M rs Thatcher's election as Conservative leader in 1975 was supposed to have revolutionised the party, her success in the 1979 general election supposed to have revolutionised...

W eekends can be a bit depressing at this time of year, so I am glad there will be something juicy to watch on television this Saturday. Independent Television is due to show...

UK Eire Surrace mall Air mail 6 months: £17.25 IRLI7.25 £20.50 L26.50 One year: £34.50 IRE34.50 £41.00 £53.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to...

Tale of two authors Auberon Waugh W illiam Golding becomes the sixth or possibly seventh Briton to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, depending upon whether you count Shaw as...

Christopher Hitchens Athens T he cause of redistribution is not one which has, hitherto, been much asso- ciated with the name of Margaret Thatcher. But this week in Athens she...

Charles Glass Beirut T he front page of Beirut's French language daily, L'Orient-Le Jour, appeared on Tuesday with the caption 'line image qui se passe de tout commentaire'....

Richard West San Salvador T he 'death squads' of El Salvador have killed at least one and threatened still more of the foreign journalists whom they seem to believe to be part...

writing to • Wednesday's Times, makes the occasional awkward- ness of the hangman, and the conse- quent suffering of the victim, a plea for abolishing capital punishment...

Bohdan Nahaylo J ust over 12 months ago years of specu- lation about the most likely successor to the obviously ailing President Leonid Brezhnev abruptly ended. Before he had...

Gavin Stamp A tier a certain tactful delay since Miss Mercouri's histrionic visit to London earlier this year, the Greek government has now sent the expected formal request for...

Rowan Moore T °glance through Richard Seifert's publicity brochure is a curious ex- perience. Nestling among the granite and mirror glass, colossal banks in Alexandria and...

Et in Arcadia ego Paul Johnson W hat student magazines do today, Fleet Street does tomorrow. Or is it the op- posite? There's certainly a connection. Such publications are...

The final question, set by Dame Edna Everage is to be found on page 41.

Opec at the brink Jock Bruce-Gardyne I t might be an exaggeration to say that all eyes this week have been trained on Athens. If one was trying to run an insur- ance company,...

Thoughts on the Ukraine Sir: Auberon Waugh suggests that the West should seek to starve out the USSR by a grain embargo while fomenting revolt in the non-Russian provinces, so...

Auberon Waugh tells us that fissiparous tendencies within the Soviet Union, mainly nationalism, should be en- couraged (by whom? the West?) eventually to bring about the...

Sir: In last week's Spectator, I compared the Wodehouse character Uncle Fred to the late soldier-turned-actor David Niven and to the soldier-turned-journalist Donald Wise. A...

Sir: Richard West has never heard it suggested that murders by 'death squads' in El Salvador were carried out by judges of the El Salvador court (3 December). But by now he will...

Sir: It is not merely clever people who are getting bored with the Prime Minister (Charles Moore, 'Political commentary', 26 wondering how it is that Mrs Thatcher has managed to...

Sir: The truth always hurts, especially when a writer refers to a national figure. It was sad to see such a poor defence of Archbishop Runcie (Letters, 26 November) with...

Sir: I was delighted to see Alexander Chancellor taking up the cudgels on behalf of the poor, harassed smoker (Notebook, 3 December). Like hint, I am extremely sceptical about...

Passing the torch Colin Welch M rs McCartney, wife of the dis- tinguished composer and retired Beatle Paul, has sent a giant hamper from Fortnum's to the Greenham ladies. It...

The bureaucrat's friend Norman Stone John Maynard Keynes: Hopes Betrayed 1883-1920 Robert Skidelsky (Macmillan 14.95) W hen Keynes was in his first term as an undergraduate at...

George Gale Enthusiasms Bernard Levin (Jonathan Cape 0.95) The Original Michael Frayn (The Salamander Press, Edinburgh £8.50) The Third Dimension ed. Philip French (The...

Francis King Mates Tom Wakefield (Gay Men's Press 0.95) W hen, in The Importance of Being Earnest, Cecily asks Miss Prism whether her three-volume novel ended hap- pily, she...

