The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 OUR TITANIC BETRAYAL I n a letter in the Independent on 20 May, Dr Michael...

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I n Peking large numbers of students, civilians and soldiers — possibly thousands — were killed as troops loyal to the Chinese senior leader Deng Xiao-ping seized control of...

Fighting phoney wars in the dark, and how not to do it NOEL MALCOLM Immediately after the initial campaign launches, I wrote in this column that the Conservatives would suffer...

SOUSA JAMBA O n Saturday afternoon I was taken to see a play at Finborough Theatre Club, Days of Cavafy by Gerald Killingworth. The theatre, which was on top of a pub in Fulham,...

Let us all pray for those in peril on the sea, the Chinese and the Hislops AUBERON WAUGH C an any of us doubt that if frightened by a serious challenge to their power and...

Timothy Garton Ash. watches Poland vote and ponders Solidarity's problems of success Warsaw CHINESE shadows are long. As I walk across Victory Square with a senior Soli-...

Amit Roy remembers the man of God who was a man of blood THERE are few things that Iran's ayatol- lahs relish more than a malicious joke, especially about one of their own...

A GREAT calamity is reported from Pennsylvania. It had been raining terr- ibly on the Alleghanies for some days, and all the rivers running eastwards were greatly swollen, when,...

Edward Theberton samples the chap-book wisdom of money-grubbing Nigeria THE town of Onitsha, in eastern Nigeria, is famous for its market, which is said to be the largest in...

Charles Moore witnesses a synod of bishops making a stand for revealed religion Fort Worth ARRIVING at the vast airport here on Wednesday of last week, I bumped into Dr Graham...

Michael Trend predicts the failure of the great `poll tax' protest 'REMEMBER 1381!', proclaimed a ban- ner gaily swung aloft a 'Stop the Poll Tax March' in Islington's Upper...

Michael Heath

Alexandra Artley unearths the blight that threatens Durham's allotment holders THE letter which is fomenting the greatest civic dismay and anxiety in Durham City for over 20...

The media: Paul Johnson believes a new Europe is waiting to be covered LAST weekend I spent in Bavaria, listen- ing to music and keeping a desultory eye on the European...

Critical times, but what can the Chanceilor say to Key and Trev? CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he hotels of Peking are block-booked for next November. Everyone wanted to go to the...

LORD King, British Airways' chairman, does not give his date of birth in Who's Who, but a lesser man might be thought to be nearing pensionable age. He has cer- tainly joined my...

SOMEWHERE among the white-coated chemists at Wellcome, there seems to lurk a classicist with a misguided sense of humour. Wellcome's prized discovery and the great spur to the...

BRIDGE players know the temptation. They persuade themselves that they can transform their results by adopting some marvellous flew convention — the Cong- don Forcing Approach,...

A union we should put money on MARTIN JACOMB ALMOST everyone sees the advantages which monetary union would bring. A single currency would remove the uncer- tainties and...

Sir: I was wrong (Books, 6 May). Frederick Forsyth has killed off the Ayatollah. Perhaps he will do the same for Deng Xiao-ping, and fast. Christopher Hawtree Hove, Sussex .

Sir: I have never heard of your correspon- dent, Owen G. M. Morgan (6 May), and I never met him in Bucharest in 1968, but my memory of what life was like there, then and since,...

Sir: Your leader 'Sovereign Remedies' (5 June) clarifies one of the key European constitutional issues in an exemplary man- ner. It asks those involved in this debate to say...

Haven from Hong Kong Sir: Your recent editorial (13 May) on the question of right to abode in the United King- dom for the citizens of Hong Kong was well put. But I fear that...

Sir: Your Portrait of the week (3 June) says that during the Muslim march in London on 27 May 'scuffles broke out between more militant elements of the crowd . . . and the...

Sir: Like many others, I fancy I rely on The Spectator to not only provide a good standard of writing, but a reasonable stan- dard of accuracy. It is therefore disappoint- ing...

Sir: According to Alice Thomas Ellis (Home life, 6 May), 'People who live alone are frequently regarded as nuts, and some- times they are.' Well, I've lived alone in a council...

Sir: I have just seen your leader of 20 May, in which you attribute to John Moore MP, Social Security Secretary, a reference to 'the Child Poverty Action Group's definition of...

Sir: As a relatively recent reader of your splendid Spectator, I so look forward to any contribution from the pen of Mr Alastair Forbes. Is this the same Mr Forbes who ran the...

Sir: With reference to your otherwise excellent front cover of The Spectator (20 May 1989), haec Margaret not hic. Graham Sawyer School House, Dragon School, Bardwell Road,...

Sir: I have heard several expressions of delight from surprised Polish recipients of The Spectator. Professor Treciakowski's letter (Letters, 13 May) prompts me to tell you,...

