It is a felicitous coincidence that a Royal marriage, likely to be the most splendid and heart throbbing since that of the Queen herself, is taking place in the year that sees...

Lawyers are a clannish lot, and when they start to talk of their honour, the rest of us had better begin to count our small chances of justice. The immediate riposte of Mr Comyn...

Sir: In your issue of November 10 Victor Montagu reproaches Mr Heath because " they set standards of lick and spittle as would some regimental sergeant-major." I am reminded...

Sir: Victor Montagu, contemplating Britain's " very bad" trade figures, is to be congratulated on his bid " to outsoar the shadows of our night" (November 10), though he was the...

From Dr Michael A. Simpson ,sir: I feel it necessary to challenge Dr Linklater's very sad medical article (' How crazy can we get?' October 27). . lest anyone should mistakenly...

Sir: John Linklater's article ' Poor vivisected doggy,' (November 3) is one of the most biased articles I have seen for a very long time on a controversial moral issue. The...

Sir: There have been several articles recently in The Spectator on aspects of fantasy and science fiction. It is a pity that Kingsley Amis has written only one of these and...

Sir: 1 have just read Mr Milnes's review of Death in Venice in your issue of October 27. It seems to me, having now seen this opera four times, that it, like most of Mr...

Sir: I - have taken / The Spectator for some thirty years: but have never Previously written to the Editor. I have been provoked into doing so ,„ 0 1' Richard Luckett's review...

Sir: May I crave the hospitality of your column s to express chquiet at the criticism by Mr Robert Nye (November 3 ) of the two books on Sir Walter Ralegh. In searching for an...

Sir: May I for the record, correct a statement about my nephew Nicholas Tomalin in your October 27 issue? He was not of immigrant stock (his greatgrandfather's marriage to a...

Sir: Beverley Nichols's restaurant bill may have been outrageous (Notebook, November 10), but if he didn't like it why did he go to that restaurant, where he must have been able...

Sir: Cats need no enemies, so long as their fanatical devotee Beverley Nichols really rejoices that the Japanese are suddenly going mad about them. G. A. Turner Hill House...

Sir: I am glad to learn that my old friend, Larry Adler (October 6). is alive and well and collecting old quotes. We have guys like Adler back here. They collect newspaper...

Pollyanna and the Tories patrick cosg r ave Every connoisseur of sentimental fiction will recall Pollyanna's " glad game," from the novel of the same name by Eleanor H. Porter...

The pre-London fanfares of publicity are in full blast for Cockie, a musical based on the career of the late Sir Charles B. Cochran. "Magnificent singers! Wonderful dancers!...

Oil is where you find it Eric Moonman Had the United States not been embroiled alt summer lon g with the Water g ate affair, a Con g ressional committee would have been...

Some to their choice Nicholas Swift Prince Charles is serving as a junior officer in the Royal Navy and enjoying, it is not hard to imagine, his absence from the limelight...

The lordly young man Alexander Duncan Most newspaper readers think that this week . Princess Anne is marrying the poor, thirteenth, twice-removed country. cousin. In...

If it hadn't happened Al Capp What if the night watchman at the Watergate building had not noticed that the bit of tape' he had removed had been restored? And if Hunt and...

Each member, Abse tells us, will Either be an Ocnophil, Of, if that does not fit the hat, Then he must be a Philobat. His brains, supposing that he's got 'em Are situated in...

In the darkest moments of our history the Man has always emerged to match the hour. It was, therefore, wholly appropriate that, when the Metrication (Pasta and Salt) Orders were...

opecuator November 17, 1973 SOCIETY TODAY Wimpy Agonistes Francis Wintle All over London the Wimpies were 'going out, and I wondered to myself, as I made my way from...

Dial a sex chat John Linklater The medical officer of health of Denbighshire is proposing to set up a sex-by-telephone information service for schoolchildren. and a senior...

The thick black cloud hanging over Cheltenham racecourse lifted shortly before the race, the rain considerately eased off and but for the concession of 151b to the winner, Game...

Martin Sullivan "The caricature of an earnest Parson dispensing spiritual bromide at bed-time could only be drawn by those who never watch the late-night religious programmes."...

Scarlet in spring Denis Wood. Fortunately for those of us who have been hard at it planting daffodils and crocuses and cyclamen, and all the other small bulbs, tulips do not...

OF BOOKS Richard Luckett on the strange fate of Edmund Wilson A tribute by Leon Edel prefaces The Devils and Canon Barham*, the last in Edmund Wilson's series of 'literary...

J. Enoch Powell Pro m Aid to Recolonisation: the lessons of a failure Tibor Mende (Harrup £3.00) The whole episode of 'aid, to developing countries' since the Second World War...

Peter Ackroyd Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon (Jonathan Cape £3.95) Americans are not known for their reticence, and American critics will not murmur when a roar will do. So...

John Groser 'I've Lived Through It All Emanuel Shinwell (Gollancz £4.00) With this second bite at the cherry—followers of Emanuel Shinwell's rumbustious career will recall his...

Th e . 1„ sadism tag which has for so 1 ,s'aR been attached to James Bond of course, woefully inaccurate: Would be much more correct to `' es cribe Ian Fleming's hero as a s...

Roger Smalley M: Writings '67 - '72 John Cage (Calder and Boyars . £5.50) From the vantage point of M o his third volume' of collected writings, the progressive bankruptcy of...

Bookend It was nice to see the new publishers Wildwood House figuring on the short-list for this year's Booker Prize. Although most papers managed to omit the fact — they...

Christopher Hudson on Hill's happy hunting ground After Don't Look Now comes The 13elstone Fox, the first time for years that two British productions in a row have outgunned,...

Sister's three Kenneth Ilurren _ Overrated as a novelist, the late D. H. Lawrence seemed to have been even more strikingly underrated as a dramatist until the Royal Court...

On the war path give Gammon The facade of a burning building crumpling into the street in Helsinki looks very much the same as one billowing down in Warsaw. Scurrying for the...

The surreal thing Evan Anthony In a world that becomes more surrealistic every moment, it is increasingly difficult for a mere artist to meet the requirements of that...

Waspe I was fascinated by the half-page advertisement for the American musical, Pippin, in the Sunday Times. My eye was taken by it because of all those ecstatic quotes — no...

Giantism in stores Nicholas Davenport According to the Queen's speech the Government's objective is to promote the interests of the individual whether as a citizen or as a...

City Diary . Skinflint is blushing — he hopes becomingly — this week because of his highly inaccurate story last week, about the efforts supposed to have been made by Luisa...

Lockaway Lawrence Nephew Wilde Excellent results from GR Holdings emerged this week and gave a fillip to the share price while the bid for AW Securities helped my carpet...