For the Folio Society he did three notable books Uncle Silas an ambition at last achieved 1988 Mistress Masham’s Repose

For the Folio Society he did three notable books, Uncle Silas, an ambition at last achieved (1988); Mistress Masham’s Repose, by T.H. White (1989); and Ghost Stories and Other Horrid Tales (1997). These last were chosen and illustrated by Stewart.David Buckman. William Shakespeare would have no problem with tearing down the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford.

No one in Elizabethan times could remain unconscious of changing fashion, or the fate of those who fell in and out of it, on to the execution block. William Shakespeare would have no problem with tearing down the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford. No one in Elizabethan times could remain unconscious of changing fashion, or the fate of those who fell in and out of it, on to the execution block.Nor would he have had too much problem with Adrian Noble’s plans to turn the Royal Shakespeare Company into a business, offering as much an “experience” in Stratford as the straight drama. The bard himself worked his way as an entrepreneur to reasonable wealth and then promptly retired to the life of a Warwickshire gentleman.The theatre was built in 1932 to claim, and to proclaim, Shakespeare’s birthplace as the mecca of his worldwide devotion. These days we take a more conversational view of our greatest poet.What the great dramatist might be a little more nervous about, however, is the intention of it all. A poor workman blames his tools; a poor director these days blames his theatre. The lottery-money-fired fashion for building new monuments for the new age is itself passing.

If you can’t make Shakespeare live on an old-fashioned stage, you’ll never make him work on a new one.. The discovery of a 130lb bomb close to Omagh in Northern Ireland is strong proof that the hard men of violence in IRA breakaway groups are yet to feel the backlash against terrorism since the events of 11 September The significance of the location is poignant and obvious These terrorists are unrepentant Their determination to cause more pain and misery is clear. Equally clear, however, and with strong parallels to the situation in the Middle East, these fragments of violent republicanism, like their loyalist counterparts, want to destroy the peace process. All the more reason for those parties still engaged in it to lend it fresh momentum. The discovery of a 130lb bomb close to Omagh in Northern Ireland is strong proof that the hard men of violence in IRA breakaway groups are yet to feel the backlash against terrorism since the events of 11 September The significance of the location is poignant and obvious These terrorists are unrepentant Their determination to cause more pain and misery is clear. Equally clear, however, and with strong parallels to the situation in the Middle East, these fragments of violent republicanism, like their loyalist counterparts, want to destroy the peace process. All the more reason for those parties still engaged in it to lend it fresh momentum.That, however, appears not to be on their agenda.

There are some signs that David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionists, might pull back from his decision to remove the three Unionist ministers from the executive, but the possibility of withdrawal is strong. Any democrat should understand the frustration that has pushed Mr Trimble to this point. He has always been right to want the IRA to decommission arms. He has compromised with republicans and has made more concessions than they have Peace, as Mr Trimble says, is indivisible. All that said, however, Mr Trimble should remember why he was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1998; it was for his work in forging the Good Friday Agreement. That remains, dishonoured as it may have been by republicans, the best hope for the people of Northern Ireland. He has only to look as far as the Middle East to see what can happen when a peace process, no matter how flawed, is abandoned and talking gives way to violence.Mr Trimble, in other words, is disappointed, angry even at the IRA’ s slowness.

But he should also recognise the steps forward that the republicans have taken They have, haltingly, engaged with the decommissioning body. They have condemned the activities of the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA. Gerry Adams has even said that “terrorism is ethically indefensible”, although he hedged this ringing declaration for his republican audience.Most of all, the guns have been silent, although the low-level but nasty gangsterism that the IRA and the loyalists indulge in is a nauseating sight. The choice before Mr Trimble, Sinn Fein and the others is as stark as it always was; make the Good Friday agreement work or look around the world – or maybe just as far as Omagh – to see the alternative.. Just as the first flickers of hope for a very long time were appearing on the desolate horizon of the Middle East, they were extinguished by three shots fired outside an East Jerusalem hotel room. It is, as the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, put it, “extremely depressing”.