Actress in sensitive, nostalgic roles

Piaf, Impressionists and luxury handbags: why the Japanese are saying 'Oui' to France

Ute Lemper is joined by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for a performance of epic proportions

Gerard Houllier, like his countrywoman Edith Piaf, had no regrets yesterday when he was removed from the Liverpool challenge that he insisted ran way beyond the healing powers of a "quick fix". The trouble was that six years in the life of Liverpool Football Club, with ever declining evidence that you have what it takes to be at least in contention as one of the best teams in England, were not some brief, jarring interlude. It had begun to look like the end of life as it had always been known at Anfield, and to suggest otherwise was pure Houllier.

A Song lines

PHIL JOHNSON ON ROCK & POP Les Rhythmes Digitales Embassy Rooms, London Nitin Sawhney Ronnie Scott's, Birmingham Avishai Cohen Sextet Pizza Express, London

The music

Speer

POULENC/ BBC PHILHARMONIC BRIDGEWATER HALL MANCHESTER

Bites: A taste of regional cooking, from Normandy to the Dordogne.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN(15) DIRECTOR: STEVEN SPIELBERG 170 MINS STARRING TOM HANKS AND TOM SIZEMORE

Hymn to Love, The Drill Hall, London WC1 (0171-637 8270) 7.30pm

thursday's book

In 1915, six days before Christmas, Edith Piaf was born into poverty in Paris. Natasha Edwards captures the mood of the places where she sang her way through tragedy to triumph.