Fred Metcalf Penguin, pounds 10.99 ALARMINGLY , this is described as a "fully revised and updated"version of the 1993 Penguin Dictionary of Jokes. To revise and updatethe venerable old favourites in that book would ...
A message to adults: 'Keep out' Dinah Hall finds some hard truths, soft toys and dangerous history among the best new children's books
Dec 07, 2003; ... Picture books, 3-10 "IN A CHILDREN' s book there must be a path where the authorstands still and the child walks on. A threat or a wonder that isnever explained. A face that never shows itself entirely." No, itwasn't Madonna who wrote those words (nor did she read them, ...
Opening this week The British Museum's Enlightment Gallery
Dec 07, 2003; ... Naturally enough, a 250th birthday is a moment for taking stock.And the British Museum - founded in 1753 - is currently preoccupiedwith questions concerning its own identity. What is it? Where is itcoming from? Where is it going? The answers may become clearer whenthe new permanent ...
Classical CDs
Dec 07, 2003; ... Piotr Anderszewski Chopin recital (Virgin Classics 5 45620 2,pounds 12.99). Like Chopin himself, Anderszewski is a Polish pianistwho lives in Paris and he has perhaps for that reason steered clearof his compatriot's music until now, preferring Szymanowski at first.Now he approaches him ...
Rock CDs
Dec 07, 2003; ... Trespassers William Different Stars (Bella Union, pounds 13.99).All my choices this week are totally marvellous. You'll particularlyenjoy the first two if you're one of those people like my brother whowish the 1990s had never happened, and that we were still stuck inthe era of black ...
Dance
Dec 07, 2003; ... Birmingham Royal Ballet Hippodrome, Birmingham, 0121 689 3000, toSat. David Bintley's new Beauty and the Beast with a commissionedscore by Glenn Buhr and designs by Philip Prowse, creator of BRB's still magnificent Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Deborah Colker Barbican Theatre, ...
DVDs
Dec 07, 2003; ... Kirikou and the Sorceress (BFI, U, DVD pounds 17.99, video pounds 7.99). Michel Ocelot'ssuperb animation is based on a Senegalese folk-tale about a stripling who delivers hisvillage from a sorceress. The artwork recalls Le Douanier Rousseauand the exhilaration of Africa is ...
Rock
Dec 07, 2003; ... Suede. Come with a hankie - this is their last tour before theysplit. Best remembered for their magical early years with guitaristBernard Butler who may reunite with them at some point on this tour.Glasgow Academy, tonight, 0870 771 2000; Manchester Academy, Mon,0161 832 1111; Bristol ...
Theatre
Dec 07, 2003; ... Mourning Becomes Electra Lyttelton 020 7452 3000, next perfs Dec18-20, in rep to Jan 31. Aeschylus transposed to 19th-century NewEngland, just after the Civil War. A family curse that takes four-and-a-half hours of stage-time to work itself out - Eugene O'Neill'stormented drama sounds ...
Opera
Dec 07, 2003; ... Royal Opera 020 7304 4000. Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (tmw,Wed; Sat 1pm) in Christof Loy's production, with Andrea Rost in thetitle-role tmw and Sat; with Liping Zhang on Wed. Glyndebourne on Tour Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 0131 529 6000.Tour ends with Idomeneo (Tue, ...
Cinema
Dec 07, 2003; ... Master and Commander (12A). Peter Weir's gripping film, based ontwo of the Patrick O'Brian seafaring novels set during the Napoleonicwars, stars Russell Crowe as a splendidly ebullient Captain JackAubrey, with Paul Bettany as his questioning friend and confidantStephen Maturin, the ...
Art
Dec 07, 2003; ... Cindy Sherman Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, BelfortRoad, Edinburgh, 0131 624 6200, to March 7. Cindy Sherman is the pastmaster, or rather mistress, of feminist identity art. Thisretrospective was at the Serpentine Gallery in London during thesummer, and now moves up to ...
Concerts
Dec 07, 2003; ... St John's, Smith Square, 020 7222 1061 Mon, 7.30pm: in Christmasin Venice, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists performChristmas music by Monteverdi, Gabrieli and Bassano; Sir John EliotGardiner conducts. Royal Festival Hall, 020 7960 4201, Tue, 7.30pm: Andras ...
Thoroughly Modern
Dec 07, 2003; ... Maureen Lipman has always had mixed feelings about her mother-in-law's fishplates. "There was something not quite kosher about them. Idon't mean in a cultural or culinary sense," she reflects, "but theywere not quite legit as plates. They put the kitsch in kitchen." The ...
