A big bomb was set off in a lorry in Bishopsgate by the IRA. A press photogra- pher was killed and more than 40 wounded. Thousands of square-feet of offices were ruined,...

`There are two sides out there, but only one of them's playing cricket' SIMON HEFFER T here is nothing like an IRA bomb out- rage to excite the pompous prigs of the political...

F ood is on my mind after another pro- longed session at the Dental Gestapo, and this enforced regime of slops sets me to mourning the era of Joe Lyons and, in par- ticular, the...

Wenieed the memorial to Britain's greatest ever marketing man CHARLES MOORE No doubt Gladstone was right about can- dle-end economies being essential to good public finances...

THE TROUGH Martin Vander Weyer reports on the increasing avarice of Britain's top businessmen, and suggests a few remedies `LET'S SAY you work for Ford in Dagen- ham . . ....

Michael Heath

John Simpson on how he saw the signs of the new Russia 15 years ago, but failed to understand them St Petersburg THESE, I reflected, were the new Rus- sians: the carefully...

THERE seems to be a breakdown tak- ing place in English at the moment. To be less disapproving, it is a change (or `sea-change', as the cliché-mongers pre- fer). It might be...

persist. . LAST WEEK I went down to the police station lock-up to visit one of my patients who had just stabbed a hospital porter almost to death. The custody sergeant was...

Paul Greenberg, having observed Bill Clinton for 20 years, finds the new President has fully lived down to expectations Little Rock, Arkansas AS THE inky wretch who introduced...

Alexander Norman talks to the Dalai Lama, on the eve of the incarnate deity's visit to Britain Of this temptation, Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and 74th incarnation...

We should greatly like to know why all German journals and the Berlin corre- spondent of the Times are making such a fuss about the anti-Semitic orator Ahlwardt. He keeps on...

Stephen Glover gives an insider's account of the negotiating style of Andreas Whittam Smith, who wants to buy the Observer The Independent wants to buy the Observer. It has...

A time to wipe away the blood and tears of the Reformation PAUL JOHNSON I t is arguable whether the Church of England ever had the right to call itself the national church,...

Recovery, warm beer, trouble brewing — Gus, you pulling my leg? Yes, Prime Minister are CHRI STOPHER FIL DES C F if ifty years from now Britain will still be the country of...

Sir: In your piece about me in the edition of 17 April (`He's a hard man to shop for'), brought to my attention by a well-meaning friend, your Mr Theodoracrapulous claims to...

is quoted to the effect that the great philanthropist and new proprietor of Wisden is, inter alia, 'boring and anti-capi- talist'. Those of us who actually know Mr Getty agree...

Sir: The question of the ordination of women has caused no small stir in your columns in recent months. The correspon- dence, reviews and articles have so far come in the main...

you have reported in many articles, is about the ordination of women as priests. The Queen is the head of the Church of England, yet she has remained silent in this...

Sir: Sir Alfred Sherman's contributions to your correspondence columns remind me of the Dormouse at the Mad Hatter's tea party: just when you think he has finally gone back to...

Sir: I note Terence Kealey's attack on the Oxford Magazine in your issue of 10 April (Books). He seems to be suggesting that the magazine played a part (Inflamed Oxford's...

Sir: I read with interest Nigel Nicolson's piece in 3 April issue (Long life). He says that in his distinguished family nicknames and a private language are dying out, and he...

Sir: I was interested to read Richard Ter- rell's letter (20 March) since I lived in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands from 1952 to 1961 during my husband's tenure as Resi- dent...

Sir: Imperative Cooking — my hat! (Food, 10 April). Every twit knows that English fried bread should be fried in bacon fat, not (shudder) chicken fat. C.P.Todd Clayhall Farm,...

Sir: I would be most grateful for any help your readers might be able to offer with research for the biography of Sir Kingsley Amis which I am writing — with his approval — for...

Sir: One knows Auberon Waugh is not always wholly serious. But he has repeated so often that he wants Britain to merge its identity in a European state because he hates American...