Adam Nicolson The New Compleat Angler Stephen Downes, illustrated by Martin Knowelden (Orbis £9.95) I saak Walton recommends a live yellow 'frog as the best bait when angling...

Nikolai Tolstoy The Polish Revolution: Solidarity 1980-82 Timothy Garton Ash (Cape £12.50) 'W hat we had in mind was not only bread, butter and sausage but also justice,...

Hugh Massingberd Lions Under The Throne Anthony Mockler (Frederick Muller £15) Twenty-five years ago in these columns Bernard Levin doubtless earned himself the first of the...

Patrick Skene Catling The Lamp-Post Marauders Celia Johnson, illustrated by Jael Jordan (Deutsch £4.95) Seaward Susan Cooper (Bodley Head £5.95) The Long Night Watch Ivan...

Metaphors of violence Rodney MiInes B y tradition all notices of The Rape of Lucretia start by saying how frightful Ronald Duncan's libretto is, — all, that is, save for mine,...

Isabel Colegate Lady Addle Remembers Ed. Mary Dunn (Robin Clark £4.95) L ady Addle was born Lady Blanche Coot, daughter of the Seventh Earl. After a blissful childhood at Coots...

Shakespearian Giles Gordon Life's a Dream (The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon) The Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford- upon-Avon) Successful Strategies...

On the streets Peter Ackroyd Liquid Sky (18', selected cinemas) rr his is a film about New York adoles- cents of the 'new wave' variety, which is why the histories of the...

Face to face John McEwen William Dobson 1611-46, The Royalists at War (National Portrait Gallery till 8 January 1984) Polite Society: portraits of the English Country...

Interference Richard Ingrams T don't know why, but the very clear wea- 1 ther during the last week has been playing merry hell with my television set. Perhaps this is the...

Customary Jeffrey Bernard I t's been a pretty bad year for being able to dish out any Low Life Orders of Merit, but at last I'm able to pop one in the post to Judge Bruce...

Star player Talo New York p °aid° Rubirosa, the much married Dominican polo player, was probably the greatest playboy of all time. He was also a modern Robin Hood. He took...

Coincidences P.J. Kavanagh A few weeks ago I mentioned here that I 11..met the Mad Pole in a church. He did not know me but I knew him because ten years before, driving the...

No. 1299: Worm's eye view Set by Jaspistos: A surprising account, please, by a very minor historical character, involved for a short space of time with a celebrated person in a...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for an untraditional poem written privately by Penelope before or after the arrival home of Odysseus/Ulysses. Rupert Brooke's...

Radials 4, 6,9, 13 20, 22, 26, 31, 33, 40 are suggested by high/low spirits, as are the circtft words (Angels/ Devils): URIEL/ARCHFIEND/ GABRIEL. ./SATAN/MICHAEl / L UCIFER....

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 3 January. Entries lo: Crossword 637, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 6 7...

Turning point Raymond Keene A fter Korchnoi's win in the first game .ILagainst Kasparov, the young Russian seemed unable to display his full powers. In fact, he was reduced to...

pparently in retaliation for attacks by I — I-Syrian forces on US reconnaissance aeroplanes, President Reagan ordered the aerial bombing of Syrian positions in Lebanon. Two US...

TRISTINE RAINIER: 'The New Diary: How to use a Journal'. (Angus & Robertson 1980). J. M. Hick, 24 Court Rd, Malvern, Worcs WRI4 3BL. ROUND THE WORLD AND BACK by Ivor Back FRCS...

with Dame Edna Everage Hello Possums! I hope your cerebral cervixes have been tickled by our celebrity brain-teasers and I am thrilled, incidentally, that thanks to my...

'Game for a Daimler'. Please send your answers to 'Game for a Daimler', The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. Important. No entry will be considered unless it is...

If you missed the previous weeks' issues, it is still possible to enter the competition. Back numbers are available from: The Spectator, Competition Back Numbers, 56 Doughty...

The first prize is a magnificent 1934 Daimler Saloon, which is illustrated above. It is fully licensed and in excellent condition having had only two owners. The car is valued...