A more futile gathering than that of the six finance ministers of Great Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — held in semi-secret near Paris last...

It is difficult for an outsider to say whether President Ford was justified in offering a Pardon to his unhappy predecessor, as he h . as now done: there have been for some time...

A sad situation has now arisen in Mozambique where the weirdly named Dragons of Death are attempting to defy reality as well as the new agreement between Portugal and Frelimo...

Mr Geoffrey Rippon has never been noted for his tact, nor Lord Longford for his commonsense, but it was a ludicrous and comic weekend that included major efforts by both of them...

The visit of the new Israeli Prime Minister to the United States is an important test for Mr Rabin's government, both at home and in international affairs, just as its fruits...

Arab money being pumped into the London market is something that we will probably have to live with for some time: if the Government is prepared to borrow £500 million from the...

For straight, deadpan reporting the Daily Telegraph is in a class by itself. Its treatment of a Soho gang murder last week surely justified the presence of the item on the front...

From Brigadier Michael Calvert Sir: I could not agree more with Tommy Thompson when he says, "There are many problems: and true leaders must get up to the front and see for...

From the Press Counsellor of the 'Pakistan Embassy Sir: Your Indian correspondent Mr Kuldip Nayar's piece on Pakistan (August 31) provides a classic example of the perils of...

Sir Mr Ernst Albert holds that it would be a breach of faith if Parliament used its sovereign power to repudiate the Treaty of Rome, but I would suggest that those who...

rorn Miss E. Lakeman Sir. You draw attention to the contrast between our present government's difficulties and a number of other countries which take the minority government...

Sir: The economy is like a battery of machines into which work is fed at one end to be converted into wealth which is poured out at the other end. This wealth Is all the time...

From Mrs M. Johnston Sir: May I. as an ordinary mother of two teenage daughters, say a heart-felt 'thank you' to Mr Patrick Cosgrave for his article in August 31 issue 'The...

Sir: What a good thing that the corruption of youth by the Family Planning Association has been brought into the open by your paper and that it will receive even more publicity...

Sir: While both postal and telephone services steadily deteriorate, the cost to users of these vital facilities continues to escalate at ever-shorter intervals. Losses mount,...

The late Captain George Spencer-Churchill inherited a magnificent collection of early works of art which he kept at his home, N orthwick Park, Gloucestershire. He was also...

Lord Alport Lord Alport, a lifelong Conservative, was the originator of the 'One Nation' Group of which Edward Heath and Enoch Powell were both founder members. He was a member...

Death of an incomes policy Russell Lewis It is hard to overestimate the significance of Sir Keith Joseph's speech last week in Preston, for it marked his total conversion to...

A Nixon footnote footnote Al Capp They'll laugh when they read this, but, F.sPecially now he's been pardoned, American l iberalism will miss Richard Nixon. Hatred for him...

Intrigued beyond measure by the surging Enthusiasm of good Doctor Cosgrave — for you must be aware that he is as true a Tory as ever daubed himself with Woad — for the annual...

The Colwell Report Status without responsibility lain Scarlet Some of my best friends are social workers and I would be the last to deny their individual skills. But I do...

A letter from the headmaster Paul Griffin Dear Mrs Motherleigh, It is kind of you to remind me of m y duty to assist Charles in finding a career. Certainly society does seem...

Nobel-minded Bernard Dixon It is unlikely that any of the scientists whose names will be a nnounced in coming weeks as the 1974 Nobel laureates will turn out to be current...

Tomorrow is yesterday Bill Grundy I worry when I see the press staring into its mirror. It could be disaster staring back. Last week the Guardian produced a four-page...

Sour notes Pamela Vandyke Price In the high and historic times, the mob — which term should perhaps be updated to 'the voters' — would periodically clamour either for blood or...

Facing the critics Philio Kleinman The advertising industry's efforts to pull its socks up are currently getting a lot of publicity, and they will soon be getting more. The...

Eagle of flowers Denis Wood The common annual sunflower is generally not sufficiently genteel to be seen much in contrived beds and borders — it is 'so immensely . tall , and...

Knotty problems Martin Sullivan Every schoolboy knows the classical story of Alexander the Great's visit to Gordum in Phrygia to see the famous chariot of the old Kings of the...

A. L. Rowse on Pepys, the complete gentleman It is always entrancing to read about Pepys such zest and gaiety, so many interests, such intellectual vivacity, such pure and...

An introduction All of us have memories of our first books; the peculiar binding, the smell of the paper, the look of a particular drawing will stay longer in the mind than the...

