The Sunday Telegraph London back issues from February 2004:
Deaf to reason
Feb 01, 2004; ... `What you're proposing doing to your child is the equivalent ofrape," said the woman in a smug tone of voice. It wasn't quite whatI'd expected to hear at a support group for parents of deaf children -but then I was new to the topsy-turvy world of Deaf Rights. My husband and I were ...
All fine and dandy - for the men, at least
Feb 01, 2004; ... It was the opportunity to share my erudition, you understand -rather than the conviction that my calves looked good in whitestockings - that persuaded me to accept my invitation to realitytelevision's latest offering, The Regency House Party. The Edwardian Country House had given ...
The Valentine's rose I waited all my life for
Feb 01, 2004; ... `What is it?" I ask my mother curiously. I'm on exeat, a preciousweekend at home during school term time, and she has just given me apresent. "It's a vase," my mother says proudly. "A single stem vase.For a rose or something." I look at her with my eyebrows raised. Even at the ...
From busker to Bafta Paul Bettany used to sing beneath Westminster Bridge and fantasise about being famous. Now, in his latest film, Dogville, he stars with Nicole Kidman - and steals the show
Feb 01, 2004; ... Paul Bettany stubs out his cigarette, rubs his temples and frownsat his latte. "What I really want," he says, "is to get on a plane,fly back to Brooklyn and get covered in poo again. That's what it'slike when you've got a newborn. Nothing else really matters,certainly not sitting in a ...
Georgia, and jazz, on her mind Her voice has been been compared to Ella Fitzgerald's - but, as David Thomas finds, 19-year-old Katie Melua has more to say about her homeland than the success of her debut album
Feb 01, 2004; ... Last week, a pretty, 19-year-old singer named Katie Melua slippedpast Dido and reached No. 1 in the album charts with her debut CD, agentle, melodic collection of late-night, light jazz and blues calledCall Off the Search. Katie, who sings in a sweet, plaintive voicewhich many reviewers ...
The 'cure' that makes hypochondriacs feel better
Feb 01, 2004; ... Hypochondriacs have a tough time of it. Alfred Lord Tennyson,according to his biographer, "thought more about his bowels andnerves than the Laureate's wreath he was born to inherit". A typicalentry in James Boswell's diary reads: "Upon coming home I felt not sowell. I dreaded the worst ...
A descent of angels Last weekend 'Angels in America' won five Golden Globes; next weekend it will be shown on British television. James Wolcott examines what happens when a modern theatrical classic hits the small screen
Feb 01, 2004; ... Time has not been kind to Tony Kushner's award-winningextravaganza. Its angel wings are moulting. When Angels in America was originally staged in the early 1990s inSan Francisco, London and New York, the mortal and emotional havoc ofthe Aids epidemic during the Reagan years still ...
Mexican transformer Music
Feb 01, 2004; ... Les Contes d'Hoffmann Nash Ensemble Severin von Eckardstein The Royal Opera's production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann certainlydoes Offenbach's very Parisian take on the very German world of magicromanticism proud. Richard Gregson's direction of John Schlesinger'sheavily ...
The shape of reality Art
Feb 01, 2004; ... Constantin Brancusi It seems extraordinary that until now there should never have beena large-scale exhibition, in this country, of the work of ConstantinBrancusi. An artist of huge originality and matching generosity ofspirit, he was arguably the most influential sculptor of the ...
Playground flirt gets serious It's crunch time for Luke Perry, a former teen-soap pin-up, who's in London to act, in a play. And, he tells Catherine Shoard, he has other plans to save the world
Feb 01, 2004; ... Ten years ago, Luke Perry was on half the bedroom walls in thewestern world. "And the occasional floor, darling," drawls the manhimself, now 39, and not for nothing voted Biggest Flirt by his highschool classmates. This is a man who doesn't just shake your hand, hetakes it out to ...
Just bow down and worship Ballet
Feb 01, 2004; ... Balanchine 100 He is almost certainly a household name in all right-thinking,Sunday Telegraph-reading households but offer "a little Balanchine"to the bog-standard British theatregoer and he wouldn't know whetherto polish it, casserole it or take it for a walk. Balanchine 100, ...
