It is my lung, said Boxer, in a weak voice. It does not matter . . . I had been looking forward to my retirement. He intended, he said, to devote the rest of his life to learning the remaining 22 letters of the alphabet.

George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945

Boxer gained not a glue-factory's whiff of any retirement. The pigs flogged him to the knackers for whisky. Orwellian old [...]

Andrew Murray has produced a mini-masterpiece and done his country an enormous favour. Too much that is written on transport of any kind is overcomplicated, over-lengthy and over-worthy. The fear after Railtrack's recent humiliation is that a combination of uninspiring punditry and distracting war fever will, despite announcements to the contrary, once more allow a postponement of effective reforms. With luck, this book will help stop that happening. In a [...]

This is the story of a very modern, very abject rake's progress in British retailing, complete with hubris, unmerited high living and miracle remedies that don't work. Readers seeking a full history of a great company should recognise that its first hundred years are dealt with here in less than a third of the space available. Notwithstanding the book's title (which in later editions might be amended to The Fall [...]

Not all summer repeats are duds. Indeed, the problem with most repeats is that they are of work that was execrable in the first place. In a better world, repeats would be of distant, real classics, and this feat has been performed by Paul Laity in his assemblage, in one volume, of some of the best output of Victor Gollancz's 1930s publishing marvel, the Left Book Club.

Within these pages, [...]

Alan Greenspan is arguably the most influential human being in the world. As chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board since 1987, he has steered the US economy through potential crises threatened by market scares, bank crashes, wars and presidential impeachments - and underwritten the longest boom in US history. This is a very significant book, shining a welcome light on the internal mechanisms of the US economy - and, [...]

In August, you rest. Few would agree more than the Prime Minister, delivered to his Tuscan palace, where the popular impression is that, Gone with the Wind style, servants will mop his brow. But as Blair struggles for sleep on fevered Italian nights, he will most likely be menaced by Women's Institute demons and, worse, memories of a stunningly dis-respectful Question Time audience. Yes, he is on holiday and, temporarily, [...]

Spare a thought for Alan Milburn. The Health Secretary is to oversee the extra spending of £19.4bn pledged by Tony Blair last month to improve the National Health Service. In so doing, he must beware of stepping on the PM's toes: Blair has assumed "personal responsibility" for the NHS, and indeed presented the government's health strategy himself, while a bravely smiling Milburn sat quiescently in the background.

The stakes are [...]

As the weeks towards May and London's mayoral elections unfold, with MORI personal approval ratings sagging (in the case of female voters almost into deficit), Tony Blair might reflect on ways to rekindle Labour's - and the nation's - spirits.

The imminent birth of the Blairs' fourth child, also in early May, offers the Prime Minister a unique opportunity to re-inflame the nation's passions by taking his full (Cabinet Office-approximated) [...]

Many people are lucky enough to have homes. One chilling nightmare for those who do is to find their residence engulfed in chip-pan-ignited flames. Imagine, then, the real horror for every national leader fated to find his or her own capital alight - or, as riot police retreat in stone-pelted armoured vans, under active demolition. This is precisely what happened in January 1998 to Robert Mugabe's Harare.

As the [...]

It shouldn't happen to a governor. On 23 November the seasoned head of the Bank of England, Eddie George, found himself carpeted by MPs half his age as he was asked to explain a bank row over research expertise. The experience could barely have been the highlight of his year. But it was a necessary one - and a stark reminder of how far the bank still has to go [...]