The Falklands Effect Peter Paterson A ter ten unhappy weeks, through five set- piece debates and innumerable carping Question Times, the real Mr Foot once more stood up in the...

A little rejoicing is now in order, but only a little. We may rejoice that the F alklands war did not end in a bloodbath at P ort Stanley, that the Argentinians did not stage a...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 Ilt£17.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 110.35.50 £37.00 £49.00 US subscription price; $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable...

Reforming the currency Auberon Waugh I seem to be the only person in England who likes the new double florin. I like everything about it — its size, shape, design, even its...

Stephen Roskill T he hoisting of the white flags over Port Stanley announced on the evening of 14 J une brought profound relief to all sections o f the British Commonwealth;...

Patrick Desmond `W hat this country needs,' remarked Plehve, the Russian minister of the interior in 1903, 'is a short, victorious war to stem the tide of revolution.' He was...

Nicholas von Hoffman p ompous in the east, dotty in the west were the American reactions to the news that the fighting had stopped in the n 'citith Atlantic. The New York Times...

Sam White Paris U nder the Third and Fourth Republics, socialist governments, like all other governments, were so short-lived that they could only manage one devaluation in...

Lord Dalhousie made a very able speech on Monday in favour of the Bill legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister. He said that the Bill avowedly dealt only with a single...

Alastair Kilmarnock A fter two years and 83 sittings the House of Lords Select Committee on Unemployment has finally given birth to a bumper report, which by HMSO standards...

Patrick Marnham Costa Rica I razu is a live volcano. At dawn, as the light steals down into the crater, the col- ours slowly seep through its uneven surface. There are gashes...

Roy Kerridge II etain Your Loyalty — Preserve Your ■ Rights'. These proud words are in- scribed on the town cross at Appleby-in- Westmorland. No longer a county town, the...

Israeli-bashing Paul Johnson W.4 henever Israel responds to Arab terrorist provocation by large-scale military action, it can usually count on a milted reception from the...

Looking ahead Tony Rudd W hen the Falkland Islands episode began and the task force sailed from Portsmouth the City was not particularly worried about the likely cost of the...

Sir: Owing to absence abroad I have only recently seen this correspondence (5 and 12 June), Comparatively few of those who commented can have seen the picture except briefly or...

Government by force Sir: Christopher Hitchens gives a poignant yet sensitive account of the realities of Israeli occupation for the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank (5 June)....

Sir: The implication, in the opening paragraph of Peter Levi's review about Philip Larkin (12 June), that the Professor of Poetry at Oxford during his time was a simple-minded...

Sir: The views expressed by Mr Waugh con- cerning Archbishop Worlock (22 May) are not those one might expect from a Roman Catholic. Mr Waugh obviously revels in ex- pressing...

visit: Mr Auberon Waugh is now looking at the Church of England. This is carrying the Ecumenical movement too far. The reason the C of E is nice and cosy at present is that...

`Incredible rows . . . a terrible scene' Julian Jebb Luchino Visconti: A Biography Gaia Ser- vadio (Weidenfeld & Nicolson £12.90) rr his is a very rum book, poorly written .1...

Philippa Toomey John Buchan: A Memoir William Buchan (Buchan &Enright £9.95) The Best Short Stories of John Buchan, Volume II Edited by David Daniell (Michael -Joseph £8.50)...

Richard West A few years ago, Margaret Thatcher went to visit a school in the East End of London where she was asked, as a scien- tist, to give the children a lesson in...

John Braine on Henry Williamson Peter Quennell on Heinrich Heine Elizabeth Jenkins on the Brontes Angus Wilson reassesses Hugh Mass- ingham's The Harp and the Oak.

Do uglas Johnson The Escape from Elba: The Fall and Flight of Napoleon 1814-1815 Norman Mackenzie (Oxford £12.50) Napoleon's Great Adversaries: The Arch- duke Charles and the...

Alastair Best A uthors produce their memoirs for a variety of reasons. To keep the pot boiling, or at any rate the ball rolling; or more often with the intention of making some...

A.L. Rowse Thomas Hardy: A Biography M. Millgate (Oxford University Press £15) Thomas Hardy: A Biography M. Millgate (Oxford University Press £15) - Vet another biography of...

Kenneth Lindsay The Elmhirsts of Darlington: The Creation of an Utopian Community Michael Young (Routledge & Kegan Paul £15) W hatever the ideals and plans har- boured by...

Ronald Hingley Chekhov: The Early Stories Chosen and translated by Patrick Miles and Harvey Pitcher (John Murray £9.50) M any of those who most admire Chekhov's work remain...

Miranda Seymour M adame Yourcenar is a remarkab le woman, the first of her sex to be elected to the French Academy, the author of Memoirs of Hadrian, arguably the fines t...

Crossness and communication Rodney Milnes Armide (Spitalfields Festival) Trop malheureuse Armide! Helas! Que J. ton destin est deplorable.' Owing to the extremely reverberant...

Public parts Mark Amory Henry IV Parts I and II (Barbican) Our Friends in the North (Pit) A Personal Affair (Globe) B y chance each of these plays conceal s public office and...

Rodney Milnes I could never make any connection bet- ween Ronald Duncan as the world saw him, which was perhaps the way he wanted the world to see him, and the Ronald Dun- can I...

Gay news Peter Ackroyd Making Love ('X', selected cinemas) E veryone had heard that this was a 'gay film' and the audience, like a perverse Noah's Ark, trooped in two by two....

Sluggish Richard Ingrams T he first I heard of the Argentinian sur- render on Monday was from the lips of soccer manager Laurie McMenemy who was appearing on Grandstand. The...

Within limits Jeffrey Bernard The Middlesex Hospital , Mortimer Street, London WI H.M. Prison, Stanford Hill, Sheerness, Kent ear Ken: Isn't it just typical that both .1.1...

Battered but unbowed Buenos Aires A ter the euphoria of a hard-fought, emotion-packed war, the agony of defeat was hard to hide. Some gathered in front of Government House and...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a translation of a poem that Leonid Brezhnev might have written in his starrier" eyed youth. To have stars in your eyes is not the...

Welcome news Raymond Keene AccorA ccording to a report in The Times, ding wife and son have finally been granted exit visas, and should leave the USSR by 27 June. We can only...

No. 1223: Vive la difference! Set by Jaspistos: In this unisex age are ther e any significant differences between me n , and women, barring the biological ones? I f there are,...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 5 July. Entries to: Crossword 562, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 1 2 13 4 5...

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SOMERVILLE & MARTIN ROSS: 'In the Vine Country', 'Beggars on Horseback', 'The Story of the Discontented Little Elephant', 'Notes of the Horn', 'Little Red Riding Hood in Kerry'...