A shambles ripe for repossession
Feb 01, 2004; ... Cold Creek Manor (15) Moving house can be a tricky business. You never quite know whatyou're getting into. Unless, of course, the property you're buying isa remote, repossessed, spookily-named, python-infested old pile, themere mention of which sends the locals into spasms of ...
Her agent of agony Cinema
Feb 01, 2004; ... Sylvia The Emperor's New Clothes Her agent of agony When I first heard that the director Christine Jeffs was makingSylvia (15), about the life of Sylvia Plath, I thought that it wasrather brave of her to enter that particular minefield. Few 20th-century marriages - ...
Tribute to a passion set in stone The Pasticcio, a surreal architectural folly by the great 18th-century architect John Soane, is being rebuilt. Martin Gayford reports on a lesson in building and design
Feb 01, 2004; ... Sometime around 1778 a young Englishman fell in love with atemple. He was John Soan - later to add a final "e" to his name forgreater grandeur - the son of a bricklayer from Reading, who a fewyears previously had been carrying hods of masonry for his elderbrother. Now, as a star student ...
Innuendo's golden age Theatre
Feb 01, 2004; ... Round the Horne . . . Revisited Strictly Dandia In Flame If it's laughter you're after, you won't do better among currenttheatrical offerings than Round the Horne . . . Revisited, a newrevue based on the 1960s radio show. It opened last week at theVenue, the ...
Television Daft but undemeaned
Feb 01, 2004; ... Eventually, of course, all television critics go mad, and arecarted off to a remote gingerbread house in the New Forest, there togibber quietly and point their channel changers at the moon. MaybeI'm simply bin-bound a little earlier than expected, or maybesomething even stranger is going ...
Sex life of a hippo Radio
Feb 01, 2004; ... It's lucky for journalists that Joanna Trollope is such asuccessful novelist, because on the rare occasions when she botherswith journalism, she does it so well she puts the rest of us toshame. The piece she contributed to this paper about The Archers afew years ago to celebrate the ...
Murder in the Family Loyalty to kith and kin has never been part of the Mafia's code of conduct, says Alasdair Palmer Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia by John Dickie Hodder & Stoughton, pounds 20, 483 pp pounds 18 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... IN THE FILMS and television shows which have created its glamorousimage - principally The Godfather and now The Sopranos - the Mafia isbased on a strict code of honour which centres on loyalty to one'sfamily. Mafiosi are likeable, even admirable, in their devotion tothat ...
Novelists and names John Gross enjoys a compendium of the origins of well-known fictional characters Madame Bovary, C'est Moi!: The Great Characters of Literature and Where They Came From by Andre Bernard W. W. Norton, pounds 12.99, 135 pp pounds 12.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... IF A NOVEL is any good, the characters in it exist in their ownright. Trying to track down real-life originals seldom does much toenhance your appreciation. And though the quest for originals isobviously a legitimate activity for literary biographers, it is alsoan area where they are ...
Why did we end up like this? This book asks interesting questions about the origins and development of humanity and gives interesting answers, says Noel Malcolm A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook Granta, pounds 20, 385 pp pounds 18 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... PARENTS OF small children are familiar with the most terrible ofthree-letter words: "why?". Sometimes the question can be answered;but the answer itself can always be challenged by another "why?".Invariably, the final answer is a one-word sentence, "because" -meaning not "that's the ...
The Literary Life
Feb 01, 2004; ... REVELATIONS about the contents of Tony Blair: The Making Of AWorld Leader by Philip Stephens featured in several newspapers lastweekend. The "authoritative" biography, so it was claimed, boaststales of all sorts of political "skulduggery". Readers will be ableto find out all about it for ...
