The Blue Angel L ady Thatcher said that Mr Major was the 'right Prime Minister'; 'We must all get behind John,' she added. Her support was regarded as of some help to the Prime...

The perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the Tories' last success MATTHEW PARRIS H ow delicious it is to see the Thatchi- ans now taking fright at the consequences of what they...

IAN HISLOP An American journalist rang me up this week and explained that she was writ- ing an article about how useless England was at everything at the moment. In poli-...

When the rule of law finds itself in a panic AUBERON WAUGH T here is one aspect of the cause celebre, in which two men, an engineer and a self- employed builder, were sent to...

Nicholas Coleridge explores the friendships and animosities between newspaper proprietors THERE IS a famously comic photograph, taken at one of the annual Reuters lunches for...

persist. . . PEOPLE ARE peculiar. I concede that this inference, drawn after nearly 20 years of medical practice, is of intellectu- ally modest proportions and significance,...

Martin Vander Weyer finds Taiwan embracing capitalism, but not the freedoms that should go with it `DON'T ASK WHY!' snapped charmless Chen, the Chinese minder. 'Just sit in...

Simon Heifer meets George Lloyd, a composer for the masses, who has spent years fighting the musical establishment LATER THIS month, on George Lloyd's 80th birthday, the...

WOMEN AS JOURNALISTS. It was inevitable that women should take to journalism as a profession, and therefore it was inevitable that some of the heaviest and most grievous...

Daniel Johnson says the continuing arguments over whether to rebuild St Ethelburga's reflect a doctrinal split in the Church of England WHEN THEY decided to explode a bomb at...

Tabitha Troughton goes on the books of an escort agency PAST THE hotel security, straight to the lift, up to the fourth floor. 'Look confident, like a guest,' they had told...

AS IS NOW well known, Mr Michael Mates gave Mr Asil Nadir, the fugitive bankrupt, a watch inscribed, 'Don't let the buggers get you down.' This phrase was taken up in the wake...

Alasdair Palmer finds the police at odds with each other about the reform of the force THERE IS a deluge of police series on television. Watch any night of the week and you can...

Michael Heath

No time to be lost to sample gay Bulgaria PAUL JOHNSON B ulgaria ought to be much better known in the West,' said the parliamentary deputy to me in Sofia last week. 'Then tell...

A Chancellor who speaks up for flat hats if they aren't working, it's hurting CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t was bound to happen. Norman Lam- ont's praiseworthy reform has shifted the...

Sir: Dot Wordsworth (Mind your language, 12 June) condemns the 'misuse' of the phrase 'beg the question'. Alas, she is fight- ing a long-lost and pointless battle. By a happy...

Sir: In his Blackpool Diary for the New Statesman, published on 3 October 1975, Anthony Howard gave currency to the fol- lowing clever observation about the trick- ster Harold...

Sir: When you write about two subjects of which you know nothing — like diplomacy and business — the result is, not surprising- ly, a load of cobblers. Take your statement:...

Sir: Last week you published an article I wrote about John Major's difficulties under the headline 'A man of no principles, des- perately looking for the string' (Politics, 12...

Sir: I wonder if your Mr Crappy Colum- nist is any more English than I am? In any case, I must admit that he has given a word, in fact his own name, to our language (Let- ters,...

The shocking of the New World James Buchan CULTURE OF COMPLAINT: THE FRAYING OF AMERICA by Robert Hughes OUP, £12.95, pp. 210 I love the New York Review of Books, not so much...

In the last paragraph of John Bowen's article on the Betty Trask prize (Spectator 12 June) it was wrongly printed that Simon Corrigan's Tommy Was Here has now found a paperback...

David Nokes STILL LIFE WITH A BRIDLE by Zbigniew Herbert Cape, £9.99, pp. 170 F . or Zbigniew Herbert, Holland is 'the k ingdom of things'. Still Life With a Bridle is an...

Christopher Bray THE LIVES OF MICHEL FOUCAULT by David Macey Hutchinson, f20, pp. 599 THE PASSION OF MICHEL FOUCAULT by James Miller HarperCollins, £18, pp. 493 T hree...