Market Watch Predictions in 2003
Dec 07, 2003; ... A rush of figures over the coming weeks will put the rate of houseprice inflation for 2003 at around 15 per cent; a little higher forthe Halifax and Nationwide indices, which are biased towards thelower end of the market, and a little lower for the Land Registry,which is a simple average ...
Word on the Street
Dec 07, 2003; ... F ew will have much sympathy with the estate agent Dacre, Son &Hartley, which last week was fined pounds 2,000 for making falsestatements about a flat it was selling in the Yorkshire Dales. Theagent was caught out when Margaret Ainsworth-Hickman, a buyer who hadpulled out of purchasing ...
Fighting in the woods Residents of 30 Chartist cottages in the Forest of Dean are furious; conservationists are on the warpath over changes made to the homes without consent. Christine Webb reports
Dec 07, 2003; ... The single-storey cottages set behind a row of pear trees presenta charming idyll deep within the Forest of Dean. Most are within theconservation area, and 45 of the 87, built in the 19th century by the Chartists, are Grade II-listed. Yetthey are at the heart of a planning ...
Two homes better A long-distance relationship is the price some families pay to escape the cost of a large house in London. Anthea Masey meets the couples where one half lives in the country and the other spends the week in town
Dec 07, 2003; ... Choking traffic and high crime levels in town? Or maddening delayson the daily commute from a country house with a couple of acres?There will be disadvantages wherever you choose to live. But couldthere be a different way? One increasingly popular solution is that of the weekend ...
The Canny Collector
Dec 07, 2003; ... I heard an item on the news recently about the strength of the"household durables" market. It seems that this term means anythingfrom flat-screen televisions to leather three-piece suites. But Ithink that antiques should be included, too. Most pieces of goodantique furniture have already ...
Tales of an Estate Agent
Dec 07, 2003; ... Fifteen years ago I was a young estate agent in a new job in themiddle of a soaring property market. The Thatcher/Lawson boom hadstarted in April and house prices rocketed by about 50 per cent overthe next 12 months - in some cases they doubled. We were getting to a bizarre ...
Cheap for a Reason An impractical living-room
Dec 07, 2003; ... You might imagine that any guy or gal about town would leap atthis stylish London pad, in a purpose-built block, with the bonus of24-hour porterage and underground parking. But, it seems, most flat-hunters' faces fall when they see the living space - for it is, well,round. No ...
My Property Nightmare A bill for church repairs
Dec 07, 2003 ... This summer, after a long legal battle, the House of Lords ruledthat Gail and Andrew Wallbank, farmers who had inherited Glebe Farmin Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, were liable to pay pounds 95,000towards repairs to their local church - overturning a previousjudgment in the Court of Appeal ...
On the Level
Dec 07, 2003; ... A council tenant in North Wales who fell down the stairs andinjured his spine while trying to change a flickering light bulb has been awarded compensation by thecourts. The amount - to be agreed by the insurers - could run intohundreds of thousands of pounds. According to a ...
Is water safe? Ask Jeff
Dec 07, 2003; ... In a recent answer about preventing limescale (November 23) yousuggested suspending a bag of Fernox Limescale Preventer in the coldwater tank. I am sure that the cold taps to my bathrooms run fromthis tank, so is it safe to clean your teeth with this water, ordrink it?EM, Bishop's ...
Grouting leaks Ask Jeff
Dec 07, 2003; ... I am plagued by recurrent leaks through the grouting of our tiledshower cubicle, which have damaged the ceiling of the kitchen below.I have been told there is a special waterproof grout to cope withpower showers but I cannot find a stockist. Would this be a cureanyway?RH, ...
Garden Solutions Winter Designs
Dec 07, 2003; ... The acid test of any garden design is its appearance in winter.Although we do not use the garden anything like as frequently as wedo in summer, we should be able to admire it year round. If it looksgreat in winter, then more often than not it is stunning in summertoo. Winter is ...
Urban Gardener Christmas gifts
Dec 07, 2003; ... Gardeners are easy people to buy presents for - as long as youremember that there are two main types of gardener. The mail-ordercatalogues that have been delivered through my letterbox over thepast few weeks are clearly geared to one of these two types, whom,for the sake of convenience, ...
Horlick is not going Down Under
Dec 07, 2003; ... NICOLA HORLICK'S plans to take an Australian-based job runningpounds 30bn of funds for AMP, the troubled financial group, have runinto a serious snag. The flamboyant fund manager - who became a celebrity in the mid-1990s when she had a high-profile dispute with her then ...
Hodson nets pounds 112,000 for not getting the job
Dec 07, 2003; ... BEVERLEY HODSON, the managing director of WH Smith, receivedpounds 112,200 as a special payment after she was passed over for thejob as chief executive of the troubled retailer. The extraordinary compensation came on top of a pounds 330,000salary and pounds 107,000 bonus paid to ...
