I n the South Atlantic, British ships and planes pursued a policy of 'softening up' Argentinian positions at Port Stanley and Port Darwin by bombardment — actions...

General Winter changes sides Ferdinand Mount areas: short-term, medium-term and long- term. On all three, the original position of the British government has now moderated...

I f the Government is heading for a 'sell- out' over the Falklands, as The Times seemed to fear in its editorial on Wednes- day, what will the Sun do then? It will be a hideous...

6 months: One year: US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator) Subscription Manager, Spectator, Mortimer House, 230-236 Lavender Hill, London...

Time to go for broke? Auberon Waugh Q tarting his Notebook last week, Alex- ander Chancellor quoted a letter from an unnamed friend urging him not to become pompous about the...

Patrick Desmond N o news yet of the Fusiliers, Staffords or Forresters being ordered south. And Just as well. For if their soldiers scratch their heads at what Buenos Ayres is...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington A mericans are still amazed that Britain and Argentina are at war. Six months ago the odds against it in Las Vegas would have been about the...

Sam White Paris B Y an odd coincidence President Mit- terrand will be in London, meeting Mrs T hatcher, on the very day that the Common Market sanctions against Argentina come...

Timothy Garton Ash W hile Britain is at war with Argen- tina, Poland is still at war with itself. On 1 May General Jaruzelski's semi- military regime allowed a Solidarity...

Richard West Zamboanga, Philippines A least two Hollywood films have begun with a drunken white beachcomber, stranded upon the waterfront at Zam- boanga. Lord Jim, or Heyst...

Charles Moore T he Falklands crisis is marvellous luck for Ulster Unionists in their search for the damaging comparison. It may have dis- tracted critical attention from Mr...

A great crime, unprecedented, in some of its features, for atrocity, has appalled and saddened the United Kingdom. On Saturday, shortly before eight p.m., two shop-assistants...

Peter Ackroyd O n Tuesday night, the House of Commons found itself debating once again the question of capital punishment like a wound which has almost healed, it it- ches; and...

Gavin Stamp T hese days it is not the traditionalists in architecture who are backward- looking; it is the modernists. First we have Mr Peter Palumbo preparing to sweep away a...

David Taylor T ravelling out of Liverpool Street your first impression is that London goes on for ever. It is not until the train reaches Romford, 15 minutes out, that one is...

Falklands: means and ends Sir: In making his unequivocal plea for a cease-fire Ferdinand Mount seeks to establish the principle of using force only in proportion to the morally...

An ill wind Tony Rudd T he markets have been a bit gruesome this last week or so; not a place for the o ver - fastidious. It might be an exaggeration to say that their buoyant...

can say `of certain voices on the British Left, in- cluding James Fenton ... whose taste and judgment are always thoughtful and found- ed on decency' (8 May). Since Mr Hitchens...

the Spectator expresses so clearly my own feelings, and I suspect echoes the thoughts of a good many more than 10 per cent of the population, if people were honest. It is quite...

Sir: Euan Cameron, in his 'Argentinian childhood' (1 May), remarks that his teachers directed his literary thoughts to Kipling, P.C. Wren and Jim Fawcett — o f man-eating...

Mount as 'England's best political columnist' (1 May) but in his piece (8 May) on the dangers of total war in the South Atlantic he drew on the wrong edition of Clausewitz's On...

Sir: I have only just read `Drinking -u p time' in your issue of 24 April, so I hope I may be allowed a delayed comment on M i r , Rogers's statement that 'all of Wales wi ll...

Beneath the furbelows Peter Quennell English Society in the Eighteenth Century: The Pelican Social History of Britain Roy Porter (Pelican £12.50) T o depict the social life...

Eric Christiansen For 200 years, it has been obvious that authoresses and cottages go together. It is a relationship both mystical and practical. Cottages benefit authoresses:...

Jo Grimond A Scottish naturalist: The sketches and notes of Charles St. John 1809-1856 Edited by Anthony Atha with a Foreword by Robert Dougall (Andre Deutsch £10.95) C...

Julian Jebb A s the 20th century reaches its end, the great novelists of the time take on a new proportion. Proust, Kafka and Joyce, the innovators in language and form, have...

Jeremy Lewis A lthough he has retained a devoted following among the denizens of coun- try houses, members of the crustier London clubs and assorted backwoodsmen, Surtees —...

David Williams A Royal Family Charles I and his family Patrick Morrah (Constable £9,95) C multi-partnership, a gang of four — i s ollective biography — of a family, a a...

John Guest The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters: Cor- respondence of George Lyttelton and Rupert Hart-Davis Volume Four 195 9 (John Murray £12.50) A lthough this is the fourth...

Sara Maitland L' dna O'Brien is quite simply a wonder- ful writer of short stories. She is evocative, sensual and technically subtle. Her writing is a real pleasure to read....

Barbara Trapido Getting it Right Elizabeth Jane Howard (Hamish Hamilton £7.95) The Samurai Shusaku Endo, translated by Van C. Gessel (Peter Owen £8.95) lizabeth Jane Howard's...

James Hughes Onslow Music For Chameleons, Truman Capote (Sphere £1.50) 14 short stories, based mostly on im- probable characters Capote really has met — like the Martinique...

Violet Powell Stories from the Raj: From Kipling to In- dependence Selected and introduced by Saros Cowasjee, with a Preface by Paul Theroux (The Bodley Head £7.50) f the 15...

Looking beyond the frills Jann Parry C ummon up the image of a ballet dancer L./ and what do you see? Very probably, what Degas saw: a girl in a long white skirt, adjusting a...

Eric Christiansen is the author of The Northern Crusades and the translator of Saxo. He is a Fellow of New College Oxford, where he teaches mediaeval history. Jo Grimond has...

Cop out Mark Amory WCPC (Half Moon) On the Rocks (Chichester) Wyre's Cross (Drill Hall and King's Head) W CPC by Nigel Williams is a weirdly distorted mirror image of...

Hairline decisions John McEwen J oel Fisher is showing recent sculptures, watercolours and etchings at Nigel Greenwood Inc (till 15 May). In terms of previous work by this...

ROCKINGHAM, POTTERY AND PORCE- LAIN by D.G. Rice (Barrie & Jenkins, London 1971). Horn, tel: Freeland 881292. W.L. WYLLIE R.A. (1851-1931). Books required. Wyllie, 12 Needham...

No idea Richard Ingrams T he BBC has been getting stick for its Falklands reporting so I made a special effort to watch Newsnight (BBC2) which seems to attract more than its...

In the shadows Peter Ackroyd An Unsuitable Job for a Woman ('AA', Gate Cinema) I t seems an unlikely combination: Christopher Petit, a young film director who was previously...

First class Jeffrey Bernard D ear John M. W. Chipman, inviting Th m a e nk to yo s u p v ea ermuch speak at m atth for eA r r y n o o u i r d le a t t n e a r , Brakesbury...

In error Taki New York W ell, Claus Bulow received 30 years of confined living among ethnic minorities up in Rhode Island, and it made all the East Coast front pages. It also...

Charles Seaton reports: Competitors were asked for verses embodying the reactions of a public personality chosen as the subject of the drawing in 'Birthdays Today' in The...

No. 1218: Prose poem Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to write a rhymed poem which is nevertheless leadenly prosaic in tone and content. Maximum 16 lines. Entries to...

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Altered States Raymond Keene S ince he defected from the USSR in 1976 Victor Korchnoi has established himself as a citizen of the world, having spent two years in Holland,...

Cavernous by Doc A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 1 June. Entries to: Crossword 557, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N...