The British cult of cookery Rebecca Nicolson A nyone that has drooled over a page of smoked salmon parcels or any other of the exotic dishes that fill the glossy colour...

Water, water every way John Diamond hen the time comes to undertake that most tedious of tasks, the preparation of the social history of the 1980s, I would direct historians...

Sitting down and out in London Nigella Lawson I t was only to be expected, I suppose, that the minute I sat down to write about eating in the open air, the sky would become...

The great wine rush Harry Eyres F rom Peter Newton's winery 1300 feet up in the hills you get a Condor's eye view of the Napa valley. It is small and narrow — twenty miles...

A piece of cake Alastair Forbes THE MOUNTBATTENS: THE BATTENBERGS AND YOUNG MOUNTBATTEN by Antony Lambton Constable, f12.95, pp.256 O ne of Tony Lambton's first and quite...

Robert Kee WHO FRAMED COLIN WALLACE? by Paul Foot Macmillan, f12.95, pp. 306 T his is an exciting, brilliant and pro- foundly disturbing book. Everyone who enjoys a good...

is looking for a receptionist. Applicants should have good typing skills and an efficient telephone manner, be tactful, calm under fire and energetic. Salary will be dependent...

Ruth Padel SELECTED POEMS by Hugo Williams OUP, £6.95, pp. 122 B eautifully mannered poems, dis- armingly rueful, English as a carol service, controlled as Savile Row: a...

Dmitri Obolensky TREASURES OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY compiled by Nicolas Barker and the Curatorial Staff of the British Library The British Library, £25, pp.272 T he two-page...

D. J. Taylor PAINTED LIVES by Max Egremont Hamish Hamilton, £11.95, pp. 192 A mid all the critical squawking noises about bratpacks and magic realism, it tends to be...

He's stuck for a word. He strokes me absently, to soothe himself. He calls me Muse. (Short for Muesli?) I gurr. He chain-chews today it's fudge — when a sourness inside sets his...

T he English spring, like the writing of books, usually takes place in secret. We wake up one brighter morning and are astonished at what has been going on behind our backs; we...

M. John Harrison TOUCHING THE VOID by Joe Simpson Cape, f10.95, pp.172 I n May 1985, Joe Simpson and his friend Simon Yates made an attempt on the unclimbed west face of...

Charlotte Lennox-Boyd THE LONGMAN COMPANION TO VICTORIAN FICTION P eople who muddle up R. M. Ballan- tyne and R. D. Blackmore, Charles Lever and Samuel Lover, Lady Georgiana...

Dance Nouvelle blague French contemporary dance receives generous public subsidies and promotion. Deirdre McMahon has been looking at the results. We are now halfway through...

Refigured Painting: The German Image 1960-1988 (Kunstmuseum, Diisseldorf, till 30 June; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, September—November) Echt Deutsch William Hardy T he...

The Merchant of Venice (Phoenix) An ironic Shylock Christopher Edwards T his production, directed by Sir Peter Hall, is accomplished and beautiful to look at. After all the...

Clara's Heart (`15', Warner West End) One sob too many Hilary Mantel T wo months ago, in a café near Leices- ter Square, I was eavesdropping while two elderly ladies planned...

221st Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy, till 20 August) Trial by jury Giles Auty W hile seldom in serious doubt that the Royal Academy remains a worthy and necessary...

A question of size Peter Phillips T he current excavations on the Rose Theatre, identified as the venue where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed, have thrown up...

Happy finds Peter Watson T a lki ng to Julian Agnew a short while T after he had paid $35.2 million last week on behalf of the Getty Museum for Pontor- mo's portrait of Cosimo...

Heavy hitting Taki he Meadow Club is probably one of the most beautiful tennis clubs in America, a Stanford White-designed structure that is as close as one can get to living...

A good reason to switch off Wendy Cope A few weeks ago, at the beginning of Green Book Fortnight, the 'comedian' Ben Elton was interviewed on The Channel Four Daily. I'm not...

Weak at the knees Jeffrey Bernard L ast night I dreamed that I was back at Pangbourne again. Forty years on and I am still troubled by terrible anxiety in my sleep. Well, I am...

Muzzled by red tape Alice Thomas Ellis I have been asking myself why govern- ment is so perverse — why it loves telling us not to smoke or drink or contract Aids or throw our...

City knights Raymond Keene T he Watson Farley and Williams tournament in the City of London has ended in a success for Bent Larsen, but several young British players either...

Prose or verse Jaspistos I n competition No. 1577 you were asked for a piece of either prose or verse with a given opening. I was playing golf the day That the Germans...

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A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

You are invited to incorporate plausibly the following ten words, in any order, into a piece of prose (maximum 150 words): roguish, sporran, Kiplingesque, metaphor- ically,...