She was a martyr to art Paul Johnson on the Roman noblewoman who lost her head but won the heart of a succession of writers and artists Beatrice's Spell: The Enduring Legend of Beatrice Cenci by Belinda Jack Chatto & Windus, pounds 19.99, 196 pp pounds 17.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... BEATRICE CENCI was a contemporary of Shakespeare's who might havebeen a tragic heroine of a Webster horror-play. She was beheaded inRome in 1599, aged 22, for patricide, pleading in her defence thather father, Francesco, had cruelly imprisoned her and subjected herto incestuous ...
Egypt's English Pharaoh Andrew Roberts wonders why an enlightened imperialist is so despised in modern Egypt Lord Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Proconsul by Roger Owen Oxford, pounds 25, 436 pp pounds 25 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... SIR EVELYN BARING , 1st Earl of Cromer (1841-1917) can lay claimto being the greatest of all the British imperial administrators, notexcluding Lord Curzon himself. He ruled Egypt from almost the momenthe stepped ashore at Alexandria as the Queen's agent, consul-generaland plenipotentiary ...
Lies, damn lies and lawsuits Kidnap, murder and some shady lawyers feature in Susanna Yager's choice of recent crime fiction
Feb 01, 2004; ... WITH THE New Year came a shelf-full of novels by new writers, aswell as a few familiar names. Surprisingly Thumbprint (Bitter Lemonpounds 8.99 pbk) seems to be the first book by the Swiss writerFriedrich Glauser to appear in the UK in English. Originallypublished in German in 1936 and ...
The old age pensioners go East These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach Chatto & Windus, pounds 12.99, 281 pp pounds 11.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... DEBORAH MOGGACH 's novel begins with a tabloid headline - "TwoDays!" - and a suitably lurid tale about a septuagenarian woman leftunattended in a hospital cubicle for 48 hours. Behind the headline isa more complex story: the woman has been offered treatment, but hasdeclined it because ...
Once upon a time in the West The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe Little, Brown, pounds 14.99, 468 pp pounds 12.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... IT TAKES some nerve for a novelist to follow in the tracks ofCormac McCarthy. The second part of Guy Vanderhaeghe's proposedtrilogy even echoes, in several ways, The Crossing, the central panelof McCarthy's The Border triptych. However, whereas McCarthy'scowboys roam mainly on the plains ...
Which book, poem or play has made you cry more than any other? Continuing our series, the novelist Muriel Spark chooses Anna Sewell's Black Beauty
Feb 01, 2004; ... I HAVE often thought of this question from an author's point ofview. For myself, I know I can make people smile, but have I evermade them cry? I don't know. As a schoolgirl I was given Black Beauty by the Scottish S P C ...
An emotional time bomb Anne Chisholm welcomes Joanna Trollope's thoughtful novel about the subject of adoption Brother and Sister by Joanna Trollope Bloomsbury, pounds 16.99, 311 pp pounds 14.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... THERE IS nothing Joanna Trollope does better than explore theminefield of family life, showing how emotional time bombs can, andoften do, explode beneath a well-ordered surface. For her new novel,the 12th in her sequence of skilful and highly readable contemporarymorality tales, she has ...
Messing about in warships Britain's First World War naval commanders were a pretty unimpressive lot, says Max Hastings Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie Jonathan Cape, pounds 25, 800 pp pounds 23 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... MY FIRST literary agent asserted that one can get away withwriting a new biography of anybody every 10 years. If the samelicence is available to narrative historians, then there is nothingwrong with Robert K. Massie's account of the First World War at sea. His canvas is ...
Arabia in Andalucia The fairytale architecture of the Alhambra belies its violent past, says Martin Gayford The Alhambra by Robert Irwin Profile Books, pounds 15.99, 214 pp pounds 13.99 ( pounds 2.25 p&p) 0870 155 7222
Feb 01, 2004; ... RUSKIN LOATHED and despised it - although he never actually sawit. The Bloomsberries Lytton Strachey and Gerald Brennan did notthink much of it. But otherwise the Alhambra is one of the mostpraised and admired structures in the world. Libraries of prose haveenthused over it, innumerable ...
