T he Provisional IRA has often found it difficult to win enough support, not because it resorts to violence — that has always made it glamorous to the outside world, and has...

Our own resources Charles Moore I f you suffer from persecution mania, you will imagine that there is a conspiracy of silence among politicians on the subject of the Common...

A very good joke by Princess Elizabeth of Toro. Last month I wrote something in the Spectator suggesting that she ought not to have sought damages from the British press for...

Ux Eire Surface mail Air mail a months: E17.25 07.25 E20.50 E26.50 One year: E34.50 E34.50 £41.00 £53.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to Subscriptions...

Mein Kampf Auberon Waugh L ast Thursday 73 policemen, some arm- ed, surrounded the home of Mr Maurice Dann, a well-known Plymouth dog-breeder. When armed officers even- tually...

Murray Sayle Tokyo M ost friendships,. Sir', said Dr Samuel Johnson to his pushy young friend Boswell, 'are mere leagues in vice, or conspiracies in folly.' Political...

well illustrated in the discussion in the Times on turtle soup. Sir Henry Thomp- son, who is an eminent authority on food and cooking, as well as surgery, writes to say that...

Shiva Naipaul long Independence Avenue, Victoria's i — vmain thoroughfare, one sees the developing modern profile of the Seychelles capital. Here you will find a couple of...

Charles Glass Tripoli E smat al Muqaddam's grocery is doing a .1—.Ibrisk business these days. The rest of Tripoli is closed for the duration, but Esmat sells hundreds of...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington T he American imagination is crowding in on American reality. The former Secretary of State and United States Senator, Edmund Muskie, will...

Christopher Hitchens Washington L ike every one else of my generation, I can remember exactly where I was standing and what I was doing on the day that President John...

Harry Eyres Barcelona A Fiesta for Peace and Disarmament .organised by the Catalan Communist Party (PCC): one might have expected a grim and dreary occasion, badly amplified...

Richard West Weston-super-Mare T f 1832 was 'the Year of Birmingham' I that city led the campaign for the Reform Bill, then 1983 deserves to be called 'the Year of...

John Casey sonne You are a widowe, rich and now childlesse, and there be in both universities so many pore towarde youthes that lack exhibition, for whom if you would found...

Suitors for the savers Jock Bruce-Gardyne I tmay be that the Daily Mirror does not currently count a very high proportion of building society general managers among its...

Epistolary dons Paul Johnson A s a careful student of Letters to the Editor, 1 have become increasingly aware of a growing and reprehensible tendency of readers to write not...

Sir: I suspect that Hugh Burnett may be un- justified in his criticism of Paul Johnson (Letters, 12 November). Many Biblical critics would argue that the conversations contained...

Johnson ('Literary sil- ly season', 12 November) asks rhetorically, 'Who but Miss Howard would have selected Elizabeth Taylor's little-known Angel?' Well I would, for one. The...

Best novels? Sir: The story behind the Observer's story on the Book Marketing Council's 'Best Novels of our Time' stunt is even sillier than Mr Paul Johnson (12 November)...

by Richard West entitled 'The Bridport dagger' in your issue of 1 October. In a series of unsubstantiated comments based mainly on hearsay Richard West manages to malign all...

Sir: A scurrilous article recently appeared in your paper entitled 'The Bridport dagger' (1 October) under the name of a Richard West. 1 am suprised that the Spectator has sunk...

Sir: Count Nikolai Tolstoy deceives himself. He has not written 'a low-key and in part ironical approach' to Tolstoy's flight. He does not possess the literary resource. His...

Runcie's contribution Colin Welch G rave misdemeanours have been alleged against Archbishop Runcie. Last week in the Spectator, for instance, A. N. Wilson charged him with...

A dazzling European view John Keegan Europe Transformed, 1878-1919 Norman Stone (Fontana History of Europe, £3.50 paper- back) T his is a fascinating book, elegant, witty,...

Mark Amory Married to a Single Life: An Autobiography, 1901-38 Wilfrid Blunt (Michael Russell £9.95) Brothers and Friends: An Intimate Portrait of C.S. Lewis The Diaries of...

Anthony Blond The English Rothschilds Richard Davis (Collins £12.95) P rofessor Davis will not be the last chronicler of this amazing tribe but he is the first to be given...

Peter Quennell Pierre Loti: Portrait of an Escapist Lesley Blanch (Collins £12.50) rlarrying home two massive volumes of the Oeuvres Completes de Pierre Loti, I met on the bus...