Selina Hastings It is no longer enough that children should be taught the difference between good and bad, and that to be good is the alternative preferred. The world has...

David Williams Laughter at the Door A continued autobiography Geoffrey'Trease (Macmillan E3.50) The Family Conspiracy Joan Phipson (Kestrel Books £1.95) Mb a Gunnel Beckman...

George van Schaick The world can be a hard and cruel place, as a generation brought up on nightly news film from Northern Ireland, with Alf Garnet and Barlow as light relief,...

Leon Garfield Knight after Knight Sheila Sancha £2.50) The Eighteenth Emergency Betsy Byars (Bodley Head £1.35) Cathedra/ David Macaulay (Collins £1.95) I don't know why I...

Anne Wood Over the last year the rivalry between the extravagant claims of each paperback house for its children's list seems to have quietened down, though it is no easier to...

Edward Blishen A weekend guest, I slept in the bed of someone's absent son — he being away at the university. To an insomniac eye, his bookshelves offered an almost perfect...

John Rowe Townsend The Magic Tree Gerald McDermott (Kestrel £1.50) Rhymes Without Reason Mervyn Peake (Methuen £1.40) Odd One Out Rodney Pepp6 (Kestrel £1.50) Barbapapa's Ark...

Robert Nye The Tin Woodman of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz, The Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum (Hutchinson Junior Books £1.95 each). L. (for Lyman) Frank Baum was born...

How to pronounce Cornish names A.L.Rowse Lovely Luxulyan Rhymes with a million, And so does Trevelyan. Mevagissey rhymes with dizzy, As do Tregonissey and St Issey.* Fowey,...

Much ado about nothing Jeremy Round (Palmer's College) He had been told that a menthol crystal combined with the heat of the illumination, would have the desired decelerating...

Much ado about nothing Catherine Poulton (Horsham High) It is symptomatic of a nation that no longer takes itself seriously, not indeed deserves to be taken seriously, by itself...

Do you know about the NBL's Children's Reference Library? The Libary is housed on the lower ground floor of the National Book League at 7 Albemarle Street, London W1X 4BB and...

Magnus Ma g nusson ilsPects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology (Sutton 110 0 and Other Discoveries) Rupert Bruce-Mitford (Victor Gollancz £12.50) It is now thirty-five years since that...

Kenneth Robinson Dark Corridor Denise Robins (Hodder and Stoughton £2.10) This is the tale of Corrie Gilroy, a girl with a tip-tilted nose, a wide mouth made for loving and...

Margaret Drabble The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft Claire Tomalin (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.75) The name of Mary Wollstonecraft is familiar enough: it is one of...

Kay Dick Memories for Tomorrow Jean-Louis Barrault translated by Jonathan Griffin (Thames and Hudson £4.50) Early in his apprenticeship, in the Dullin atelier, Jean-Louis...

Richard Luckett The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks (Jonathan Cape £395) "A multi-purpose, clandestine arm of power.., an instrument for...

Games of Chance Peter Ackroyd 44. Game of Patience Francis King (Hutchinson t2.75) Scandalous Woman Edna O'Brien (Weiden,!!t1 and Nicolson £2.50) Q.50) Bl ackwater Pauline...

Bookend One of the winter's guessing games will undoubtedly involve a book published by Elek next January. Entitled The Autobiography of an Englishman it is, says the...

OF THE ARTS Kenneth Hurren on a busy night Down Under What If You Died Tomorrow? by David Williamson (Comedy Theatre) The Bedwinner by Tony Lesser (Royalty Theatre) Dr Faustus...

Friedrich the Great Rodney Eines Operatically at least, 1974 has been a vintage Edinburgh. After the impressive Scottish Alceste came the Stockholm Royal Opera, one of the few...

The film with everything ,Duncan Fallowell Go/d. Director: Peter Hunt. Stars: Roger Moore, Susannah York, Ray Milland, 'A' Odeon Leicester .Square (122 minutes). The Dance of...

To the growing list of groups in the country turning bitterly against the Common Market, I suspect you may safely now add the British film industry. Already in a far from...

Wanted : real social contracts Nicholas Davenport One of the most ridiculous ideas of this rainy, washed-up silly season is that the City is generating gloom and despondency...

The Micawber tapes William Keegan Cast, in order of disappearance: Denis Micawber, a Finance Minister Sir Douglas Corridor, a Permanent Civil Servant Jack Socrates, a...

Disenchantment with the Stock Exchange Benjamin Holland The City and British industry have found it increasingly hard to talk to each other, but the widening rift has become...