`On your marks, get set, go!' M rs Thatcher ruled out the re- introduction of internment after six people died in IRA terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland, and an IRA bomb...

T he abysmal failure of the English cricket team, doubly underlined by the latest in a series of crushing defeats by the West Indies that has now lasted more than a decade, has...

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All dressed up and nowhere to go MARTIN IVENS J ust as a beautiful woman likes to show off her glittering, new ballgown at a party so Mrs Thatcher wants to parade her economic...

Zimbabwe h enhen it was built across the Zambezi some 30 years ago, the Kariba dam created what was then the biggest man-made lake in the world. 'Unfortunately, it's going to...

Whites who are not WASPs are dissillusioned with the morality of the Democrats. Ambrose Evans - Pritchard argues that they will be crucial to a victory for Bush Since then...

Imperial withdrawal THE retreat from empire has long been a popular theme in this part of the world, it being generally understood that this melan- choly, long withdrawing roar...

Robert Cottrell reports on the contradictions of Taiwan politics Taipei NOWHERE else in the world can officials be quite so easily charmed. Merely call their country the...

Anthony Daniels meets the police surgeon criticised by the Cleveland inquiry THERE is nothing quite like the printed word, as Dr Raine Roberts, the Manches- ter police surgeon...

Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK b £45.00 0 £23.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £55.00 0 £28.00 USA Airspeed 0 US $90 0 USS45 Rest of Airmail 0 £70.00 0 £36.00 World Airspeed...

Simon Blow ponders his own clothes that once disturbed his upper-class relations 'I REALLY do think, Simon, it's going rather far,' mustachioed uncle — former Guards officer —...

THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE ON THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM THE Lambeth Conference, just ended, will not suffer by comparison with either of its predecessors. More Bishops took part...

that it pays to give readers all sides of the question TO WHAT extent is a newspaper obliged to print the other side of a good story? The correct answer of course is to the...

IT DOES the City no credit to have let the LondonClear project collapse. In the not so old days it would never have happened. Father in the Bank of England would have said...

The comical game of Grandmother and the seven footsteps CHRISTOPHER FILDES W e can see the game that the Chancel- lor has been playing. It is Grandmother's Footsteps. Interest...

I FOUND Wall Street full of Jewish- American Princess jokes — What is a JAP's favourite position? Just opposite Bloomingdale's — and liked its sequel: How can you tell when a...

IT HAS long seemed to me that James Baker has enjoyed the unfair advantage of not being Donald Regan. Now that Mr Baker has landed the bets of Wall Street, by tiptoeing out of...

Targets for a returning traveller's handbag JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE 'Last night,' Mr Hardcastle informed the listening millions, 'the Tory backbenchers met in their Finance...

Sir: Many people have written about the terrific dignity with which Mark Boxer coped with his dreadful illness. About five weeks before he died I played bridge with him and saw...

Sir: Mrs Worsthorne's doctor may have had trouble with personal hygiene and the English language (Diary, 30 July), but there is little wrong with the poor chap's medical...

Sir: Having found articles on the NHS by Dr Myles Harris usually stimulating and informative I am at a loss to understand how he came to portray general practice and general...

Sir: With reference to the leading article 'Home dear home' (6 August) I would like to comment as follows: Unnecessary per- sonal comments apart, I have never been leader of the...

an extremely painful disease and what she conceived to be the imperti- nence of an ignorant medical attendant, though it is only fair to the doctor con- cerned to point out that...

JOHN CASEY KYOTO is the only large Japanese city entirely to have escaped bombing during the war. It was scarcely a suitable target, since it was of no strategic importance and...

'EACH Briton consumes on average 191 pints of beer a year, some 30 million pints are sold each day in Britain.' (Independent, 1 August) `EACH Briton' does nothing of the sort....

The human factor Paul Johnson RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARIES: ENGLISHMEN AND THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 by W. A. Speck OUP, f17.50, pp. 267 REVIVING THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION:...

I know this world is a nightmare, A reverie gone wry, A weary dream of a mind dream-lost In an unconvincing sky. Should I not then renounce the world? Renounce the world? Not...

As for your soul, it interests me No more than some blue star Known to be there, but otherwise Too far, too far . . . All that I want in this actual world Is the actual man you...

Though life is worse than wearisome, A burden and a bore, I do my best to stay alive Because I trust no more In an after-life that I yet remember Having lived before. Minamoto...

Why should I . care for someone Who would not pause to spare So much as a glance to notice me, Not even if I were One who could pile up chicken's eggs Ten eggs by ten eggs...