Opening this week Cecil Beaton: Portraits
Feb 01, 2004; ... Cecil Beaton revelled in `spangled nebulosities and flimsy, fussywhim-whams', which stands as a pretty accurate description of bothhis photographic manner and of his favourite subjects. He started offsnapping the Bright Young Things of the 1920s - all those Sitwells,Tennants and ...
Classical CDs
Feb 01, 2004; ... Atrium Quartet Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich (EMI Classics 585638 2, pounds 5.99). The Atrium Quartet from Russia won last year'sLondon International String Quartet Competition (and the audienceprize) and this is its debut recording. Mozart's D minor (K 421) maynot wear its sad heart ...
Rock CDs
Feb 01, 2004; ... Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters (Polydor, pounds 12.99). Scissor Sisters' version of Comfortably Numb - in which PinkFloyd's slow, solemn hymn to heroin-induced torpor is reinvented as acamp, up-tempo disco number in a Bee Gees falsetto - is a work ofgenius. But one masterpiece ...
DVDs
Feb 01, 2004; ... Sunrise (Eureka, U, DVD only, pounds 22.99). An Oscar-winner in1927, F.W. Murnau's romantic melodrama remains a classic of thesilent screen. Free of the over-acting typical of the time, it goesstraight to the heart, as moving today as it was 77 years ago. Le Divorce (Fox, 12, DVD ...
Opera
Feb 01, 2004; ... Royal Opera 020 7304 4000. Richard Hickox conducts Offenbach's LesContes d'Hoffmann (Tue) with Jennifer Larmore as Giulietta, ElenaKelissidi as Antonia and Ekaterina Siourina as Olympia. Opera North Grand Leeds 0113 222 6222. Revival of Annabel Arden'sproduction of La Traviata ...
Dance
Feb 01, 2004; ... Flamenco Festival Sadler's Wells, London EC1 020 7863 8000, Thur:flamenco season opens with Gala of Sevilla. Season continues Feb 9-17. Play Without Words Lyttelton Theatre, London SE1, 020 7452 3000,tmw-Sat, in rep to March 6. Matthew Bourne's richly detailed dancedrama ...
Art
Feb 01, 2004; ... Citigroup Photography Prize 2004 Photographers' Gallery, 5 GreatNewport St, London WC2, 020 7831 1772, to March 28. Prestigiouspounds 20,000 photography prize. Robert Adams and Joel Sternfeld fromthe USA, Peter Fraser from the UK and David Goldblatt from SouthAfrica have been chosen from ...
Rock
Feb 01, 2004; ... Scissor Sisters. Glitzy Pink Floyd-covering newcomers. Hard to pindown, they weave a mish-mash of jangly guitars and funky electro-beats into something weird and wonderful. Northampton Soundhaus Tue,01604 631 144; Brighton Concorde 2 Wed, 01273 772 770; London ScalaThur, 08701 500 044; ...
Cinema
Feb 01, 2004; ... Big Fish (PG). Tim Burton's film stars Albert Finney as EdwardBloom: an old, sick man, whose endless fantastical yarns have begunto infuriate his son Will (Billy Crudup). Burton brings Edward'sheroic reminiscences of giants, witches and circus performerswonderfully to life - with Ewan ...
Concerts
Feb 01, 2004; ... Royal Festival Hall 020 7960 4201, today, 3.30pm: pianist StephenHough plays Liszt's Annees de pelerinage (Suisse); Hummel's Sonata inF sharp minor, and impromptus and ballades by Chopin. Mon, 7.30pm: the Bavarian Radio SO plays Beethoven's Symphony No 5and Berlioz's Symphonie ...
Theatre
Feb 01, 2004; ... Journey's End Comedy 020 7369 1731, to March 6. R.C. Sherriff'sFirst World War play turns out to have lost none of its power - not,at least, in David Grindley's terrific production. The five officerssharing a dugout just before a big German attack are flawlesslyportrayed - David Haig is ...
Shirley's French retreat After a 30-year love affair with the South of France, the author Shirley Conran is selling the last in her portfolio of foreign homes. She tells Jack Gee why
Feb 01, 2004; ... `The Seventies was a period when husbands were rushing off indroves with their secretaries," Shirley Conran tells me. "My marriageto Terence Conran had broken up and, although we remained on goodterms, I needed a place where I could afford to take my two sons awayon holiday and entertain ...