Patrick Skene Catling London Tales edited by Julian Evans (Hamish Hamilton £8.95) F or people who have never been in London (there must be such people) this vividly...

John Michell The Stars and the Stones Martin Brennan (Thames & Hudson £12) M artin Brennan is a New York artist who studied Shintoism in Japan and was advised by his teachers...

Harriet. Waugh The Last Supper Charles McCarry (Hutchinson £8.95) A Flaw in the System R.B. Dominic (Macmillan £6.95) The Name of Annabel Lee Julian Symons (Macmillan £6.95)...

James Hughes-Onslow Markets of London Alec Forshaw and Theo Bergstrom (Penguin £4.95) London Street Markets Kevin Perlmutter (Wildwood House £2.95) No city has such a variety...

Raoul revealed John McEwen T he programme is advertised round the battlements of the Hayward as 'Dufy/ Hockney', but in quality and size Hockney's contribution is actually of...

Why do it? Peter Ac kr o yd Finally, Sunday! (PG, Chelsea Cinema) L ighted interior seen from the street people arguing, lamp overturned — car door slams — picture of woman...

Disenchanted Giles Gordon Blonde! (Old Vic) Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Actor's Nightmare (Ambassadors) False Admissions (Lyric Studio, Hammersmith)...

Giving voice Maureen Owen \V inter is the time for pondering meaty issues on the wireless, and lectures and subsequent discussions about the lec- tures are highly suitable to...

In-crowds Taki New York I is that time of year a g ain. What Saki called the period between the cruelty of summer and the harshness of winter. Well, I'm afraid Taki isn't as...

Meddlesome Richard Ingrams T here was some irony in the fact that the BBC should broadcast a two-part play about its founder John Reith just at the time when it is under...

Poets Amalgamated P.J. Kavanagh A l this summer the 45-year-old poet Frances Horovitz lay seriously ill. She was unable to work and so was her hus- band, Roger Garfitt, who...

Grants and groans Jeffrey Bernard T here seems to be a crazy idea going around that journalism is actually im- portant. What nonsense. How awful that Harry Evans, ex-editor of...

To enable competitors to economise on postage, entries for one or more weeks of the competition and crossword may be posted together under one cover addressed 'Competition...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a set of rules for a Groucho Club to be founded in London. `So you want to see the rules, Mrs Ritten- house? Ah, what an evening...

No. 1296: Truepenny? Set by Jaspistos: How glad, really, was Penelope when Odysseus/Ulysses returned? An untraditional poem please (maximum 16 lines) such as she might have...

c/o Berry Bros & Rudd 3 St James's Street, London SW1A 1EG Telephone 01-930 1888 DESCRIPTION PRICE No. OF CASES VALUE 1. Charmes-Chambertin (EB) 1971 12 bots. £118.26 2. Aloxe...

Spectator Wine Club Auberon Waugh F or the last offer of the year we are back to my old particular stamping ground of fine and expensive old burgundies, this time raiding the...

Capital city Raymond Keene A few years ago, while compiling a book of chess brilliancies, I discovered that from the 1850s to the 1880s a majority of the truly outstanding...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 5 December. Entries to: Crossword 634, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. The...

El i cl'i 3 ARACEISUSIO ATI AINELLSTA ... R . 01RI N TAGEDOORS LAST IC ' E 'A . S I T ° F1 NITRITUE ' T..1 .. . L. J . R LILL H I D ItI E T Eli el I E S ZIIIRIH OS I E E...

T he first of the American nuclear cruise missiles arrived at Greenham Common air base 24 hours earlier than expected by the women protesters camped outside the gates. Defence...

JUDITH VIORST: 'It's hard to be hip over thir- ty and other poems'. Vincent, 01-370 3909. LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS: any novels by this author. G. Gordon, 23 Hogarth Court, Fountain...

with Dame Edna Everage Hello Possums! Although I'm as Left as they come, I've always had a soft spot for that marvellous old Maverick from the Orkney Isles — cuddly, tweedy,...

I. Dame Edna Everage will introduce one question by a different person in each issue of The Spectator from now until the 10 December issue. 2. Do not send in your replies each...

If you missed the previous weeks' issues, it is still possible to enter the competition. Back numbers are available from: The Spectator, Competition Back Numbers, 56 Doughty...

The first prize is a magnificent 1934 Daimler Saloon, which is illustrated above. It is fully licensed and in excellent condition having had only two owners. The car is valued...