An Old Man And The Sea

Peter Ireland was persuaded by some friends to join a flotilla sailing holiday in Greece. It was wonderful – in parts.

Speer's Confessions At His Last Supper

Mayfair, August 1981, and Hitler’s industry and architecture chief is revealing why the Allies won the war. Next day, he is dead.His host, historian Norman Stone, looks back.

Cravats And Bedroom Telly

Mark Palmer used to keep his getting-old habits firmly in the closet. Now he positively enjoys putting them on show.

Beaten By The Bastards

Ferdinand Mount on an underrated prime minister, and how the Eurosceptics finished him off.

Why France Is So Vulnerable

The French government has reacted to the Nice attack by flooding the streets with armed men. This will have very little effect, says former Paris correspondent Patrick Marnham.

Living The Danish Dream

Living the Danish dream Beaches, bikes, smoked fish and wood-burning stoves: Nick Curtis and his wife spend a week in Scandi-heaven.

The Curse Of The Elysée Palace

As France risks getting a British woman as its First Lady, Patrick Marnham warns Penelope Fillon to watch out.

Still With Us Tom Lehrer

Michael Barber celebrates the great iconoclast, now 88 and long retired from singing and songwriting.

Farewell, Alexander

The editor of The Oldie, Alexander Chancellor, died on 28th January. Craig Brown pays tribute to his great friend, the natural journalist who retained a child’s sense of mischief.

A World Of Colour And Concentrated Joy

This is a bumper year for the 87-year-old abstractionist Gillian Ayres, with several shows and a book. It is not before time, says Andrew Lambirth.

A Country On The Cusp

Myanmar is at a turning point as outside money flows in and tour companies scout out the territory. Tanya Harrod gets in first.

A Posh Girl's Summer Of Love

It was 1967, when hippie dreams of peace and love migrated from San Francisco across the Atlantic. Ingrid Jo Boissevain was a sixteen-yearold grammar school girl, an architect’s daughter, living in Tadworth,Surrey. Fifty years on, here is her diary of those sunny months.

A Touch Of Class In The Garden

Down a west London lane, Jeremy Musson visits the tiny forge that made garden ornaments for Vita Sackville-West and Gertrude Jekyll.

The War Hero Who Became Britain's Greatest Historian

Sir Michael Howard, venerable academic and adviser to primeministers, is 94. James Hanning met him in his bucolic Berkshire home.

My Old Master

James Innes-Mulraine achieved his lifetime’s aim of discovering a lost Gainsborough – with not a little help from his Dad.

Going solo

Sometimes there is no option but to holiday alone. You may even have your best experiences that way, as Kirsty Fergusson discovered.

Mad About The Dog

Nigel, the golden retriever, is the star of Gardeners’ World, while Frances Wilson is in thrall to her poodle, Daphne. Meanwhile, there’s a new slew of canine biographies, in line with a grand British tradition.

Horror And Heroism At Shoeburyness

In 1885 Tony Gould’s great-grandfather was one of seven men killed in an accident at the School of Gunnery on the Essex coast. Here he recounts the moving details of the tragedy.

Quintessentially English

Paul Nash wooed modernism and leant towards surrealism but he was first and foremost a great landscape artist, says Andrew Lambirth.

The Mystery Cat Of Shugborough Hall

‘For picturesque grounds and garden furnishings few houses can compete with Shugborough’; no mean praise from Sir Nikolaus Pevsner himself in his The Buildings of England series, covering Staffordshire.

In His Own Words

An extract from Lewis’s Grub Street Irregular.

My Grandfather Wrote The Princess's Speech

Seventy years ago, the Queen made her most famous broadcast to mark her 21st birthday. Charles Utley reveals how it came to be written.

Britain's Alarm Clock

The Today programme is a British institution. It has a new editor, and in October turns sixty. Harry Mount got up early to pay a visit.

My Vicarage Lessons With A Four-year-old Theresa May

In 1961, Detlev J. Piltz, a German teenager, was thrilled to stay with a vicar’s family in the Cotswolds. He learnt about English tea rituals,cricket and class with their little daughter.

I've Got You Under My Skin

Nicky Haslam befriended Cole Porter in Sixties New York. Today he performs his songs, in tribute to a childhood idol.

Pilgrim's Progress

Six centuries after Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, pilgrimages are booming. John Walsh joins Christians, pagans, atheists and Buddhists as they make their way along Kent’s holy road.

King Of Britain

It is four decades since Elvis Presley, the quintessential American, died.Yet his roots lie in the British Isles, reveals Andrew M Brown.

She's Dead,' We Mouthed. ‘she's... Dead

Reporting the death of Diana, 20 years ago, belongs to another age – one of faxes, francs and analogue phones. That night, amid conflicting accounts, the BBC’s John Curran had to think fast.

How To Look Absolutely Fab At 71

Eat vegetables, climb stairs, try not to look fussy, and never wear shorts in the city, Joanna Lumley tells Brigid Keenan.

A Pair Of Unsung Waterloo Heroes

Lucinda Lambton on the magnificent horse admired by Napoleon, and its brave rider.