Frank Kermode A FAMILY ROMANCE by Anita Brookner Cape, f14.99, pp. 224 P riority in the use of this title could be claimed by Richard Wollheim, who, in 1969, gave it to an...

Tom Shone SING THE BODY ELECTRIC by Adam Lively Chatto, £15.99, pp. 440 A . S. Byatt, trying her hand at a dust- jacket puff for Adam Lively's new book, calls it a novel 'which...

Raymond Carr MAXIMILIAN AND JUAREZ by Jasper Ridley Constable, £16.95, pp. 362 O n 19 June 1867 the Emperor Maxim- ilian of Mexico, brother of Franz Joseph Emperor of Austria,...

Victoria Rothschild FIVE EASY PIECES by William Scammell Sinclair-Stevenson, £7.99, pp. 192 T his is William Scammell's seventh book of poems — he also edits, and writes...

James Simmons MAY THE LORD IN HIS MERCY BE KIND TO BELFAST by Tony Parker Cape, £16.99, pp. 358 T his is a series of interviews with people in Belfast. Parker's voice is edited...

Philip Mansel REGENCY DESIGN, 1790-1840 by John Morley Zwemmer, £85, pp. 476 L oss of simplicity dominates the world of Regency design. John Morley writes that, between 1790...

Mu s ic 1 Keep a bower quiet for us Michael Kennedy pleads for Elgar's birthplace to be saved from the marketing men I fear you did not find the cottage — it is nearer the...

Forever adolescent Sophie Constanti W hen 'Germany's ballet miracle', as the Stuttgart Ballet used to be called, was a regular visitor to London back in the Sev - enties,...

Fond farewell Robin Holloway S cene, the stolid Victorian opulence of the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn, ablaze on this Sunday afternoon with secular stained glass, twinkling...

The Vanishing (`15', selected cinemas) Swing Kids (`12', selected cinemas) Hollywood hash Vanessa Letts T here are only two explanations why Hollywood should bother with a...

Happy days are here again soon Alistair McAlpine C hristie's are set to hold their largest ever sale of toy soldiers on 24 June at their South Kensington sale-rooms. The sale...

45th Venice Biennale (Venice, till 10 October) Whiff of the nursery Giles Auty or those to whom the expression `organised by Italians' may convey a condi- tion similar to...

Called to the bar Martyn Harris I was sitting in the Groucho the other day when I realised why Cheers (Channel 4, Sunday, 9 p.m.) is so popular. I'm not a member of the club,...

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (King's Head) Translations (Donmar Warehouse) The Dearly Beloved (Hampstead) Past perfect Sheridan Morley I n a strong week for revivals of...

Table talk Taki T . o Harry and Tracy Worcester's down in Badminton for two evenings of rather spirited discussions concerning Ancient Greece v. England, politics and, of...

Sermons in stones Nigel Nicolson I no longer go to church. There are too many assumptions in the Creed to which I cannot assent, even by silence, and in the past I have...

Out on parole Jeffrey Bernard I sometimes feel as though I am serving time in this flat and that Vera and anyone else who pops in is a friendly warder. But I did manage to get...

THIS SATURDAY, 19 June, apart from being the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (moved from 22 August, despite Pope Pius XII's decree, and reverting to being the Saturday...

Bouts limes Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1783 you were invited to write a poem with 16 given rhyme-words in a set order. The rhyme-words were taken from 'My Papa's Waltz' by...

Raymond Keene I AM OFTEN ASKED whether Nigel Short is the first British player to contest a world championship. The answer is yes, though a slightly qualified one. In 1890...

A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 5 July, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers,...

A load of great balls Frank Keating IN THE Sunday Times, Robin Marlar called it 'the ball of the century'. That refreshing Australian over-enthusiast, Peter FitzSimons, wrote...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I have a friend who is pathologically generous. Despite the fact that he only appears to have one suit and occasionally mentions his overdraft of £40,000, he...