The main text of wild geese, Lamenting, has flown by. A space; And then these stragglers Like a postscript on the sky. Priest Saigyo (1118-1190)

Would that I were living now Twenty years ahead When this hard-hearted bitch who will not Let me share her bed Anonymous (9th century)

Brian Masters CRIMINAL JUSTICE: THE TRUE STORY OF EDITH THOMPSON by Rene Weisi Hamish Hamilton, £14.95, pp. 327 E dith Thompson was hanged for the murder of her husband in...

Tony Osman A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME by Stephen Hawking Bantam Press, f14.95, pp. D oes time have a beginning and an end? Or, to ask the question in another way, did the...

never be any carrots Anthony Daniels DRIVING THROUGH CUBA by Carlo Gebler Hamish Hamilton, f13.95, pp 294 • L iterary intellectuals have a long his- tory of infatuation...

Welcome to the cherry, So unequivocal, So full Of itself, so utterly Not you, not me, with our same Questions, The old stones' Word game Of this year Last year Next year Never.....

David Pryce-Jones THE AUSTRIANS: STRANGE TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS by Richard Bassett Faber, £12.95, pp. 122 VIENNA: A TRAVELLER'S COMPANION selected and introduced by John...

Giles Auty CECIL COLLINS: THE QUEST FOR THE GREAT HAPPINESS by William Anderson Barrie & Jenkins, f25, pp. 192 L ooking through an old address book the other day, I came...

Exhibitions Romantic reasoning Giles Auty The Romantic Tradition in Contemporary British Painting (Ikon, Birmingham, till 27 August) Romantic Visions (Camden Arts Centre,...

Will they buy it? Alistair Hicks reviews the progress of an imaginative scheme to encourage young artists T oday almost any young artist who is competent and industrious could...

on the newly refurbished National Gallery of Scotland.

Notes from the distant past Peter Phillips I t is no exaggeration to say that I have just come across the original classical record. Perhaps, since it was recorded in 1979, it...

Ecstasy for the under-20s Marcus Berkmann T he singles chart is looking increasingly bizarre. Number one is a record entitled `The Only Way Is Up', by Yass and the Plastic...

Artist Descending a Staircase (King's Head) Sweeney Agonistes; In the Unlikely Event of an Emergency (Old Red Lion) Seeing is believing Christopher Edwards T om Stoppard's...

Boring beetles Ursula Buchan There is nothing like a good, or rather bad, pest to bring out the bore in me; at the moment I am reserving my very best efforts for the life...

Brief innings Wendy Cope T his was going to be the week I devoted the column to cricket, in response to a certain amount of pressure from cricketing friends. But somehow I...

The ranks of Tuscany Taki y spies tell me that the best-selling picture postcard of Sardinia is of people getting on the aeroplane to leave. The place is so crowded it makes a...

More time for embroidery Jeffrey Bernard T here are some disturbing aspects of snatching a little sleep. I recently got up and thought I would go out and buy myself some...

Six legs bad Alice Thomas Ellis W e woke the other morning to the unusual sight of sunlight streaming through the windows and rose early. As Someone was preparing the...

Car(e)free Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1535 you were asked for a song of release on the part of a motorist who, for one reason or another, can no longer drive. I should be...

Short's chances Raymond Keene I n my article of two weeks ago I pre- viewed the World Championship quarter- final match between Nigel Short and Jon Speelman and gave two...

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A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of either Chambers Dictionary or Chambers Crossword Manual — ring your choice) for the first three...

You have been asked to write a testimonial for someone who is quite unsuitable for the job concerned but whom you do not wish to offend. Such a letter, please (maximum 150...

by Mirjana Winter- bottom, that beautiful creature from the Chelsea Arts Club, to a wonderful res- taurant nestling in the glories of the Sussex downs near Lewes. If summer had...

Bursting out with fruit and honey Auberon Waugh I have not been able to include the 1982 Chateau Musar in this offer as it will not be landed until January, but a preview per-...

12 hots. £42.05 12 bets. £79.58 12 bots. £82.80 12 bots. £59.98 12 bots. £61.08 12 bets. £77.62 12 bots. £68.32 Total remittance enclosed White 1. Domaine Lamoure Chardonnay...

Erskine-Crum of _ Malmesbury.

BUT too few people realise that Paul also has a serious side. In last week's essay, he touched upon something which is, to my mind, very serious indeed. 'It is signifi- cant',...

TO CHRONICLE the reactions of women to a male striptease was altogether trickier. Paul's first stab at infiltration, dressed in wig and mini-skirt borrowed from a great aunt,...

Leaves from the commonplace book of Wallace Arnold I WONDER if anyone else read Paul Johnson last week? He was writing on the subject of humour; home ground, of course, for...