We cannot regain those payments' (of £51.5 million paid In grants to Chrysler): thus Mr Eric Varley, the Industry Secretary. 'We want the jobs to remain': thus Mr Moss T , v...

They've got such nice habits Ferdinand Mount 'You wouldn't think it, but personally he's a terribly nice chap to meet, very friendly and polite, a surprisingly gentle type of...

It is Possible to take any office — even the Office of Pope — too seriously. This was the problem of Paul vi. The awe with which . he regarded the papacy and its...

A little more advice Auberon Waugh Montmaur, Aude News trickles through slowly, filtered and somehow mellowed by being four or five days late in the Daily Telegraph's air mail...

Shiva Naipaul Rome Of grief, there was little outward sign. True, the wall-posters (many already defaced) w ere Up — this is a form of communication the Italians seem to share...

William Purdy Rome We are mercifully far from the days when a Pope's body could be dug up, dressed in pontificals and put on trial; and it is a tribute to the inner vitality of...

Cecil Parrott len years ago at this time I was in Prague. it was warm , sunny and inviting — Prague at its most gulden. The streets were full of people with smiling faces, who...

Vladimir Tosek In December 1952 eleven Party and State leaders,, including the former General Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Slansky, and a regional Party...

Ben Pimlott Lisbon Who is Alfredo Nobre da Costa? More iniPortant, what is he? The new Portuguese premier, with a pre-revolutionary background as a top manager and some recent...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington Every evening the television tells us that the dollar is going down abroad and Mr Carter is going down at home. All major news organisations...

The Ministerial Fish Dinner was held on Wednesday, and was signalised by a curious freak of literary effort in the preparation of the menu. This was composed in very elaborate...

Sam White Paris As President Giscard approached apparently certain defeat in the general election last March he was sustained by two deeply held convictions: that the...

Christopher Booker Last Sunday mornin g , in common with I suspect about fifteen other people, I watched the first instalment of London Weekend Television's new five-part...

Unanswered questions Patrick Marnham Due to an omission made by both the Sunday Express and the Daily Telegraph, Sir Harold Wilson may have acquired an unjustified reputation...

Dollars and equities Nicholas Davenport H aving previously advised readers of this column that a bull market in equity shares had taken hold of Throgmorton Street as long ago...

Sir: There are many points in the article by Patrick Marnham on Thorpe and the press which provoke comment. But the foundation of his piece is the assertion that the Sunday...

Sir: When a learned Professor indulges in personal abuse (5 August) — 'a resurrected suffragette', 'feminism so insecure' — something has hit him on a weak spot; but whatever...

Sir: Judith Acton questions (Spectator, 12 August) the propriety of Mrs Judith Hart, as Minister of Overseas Development, including Indonesia in the states not 'having seriously...

Sir: Mr Jack Coates, Employer Member of the Governing Body of the ILO, paints altogether too rosy a picture of that organisation (Letters, 29 July). I would agree that this...

Sir: Seldom have I seen a more blatant example of selective reporting thro appeared in the Notebook (29 July) dear with the Law Society's leaflet advising public on complaints...

a , pa f about time and would be grateful t° from any of your readers who have e x t enced moments of timelessness. John-Francis Phipps 43 Leckford Road, Oxford

On_ and off the field Benny Green The immortal Victor Trumper J. H. Fingleton (Collins £6.50) The Return of the Ashes Mike Brearley (Pelham £5.50) W. G. Grace Bernard Darwin...

John Grigg The War Diaries of Oliver Harvey 1941 1945 Edited by John Harvey (Collins £10) Oliver Harvey was a career diplomat who became Anthony Eden's principal private...

Simon Blow T he Rise of the Plutocrats Jamie Camplin (Constable £6.95) The idea for a book on the Edwardian plutocrats seems to contain infinite promise. There is something...

Jan Murray To Dan.* Valery Panov with George Feifer (W.H. Allen £6.95) Like most memoirs, this autobiography of a leading Soviet dancer is loosely divided into sections on his...

Patrick Cosgrave The appearance of any novel by Ruth Rendell is a cause for celebration. But I am particularly pleased by A Sleeping Life (Hutchinson £4.25) because it sees the...

Paul Ableman The Voice of the Sea Alberto Moravia (Seeker 24.50) After reading Molly Bloom's soliloquy at , t he end of Ulysses, Jung remarked: Perhaps the devil's grand-mother...

Hans Keller At once amusingly and irritatingly, two topical occasions, both devoted to the work of the same genius, throw up the same prob lem — the translation of titles....

Pax Bondiana Peter Jenkins The Woman (Olivier) Ne doubt that this was a major theatrical „ ev ent. It was the first time that the Ptational's daunting arena had been placed...

Cul-de-sacs John McEwen The most awesome exhibition in London at the moment decorates the corridor that leads to the restaurant at the ICA: 'Russian War Photography 1941-1945'...

Surviving Ted Whitehead An Unmarried Woman (Warner West End) Nowadays films start where they used to end, with marriage, and the most popular storyline reads: Girl has Boy —...

Soft soap Rodney Milnes The Consul (Coliseum) T he most interesting thing about the ENO's new production of Menotti's opera is how it cattle about. An industrial dispute with...

Crises Richard Ingram The marrows which I successfully transplanted during the World Cup in June have at long last borne fruit. However they present a few problems for the...

Jeffrey Bernard I am very worried about a man who is, I believe, in Glasgow. That's where he said he was going when we saw the last of him, and it was only when he lurched off...

Operas past Geoffrey Wheatcroft UPon the imminent arrival of a certain baby three weeks ago I fled to central Europe to see nine operas in ten days at the Bayreuth, Munich and...