Sir: Paul Johnson says (And another thing, 10 April) that 'obviously' a good Christian will make a morally better capitalist than an agnostic. Surely the equation is between a...

A long and happy life Hilary Mantel MORGAN: A BIOGRAPHY OF E. M. FORSTER by Nicola Beauman Hodder, f20, pp. 404 B iographers, you'll have noticed, are good at coming up with...

James Simmons A SNAIL IN MY PRIME by Paul Durcan Blackstaff Press, fZ99, pp. 372 P aul Durcan was born in Dublin in 1944, of County Mayo parents. He studied archaeology and...

Eric Christiansen THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS by Jack Goody Cambridge University Press, £40, £13.95, pp. 462 I t was towards the end of the seventh century AD when the Anglo-Saxon...

Ian Buruma THE END OF HONG KONG: THE SECRET DIPLOMACY OF IMPERIAL RETREAT by Robert Cottrell John Murray, f19.99, pp. 244 A part from a small purple patch — a mere fleck,...

D. J. Taylor POMPEY by Jonathan Meades Cape, £14.99, pp. 472 N early 500 pages in length, long years in the writing — it is nearly a decade since Jonathan Meades' last piece of...

Brian Masters MARILYN MONROE by Donald Spoto Chatto, £17.99, pp. 750 I t is a commonplace that every man who met Marilyn Monroe, and millions who did not, wanted to take care...

Lesley Glaister WOMEN FLY WHEN MEN AREN'T WATCHING by Sara Maitland Virago, 15.99, pp. 191 HOME TRUTHS by Sara Maitland Chatto, £15.99, pp. 295 T he stories still come between...

Alan Coren THE LAST WORD by Paul Micou Bantam Press, £14.99, pp. 252 H ere I am, doing this. Do you know how complicated that sen- tence is? How imponderable? Where is here,...

Conservation Profit with honour Simon Courtauld on a sympathetic approach to restoring a grand country house I n 1989, not long before the spectacular collapse of his company...

Anish Kapoor (Lisson Gallery, till 20 May) David Nash: at the Edge of the Forest (Annely Juda, till 19 June) Alison Wilding (Karsten Schubert, till 22 May) Shock tactics Giles...

Putting it Together (Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center Theater) Tommy (St James Theater) Expectation's the thing Douglas Colby T he new musical revue Putting it Togeth-...

Sommersby (`12', selected cinemas) Un Coeur en Hiver (`12', selected cinemas) Rotten apple Vanessa Letts I f an award were given for the world's most pleased-with-himself...

ARTS DIARY ver A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics OPERA Les Boreades, Nottingham Playhouse (0602 419419), 7 May;...

For Services Rendered (Old Vic) Lion in the Streets (Hampstead) The Treatment (Royal Court) Don't Fool with Love (Donmar Warehouse) Somerset gold Sheridan Morley W hen, soon...

Low fliers Martyn Harris orld in Action this week (ITV, Mon- day, 8.30 p.m.) was based on a sensational interview with Brian Bash am, the sleazy PR man employed by British...

With Bonk and Basher Jeffrey Bernard T he first night of the play in Cardiff with Dennis Waterman went very well and would have been better for me if I hadn't had to leave at...

My heroes Nigel Nicolson A sked the other day to nominate my heroes, I flipped over in my mind a score of people whom I had once worshipped. At school they were older boys...

but, all the same, it is hard to resist drawing some parallel between a recessionary economic climate and the regressive tendency of a wilfully hopeful band of restaurateurs....

Raymond Keene STARTING ON 7 September at the Savoy Theatre in London, Gary Kasparov and Nigel Short will contest their world cham- pionship match under the auspices of the PCA,...

Parish news Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1776 you were invited to include two given, famously flat lines from Wordsworth and Tennyson in a blank-verse local tale. Blank...

A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 17 May, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers,...

He really did the business Frank Keating WE WERE in Germany in the summer of 1979, in one of those swank Munich hotels. It was the day before the European Cup final and the...

Q. My mother, at 90, was greatly offended when staff used her Christian name from the moment she arrived in hospital. My own doctor one day greeted me at his Surgery with...