Market Watch Kensington Palace Gardens
Feb 01, 2004; ... The "most exclusive address" in London, according to Knight Frank,is Kensington Palace Gardens, a tree-lined avenue half a mile long inthe heart of embassy land, between Kensington High Street and NottingHill Gate. The estate agency reached its conclusion in a terriblyscientific poll of ...
Word on the Street
Feb 01, 2004; ... `Unlike the Eighties," wrote the Nationwide in acharacteristically optimistic press release last week, "the majorityof current buyers are not overstretching themselves despite the highlevels of house prices." Their data excludes, presumably, theindividual who last week arranged a pounds ...
Time to sell the nest egg One of the loveliest and most historic houses in Kent is for sale. 'This house represents our pension,' the former MP Sir Roger Moate tells Sarah Lonsdale
Feb 01, 2004; ... The formation last month of a group of 180 former MPs fallen uponhard times is a timely reminder that even our political masters arenot immune to the lotteries of the jobs market and the pensionsystem. It was Labour politicians who suffered in the 1980s; but inthe great Tory cull of the ...
Westminster works A quiet backwater near the Houses of Parliament, once dominated by ugly government offices, is being revitalised with new housing, plazas, cafes and public art, reports Caroline McGhie
Feb 01, 2004; ... You might be forgiven for thinking that Westminster has fewbackwaters. The media light surely shines into all its darkestcorners: around the turreted rooftops of Westminster Abbey and theHouses of Parliament, and down those streets where political fortunesare made and lost - places like ...
Ask Jeff Vibrating floor
Feb 01, 2004; ... I own a detached 1930s house. The floorboards appear to be in goodcondition but when anyone moves heavily, furniture on the other sideof the room vibrates slightly. What is the likely cause of thismovement and what can I do to rectify it? LJ, by e-mail Jeff replies Although ...
Ask Jeff All hot air
Feb 01, 2004; ... Do radiator covers reduce the efficiency of the radiator inheating up a room? I am thinking of buying one for a bedroom, to stopthe heat going up behind the closed curtains, but wonder if it mightstop the heat going out into the room. PV, by e-mail Jeff replies The term ...
Ask Jeff Ladder doubts
Feb 01, 2004; ... Recent heavy rain revealed a leak from a joint in my plasticguttering, which was efficiently repaired by a local man. Hereported, however, that the gutter was sagging and needed to bereplaced. I asked him to provide an estimate for this work, but hesays he cannot since Health and Safety ...
A wood-coloured light switch? Certainly, sir
Feb 01, 2004; ... On the Level cut out 'n' keep guide to buying those hard-to-finditems Last week I answered a reader's query about finding light switchesto blend in with his oak beams, and it set me thinking about howdifficult it can be for ordinary householders to find out-of-the-ordinary ...
Paris comes to a boggy Sussex field Caroline McGhie finds out what a difference one Frenchwoman has made to her rural property near Rudgwick, now for sale
Feb 01, 2004; ... Lorette Gournay clearly shares Lord Byron's view of the Englishseasons. "The English winter - ending in July," he wrote in Don Juan."To recommence in August." While the rest of us wait for the firstsnowdrops to spike their helmeted heads through the ground and thefirst blossoms to ...
FORMAL PONDS
Feb 01, 2004; ... The present cold snap provides the perfect opportunity to sit bythe fire with paper and pencil, and plan an imaginative addition toyour garden, such as a formal pond. Formal water features are becoming increasingly popular becausethey can enhance any type of house, from a country ...
Hellebores
Feb 01, 2004; ... Its lime-green bells edged with magenta are like a splash ofsunshine in a gloomy corner Are you a hellebore bore? Do your pulses quicken if you spot adesirable dusky pink bloom in a friend's garden, or a rare slateyblue one on sale in a nursery? Are you unable to rest until you ...
