Pollution is like war; everybody is against it, except' when it is unavoidable in the production, or defence, of something else. Very few people set about making a mess for the...

In 1969 Mr Heath laid down, in a passage that was clearly not meant to be mere window-dressing, the principles of his own approach ta social welfare : The natiori we want to...

Will they buy a used President? Henry Fairlie Washington, DC. The issue before the American people in November will be quite simple: Are they willing to buy a used President...

'critical questions of the utmost importance 9 In a week which has produced what looks like a corker of a novel from Thomas Hinde as well as the long awaited new James Hanley it...

John Maddox The Mature Society Denis Gabor (Seeker and Warburg £2.75) Dr Denis Gabor has written a gloomy and provoking book which is nevertheless more erudite and interesting...

relationship Hugh Brogan Eleanor and Franklin: The StorY Relationship, based on Eleanor R°' Private Papers Joseph P. L ash of Deutsch £4.75) I, told' -° s, Loving,...

Richard Luckett John Dowkind Diana Poulton (Faber £12) Seldom can a musician's reputation have been so closely related to the fortunes of an instrument as was that of John...

Patrick Cos grave In her famous essay on ' Detection, mystery, horror ' Dorothy Sayers distinguished between the story of pure analysis — Poe, Orczy, some of Doyle — the story...

1 (1 f Conan Doyle Quigly Doyle Ivor Brown (Hamish 'Itton £1.50) here is a psychical state (or maybe just a Fne °f Personality) that always seems to th e Photo g enic. As you...

Bookbuyer One of Heinemann's best-selling authors, who gets reprinted every - year, is Kahlil Gibran, a kind of Lebanese Patience .Strong. His best-selling book The Prophet,...

Routledge are currently discovering what happens when a series goes stale on you. Their Critical Heritage series, reprinting chronologically a selection of the reviews and...

Busily coping with the Epsom races, Ladbrokes haven't yet altered their odds on the Poet Laureateship, and this may be the opportunity for readers of Bookend to make a quick...

If you watched last Sunday's ITV play from London Weekend, Ben Spray, and felt you'd seen it before — you were right. The same play was networked by Granada in February 1961....

• The Royal Ballet, back from New York, begin their new season at Covent Garden next Friday ((June 16) with the triple-bill, Serenade, Triad and The Dream. Russian ballerina...

The moor the merrier Rodney Manes firs t To be booed by a Covent Garden, the ' night audience is, I suppose, one c) ,,,. ia ro, few remaining honours left to MO be and. Colin...

'Ight have q ian 44 eth Hurren e b , ee ss of The Hostage in the late ll'as, unarguably, the worst thing i et happened to Brendan Behan. .'ItA i t „"as revived last week by...

Menus to remember Pamela Vandyke Price Other people's ideas of what constitutes a delicious meal are in themselves entertaining — even if one then slumps back into the meat...

ka a oPherson's article on I °I Ronald Bell (June 3) ttiisat service in calling atA o t he plight of a politicaln sticks to his principles. iieldanstituent who has adIt a ",...

Sir: Mr C. N. Gilmore (Letters, June 3) may indulge in his particular whims and fantasies .to his heart's content. The facts are that I wrote to Harold Wilson applying to join...

Sir: I was interested to hear on the radio news this evening that Sir Alec Home's excuse for continuing the blockade of trade with Rhodesia was that it would be to Britain's...

Sir: Immediately after reading Bernard Dixon's statement (June 3) that Concorde cost ES for every man, woman and child in Britain, I saw an ITV programme on which all parties...

Sir: Custos (May 20) quotes from DIG's annual report a passage which is critical of the Government's new pension plan, and questions whether the criticism is justified. The...

Sir: Mr Adler (Letters, May 20) asserts "The rightof a nation to keep its racial character, whether that nation be Britain or Israel." The attitude underlying his letter...

Sir: Mr Henry Adler (Letters, May 20) overlooks the most crucial point when he compares Israel's tolerance vis - à - vis its 16 per cent Arabs with Britain's 0.6 per cent Jews...

Sir: Your correspondent Henry Adler (Letters, May 20) contends that there are restrictions, either official or unofficial, on the numbers of Jews admitted to Britain's public...

years without discovering Mr Adler's numerus clausus (Letters, May 20) (it must be a very numerous clausus) either official or unofficial, at public schools or anywhere else, I...

Sir: What a very silly article Olga Franklin wrote on Fleet Street Women' (May 20). She confuses personal experience with a general state of affairs. She says, firstly, that as...

Sir: Some of us here are getting a bit sick of Auheron Waugh. We all know that he will never forgive the Times for sacking him, but why the sarcastic assault on Michael Cudlipp...

Sir: With reference to Pamela Vandyke Price's gratuitous and selfimportant advice on May 27 to her hosts, I should not, were I to be acquainted with this person and the...

Sir: Could you please restrain Tom Puzzle? We are already in the bad books of various sponsors of the Night Assemblies Bill for killing their Bill. There is no need for Tom...

Sir: Thank heaven someone has had the guts to cry out that Lord Goodman is not wearing the imperial clothes with which recent publicity has endowed him (Patrick Cosgrave, May...

(May 13), is admirable, his diagnosis however less SO. in the past his eye has often liken lured by the dazzle of chromed motorcycle tailpipes and ,other facets of his symbolic...

Wood 14 11 11 (4 quite two years in office to show N t e t . e arl do, Mr Heath has a sporting bec o — e . , 1 the first Prime Minister laet within striking (or should it be 6...

No doubt there are a number of excellent people, people of gentle character and inner gentleness, that one should meet in the Honours List. The first of this year's Life...

A lesson on gambling Nephew Wilde It was time to have more than the usual laconic telephone conversation with Wotherspool, the stockbroker who has been handling my invest...

Two good reports custos It has scarcely yet been realised what a formidable challenge to politicians is made by the National Children's Bureau report From Birth to Seven. The...

rategic ed b ieine "wan Wilson all Clausewitz and Liddell Hart; 't isn't all Remarque and Norman either. The same applies to medihas its strategic and its human asWhich...