Venables transfer fee mystery
Dec 07, 2003; ... THE ROLE of Terry Venables in a controversial Crystal Palacefootball transfer has been highlighted in a high court judgementagainst Mark Goldberg, the former owner of Crystal Palace FootballClub, and Jim McAvoy, the former chief executive. The judgement disqualifed Goldberg and ...
Shareholders query Green's pounds 1.4m payoff Ousted ITV chairman receives one year's pay even though he has no contract
Dec 07, 2003; ... SHAREHOLDERS in Carlton Communications will this week demand anexplanation from the board of the ITV company as to why it is makinga pounds 1.4m payment to Michael Green even though he has no formalcontract. In October, institutional investors, led by Fidelity, ousted Greenfrom ...
Bank of England is anxious about new 2 per cent inflation target
Dec 07, 2003; ... GORDON BROWN will this week announce the biggest shake-up since1997 in the way interest rates are set by forcing the Bank of Englandto adopt a 2 per cent target for inflation based on a new measure. In his pre-Budget report on Wednesday, the chancellor will saythat the Bank's ...
Scrap final salary schemes, says adviser
Dec 07, 2003; ... BRITAIN'S largest pensions adviser, Alexander Forbes, has calledfor final salary pension schemes to be closed to existing members aswell as new recruits. Robert McGregor, the corporate development director, saidemployers could no longer afford to fully fund the liabilities. Agood ...
Income from corporate bond funds drops as low rates bite
Dec 07, 2003; ... INCOME from the UK's largest corporate bond funds has plunged byup to a quarter over the past three years, according to HargreavesLansdown, the financial adviser. A combination of falling interest rates and large inflows intocorporate bond funds has forced fund managers to invest ...
Equitable late joiners win secret compensation deal
Dec 07, 2003; ... A GROUP of people who joined Equitable Life after 1998 have beenquietly paid compensation denied to other members. The terms of the settlement, made to around 200 members of theEquitable Late Joiners Action Group (Eljag), are shrouded in secrecy,but the payments have been described ...
Council staff face 30pc jump in pension contributions
Dec 07, 2003; ... COUNCIL employees face a 33 per cent increase in their pensioncontributions as local authorities try to ease the mounting financialburden on council tax payers. Employee contributions, worth around 6 per cent of salary, nowfund just 30 per cent of pension costs, with council tax ...
High interest on current accounts is 'a waste of time'
Dec 07, 2003; ... HIGH rates of interest on current accounts are a waste of time andmoney, according to a damning report to be published next week byDatamonitor, the financial analyst. Most of the major high street banks have introduced higherinterest current accounts in the past year, in a bid to ...
Government to tackle APR confusion White Paper heralds biggest shake-up of the credit industry for 30 years
Dec 07, 2003; ... THE GOVERNMENT is to force lenders to standardise the way in whichthey calculate annual percentage rates (APRs) on loans and creditcards as part of the biggest reform of the consumer credit industryfor 30 years. In a White Paper to be published by the Department of Trade ...
Libya buys stake in diamond miner that took on the BBC A mining firm falsely accused of links to al-Qaeda and selling 'blood diamonds' has an unusual investor, writes Edward Simpkins
Dec 07, 2003; ... Colonel Gadaffi's Libyan government owns a large stake in OryxNatural Resources, the Arab-owned diamond mining company whose Londonlisting was unexpectedly cancelled in 2000, The Sunday Telegraph canreveal. The state-owned Libyan Arab African Investment Company (LAAIC)bought a 20 ...
Third Heathrow runway 'vital to Britain', says CBI
Dec 07, 2003; ... DIGBY JONES, the director general of the CBI, has warned thatfailing to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport would deal a hugeblow to the UK's competitiveness against its European rivals. His warning comes as the Government prepares to publish its WhitePaper on the future of ...
Earl departs as Baroness takes over
Dec 07, 2003; ... BELINDA EARL has been ousted as chief executive of Debenhams justhours after Baroness Retail, a private equity consortium, tookcontrol of the department store chain. Matthew Roberts, the financedirector, has also left. Although both executives had been expected to leave following ...
UK funds probed by Luxembourg
Dec 07, 2003; ... BRITISH fund managers including Amvescap are being probed by theLuxembourg financial regulator as part of an investigation intopossible trading abuses in investment funds. The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), in ane-mail to The Sunday Telegraph - signed off ...
SCi signs up new game by Lara creator
Dec 07, 2003; ... SCi Entertainment Group, the computer games publisher, willannounce this week that it has signed up the rights to the latestgame developed by Toby Gard, the creator of Lara Croft and theoriginal Tomb Raider game. Gard quit his job as lead designer at Core Design, the developerof ...