John le Carré, the German master

In 1956, before he was a famous spy novelist, David Cornwell came to teach at Eton. Among his pupils was Ferdinand Mount

Hats off to Napoleon and Wellington

The Emperor and the Duke both wore bicornes – in different styles. Now their hats are united, thanks to Nancy Astor. By Justin Davies

Insanely happy

Alan Crawford has learnt to be content, despite suffering from dementia for three years

Wasn't he so loverly?

Wilfrid Hyde-White was as charming and mischievous in real life as in My Fair Lady, remembers Simon Williams, his friend and co-star

My hostess? A banjo-playing prostitute

Exotic Lady Meux brought glamour, several Whistler portraits, and a Christopher Wren masterpiece to Maureen Lipman’s favorite hotel

Arts

Arts

Fine and dandy

The dandy style, created by Beau Brummell, was perfected by Oscar Wilde and Edward VIII. By Shaun Cole and Miles Lambert

Dirk Bogarde's lucky second act

Roger Lewis celebrates the centenary of a sad, dark actor who matured into a happy writer

A happy Hunter once more

At 85, widowed Hunter Davies is writing new books and finding young love. By Valerie Grove

I'm Dreaming Of A Dry Christmas

After decades in Drunkland, Mary Killen suddenly lost the taste for drink. She now sees the festive season in a whole new – clear – light

The Archers turns 70

Programme assistant Gill Powell taped Grange Farm’s turkey chicks, printed Phil Drabble’s Nature Notes – and made one awful mistake

What a swell party!

As coronavirus kills off Christmas parties, Charlotte Metcalf remembers friends who made the evening go with a swing

My gaudy nights

For 50 years, Oxford don Oswyn Murray welcomed back old pupils to his college – except for one in 10 Downing Street

Look back in candour

Lockdown led to a boom in autobiography. Frances Wilson gives you her tips on how to tell the story of your life

King of the Purbeck Stone Age

Treleven Haysom has been quarrying stone on the Isle of Purbeck for over 60 years – now he’s written the definitive book about it

Joe O'Biden's Irish home

County Mayo is adored by Hollywood, the US President-elect – and Dea Birkett

Guests from hell

When Tanya Gold moved to Cornwall, she invited lots of friends to stay – she won’t be asking them back for Christmas

Holy Hitch

Christopher Hitchens, the most famous atheist in the world, was a wonderful, generous godfather to Alice Cockerell

A very amateur performance

Nick Newman was thrilled to sign Burt Reynolds for his film. If only Burt had remembered his lines and hadn’t spent so much on wigs

Harvard's King of Comedy

Tom Lehrer went from satire genius to Ivy League maths professor. Now, at 92, the great man is giving away his archive.

Travels with my daughter

When pop star Florence Welch was asked to an Irish literary festival, she took her father Nick Welch along – and he loved it

Tolstoy's last stop

At 82, the great writer left his wife. He wanted to get hundreds of miles away but only made it to a nearby station.

My birthday odyssey

As he turned 70, Nigel Summerley followed in Odysseus’s footsteps from Italy to Ithaca

Transport of delight

Fifty years after The Railway Children film, Kate Garner makes a pilgrimage to the Yorkshire steam railway where it was made

Magic mushrooms

The joys of mushroom-hunting, the earthiest, most primordial form of foraging, are lyrically evoked in Colin Thubron’s Among the Russians (1983).

Master of Anglo-Saxon attitudes

Eighty years after he died, aged only 32, Pont still nails the British character.

Guilty men

Thirty years ago, Margaret Thatcher was toppled by three Conservative big beasts. Her old friend Norman Tebbit names them

English queen of a French vineyard

Béatrice Viennet reigned over Sotheby’s and the family vines

Dear Perry, my gallant knight

Lucinda Lambton salutes her husband, Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, the Sunday Telegraph editor who died in October aged 96

An Wilson – The Man Who Knows So Much

At 70, he’s written over 40 books but insists he isn’t clever. He tells Frances Wilson about Charles Dickens, sex and Meghan Markle