I n a week almost entirely devoted to news and commiserations about the British weather, it must be supposed that little hap- pened in the rest .of the world. Tempera- tures at...

The old school network Ferdinand Mount T wo thirds of the way through a Guardian article about training Catholic teachers in Northern Ireland, I came across a sentence which...

T wo of my colleagues disappeared after Christmas for skiing holidays with their families. How they could afford it I do not know, for the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that...

£14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.00 £26.00 (29.00 £37.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator) Subscription Manager, Spectator, Mortimef House,...

More travellers' tales Auberon Waugh C tuck in a first-class railway carriage for seven hours between Paddington and Taunton on Friday, I fell into conversation with my...

Roger Cooper P olitical honeymoons traditionally last a hundred days; as his draws to a close Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, has reason to be pleased with himself. He has...

Timothy Garton Ash East Berlin er face like a squeezed lemon, the East IGerman frontier guard at Checkpoint Charlie confronts the British visitor: 'You are bringing with...

Sam White T he de Broglie affair has now been well and truly buried, but I cannot resist the temptation of exhuming it and holding some kind of inquest, at least on the ver-...

Nothing can be more horrible than the account given in The Times of the outrages of which the Jews in Russia have been the victims during the past year. It is natural to suspect...

Bohdan Nahaylo T hese are bleak days for freedom in Eastern Europe. The blaze of hope which burned so brilliantly in Poland is be- ing doused, In East Germany supporters of...

Richard West T hree items in last Thursday's Daily Telegraph caused me to wonder if England will ever wake up to her racial pro- blem. The first concerned the trip to the United...

Allan Massie T he row that has broken out at Greenock could yet have national importance despite the diplomatic way in which it has been temporarily shelved by the Alliance...

Cont e mp t u o us Paul Johnson R ecently Sir John Junor and the Sunday Express were fined a total of £11,000 for contempt of court. Last week it cost John Allen, a...

Discounts Tony Rudd he recent announcement by a leading discount house, Smith St Aubyn, that having read the gilt-edge market wrongly in the autumn it had virtually lost all...

The future of Hong Kong Sir: In 1997 I shall be 57 years old but, possibly of greater interest, the lease of Hong Kong's New Territories will revert to the Chinese. In practice...

Sir: Auberon Waugh writes (9 January) that it has not escaped his notice that Frank Giles `is a member of the Executive Com- mittee of the Great Britain-USSR Associa- tion....

Sir: I was sorry to learn from your Notebook of 2 January that Sir Christopher Chancellor was only paid £300 a year by Reuters in 1930. While working recently on the...

Sir: `The Cartland factor' by Mr Richard West (19 December) drew interesting references to'the background on the present state of relations between Britain and Malaysia. I am...

Sir: High-lifer Taki's description of Gstaad as the Mecca of the camel people (9 January) skilfully ignores an equally (if not More) important influence on the seasonal `jet -...

Sir: I am working on a biography of the frisk novelist, Kate O'Brien, and would be grateful to hear from anybody who has in- formation relating to her. I am especially...

„ S ir: You published an advertisement (12 p e cember) from a group called `Parents Against Political Propaganda in Education' which attacked the ILEA's production of inf...

Two-dimensional Templars Eric Christiansen The Knights Templar Stephen Howarth (Collins pp. 322, £9.95) T he monastic orders of knighthood sound like a nightmare dreamed up by...

Peter Levi T he last chapter in this subtle and precise act of homage has an ambiguous title, `The New Murdoch'. One has to decide whether this is about just another book, the...

Harold Acton S ome lovers still keep trysts among tomb- stones and one hears of witches and warlocks congregating in cemeteries under the full moon, but few of us would choose...

Francis King T wo potent images keep recurring in this book: consumption and running. Harry Angstrom, hero of John Updike's t wo previous 'Rabbit' novels — Rabbit Run ( 1 960)...

Julian Jebb Vourteen years ago Barry Humphries starred alone in Just A Show at the For- tune, a small, almost miniature, theatre sited opposite the stage door of Drury Lane...

Peter Hebbleth waite Inside the Vatican George Bull (Hutchin- son pp. 293, £8.95) H ow important is the Vatican? News editors find it interesting when the Pope says something...

Grimond W hat sort of book should you choose to write about under this heading? Such of the notorious novels of the English ,, att gnage which I have read, which are not ' e...

Factory made Rodney Milnes Punch and Judy and The Beggar's 01 0 (Opera Factory London) T he idea behind the Opera Factory is f l t enough. It is one of those groups t " h .. f...

Repeat performances Mark Amory Here's a Funny Thing (Fortune) T he old, the borrowed and the blue out- shone the new this week. John Bardon, impersonating Max Miller, borrows...

More splendours John McEwen T he Great Japan Exhibition: Art of the Edo Period 1600-1868 — unmatched since 1910 and to be seen nowhere but here (least of all in Japan where...

Artless Richard Ingrams T did warn Barry Norman a few month s 'ago that he was in danger of becoming too much of a good thing. The trouble V the BBC, like all big monopolist...

Bananas Duncan Fallowell So Fine (`AA', selected cinemas) B eware. The banana skin is making a comeback, only this time it is calling itself 'stylish screwball comedy'. So...

Over the top Jeffrey Bernard ' real ly would be interesting to know what 'really took place in India just before Geoffrey Boycott took a powder and came home. The lines...

Poles apart Taki Gstaad W ell, where was I? Oh yes, I was skiing cross-country, and schuss-booming do wnhill and hitting the GreenGo nightclub e r v ery night, but then my...

No. 1201: Headlines Set by faspistos: You are invited to write a poem (nnaximun 12 lines) which consists en- tirely of newspaper headlines. Any rhyme scheme is acceptable and...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for ten more Commandments, lighter in spirit than the first lot, such as might have been handed to Sir Edmund Hillary on the top of...

A Prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution Opened on 1 February. Entries to: Crossword 540, The Spectator, 5 6 Doughty Street, London WC1N 21,L. AU...

Late quiz Raymond Keene I had intended to torment readers with a quiz in the Christmas issue, but this was c rowded out by consumer news. So, with a pologies for a slight...

ACROSS: I Wool-gathering 8 Preserve 13 Swires 14 Remainder 15 Altercate 16 Parody (Creamed) 19 Barbital (Agin) 22 Homoeoteleuton (Proposer) 25 Amateurs 27 Relet (Tope) 28...