Private investors return to market
Feb 01, 2004; ... PRIVATE INVESTORS are now flocking back to the stock market.According to private client brokers, trade volumes increaseddramatically in January. Volumes at Barclays Stockbrokers, the UK's biggest broker with500,000 customers, soared by 70 per cent last month compared with ...
VIP fund will follow managers' own money
Feb 01, 2004; ... PRIVATE INVESTORS are being given the chance to invest alongsidesome of Britain's most successful fund managers, including CrispinOdey, the legendary hedge fund manager, and Anthony Bolton ofFidelity Investments. Charlotte Square, the Edinburgh-based investment boutique, ...
Security fears send sales of home reversion schemes through the floor
Feb 01, 2004; ... SALES of home reversion equity release schemes fell by more than35 per cent last year, as a wave of bad publicity took its toll onthe sector. Home reversion schemes enable elderly people to raise cash fromthe sale of all or part of their homes while retaining the right tolive in ...
Government gains pounds 90m from late tax returns
Feb 01, 2004; ... THE INLAND REVENUE'S multi-million pound advertising campaignstarring Adam Hart-Davis, the presenter of BBC science and historyprogrammes, has failed to make an impact on the number of taxpayersmissing the January 31 self-assessment deadline. About 900,000 taxpayers are set to be ...
MPs ready to reopen inquiry into Equitable Treasury Select Committee could call in Penrose to quiz him about his report
Feb 01, 2004; ... THE Treasury Select Committee is preparing to reconvene itsinvestigation into the collapse of Equitable Life in the immediateaftermath of the publication of the Penrose report, expected thisweek. Lord Penrose, the Scottish judge who led the 30-month inquiry, maybe asked to appear ...
Barclays set on $1.4bn quick bid for Hollinger
Feb 01, 2004; ... THE BARCLAY brothers are keen to launch a $1.4bn ( pounds 770m)takeover bid for Hollinger International, the parent company of theTelegraph Group, within days, as long as they can reach agreementwith Hollinger's board. It emerged last week that Sir Frederick Barclay had made ...
Parker bows out of race for BAE chair
Feb 01, 2004; ... SIR JOHN PARKER, the chairman of National Grid Transco, theutility giant, has ruled himself out of the contest to becomechairman of BAE Systems, the UK defence contractor, followingpressure from shareholders. Parker was the candidate preferred by BAE's board. However, hefell foul ...
Invensys poised to launch pounds 500m rescue share issue
Feb 01, 2004; ... INVENSYS, the beleaguered engineering group, is in frantic talkswith its bankers this weekend to agree new terms on its pounds 1.6bndebt and pave the way for a pounds 500m rescue share issue. The issue, which should be launched this week, will be at adiscount to Invensys's current ...
Man Utd urges Ferguson to drop legal case Chairman seeks peace as Magnier offers compromise over racehorse
Feb 01, 2004; ... SIR ALEX FERGUSON, the Manchester United manager, is underpressure from the company's chairman to drop his legal claim for ahalf share in the stud rights of Rock of Gibraltar, the championracehorse. Ferguson is in dispute over the ownership of the Rock with theracing tycoon John ...
Ryanair threatens to sue all airlines using state-owned airports
Feb 01, 2004; ... RYANAIR has instructed its lawyers to launch legal actions againstall airlines flying into every state-owned airport in Europe if theEuropean Commission rules on Tuesday that Ryanair has receivedillegal state aid from Charleroi airport in Belgium. As well as threatening legal ...
Thrills and spills on the NSB switchback
Feb 01, 2004; ... THE MOVEMENT in the shares of NSB Retail Systems and the softwareprovider's underlying performance hold key lessons about investmentin general. After considering a positive trading statement on January23, I added to my position - and reflected. I first bought shares in NSB in the ...
With-profits are dead - but what's coming next?
Feb 01, 2004; ... WE LEARNED last week that Legal & General was contemplating lifewithout with-profits. Or, more accurately, life without having toflog any more of these increasingly unattractive savings products.With-profits is a very long-term business and existing customers arelikely to be hanging ...