Arrangement of entries Entries are arranged in letter-by-letter alphabetical order, i.e. spaces between words are ignored. Thus the entry 'Kingdom of Tamburlaine, precedes 'King...

Index for July - December 1988 Subjects and Titles A) ARTICLE AR THE THE ARTS ANOTHER VOICE A CO COMPETITION CS) CITY AND SUBURBAN D . ) DIARY E) THE ECONOMY I)...

Government warns that four-wheel drive cars are unstable I n Blackpool, the SLD rechristened it- self the Democrats. Of the party's former Liberal MPs, however, only the leader...

Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 NON! o uninterested are the British in the politics of the EEC that few of us under- stood Mrs Thatcher's speech in Bruges for...

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Not the sort of party one would bother to gate-crash NOEL MALCOLM and hypnotically unmemorable name 'So- cial and Liberal Democrats' has a lot to answer for. The obvious...

I have now got into the habit of making remarks on whatever changes I notice in English life, whether in the shops, streets, buses, or homes. This should not be set down to my...

Why don't the poodles of the press ask the main Gibraltar question? AUBERON WAUGH P erhaps I am alone in deploring the glee with which certain newspapers have seized upon the...

Britain is not reaping the rewards of early childhood nursery schooling from the age of three `The teacher carried me away screaming because I would not let my mother go.' 'I...

S. of Eric Crouch and Ann (nee Bates); In 1st 1957 Barbra Hope (marrdiss); one s. one d. 2nd Sophie Watt 1975, one 5, Educ: Chelmsford Grammar Sch., Wadharn Coll. Oxford ;...

MR WYNNE E. Baxter, the Coroner inquirin g into the Whitechapel mur- ders, has justified his conduct in insist- ing on the publicity which we last week condemned. He has been...

Ian Buruma on the transformation of a military god into a democratic gentleman ONCE again the Sun has lived up to its reputation as a journal of bad taste: 'There are two...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard finds Mr Dukakis stronger after the television debate Washington REMEMBER Quemoy and Matsu? They were the tiny islands off the coast of China that...

Richard Bassett reports from the Sudetenland now the Germans are gone FROM Karlsbad, still a fair name for Karlovy Vary, to the Bohemian forests, the road runs south through...

Outsiders: a profile of Sir Peter Tapsell, gadfly and good egg This is the first in a new series of profiles. THOUGHT of by some as the present Conservative shadow Chancellor,...

Gavin Stamp fails to see how Stirling's triumph in Stuttgart makes him right for the City FIFTY years after Neville Chamberlain first boarded an aeroplane for Munich, I flew...

Charles Mosley believes official crime figures are a work of fiction THE latest crime figures brought a de- cidedly confused response. Some papers hailed them as encouraging,...

The media: Paul Johnson laments errors in print, including his own SELDOM in my life have I been so mortified as last week, when I examined a newly-minted copy of my latest...

At the Berlin financial Olympics as Nigel goes for gold CHRISTOPHER FILDES Berlin h erehere seems to be some mistake here. I am attending the financial Olympics. Some games...

OK, he has gone clean off the Prime Minister and that is his affair. But the last sentence of the article (in con- junction with the heading) is not just a further expression of...

Sir: Mr W. G. M. Angliss (Letters, 17 September) says he 'left the trade' ten years ago, which perhaps explains why he is out of date on the current production and sales figures...

Sir: Your timely leading article 'Remem- ber Romania' (17 September) made an eloquent case for the West to repudiate one of the Eastern bloc's more despotic regimes. However,...

Sir: I wish Auberon Waugh would stop being so silly about Mrs Thatcher. Buf- foonery, of course; but does anyone find it funny? 'The insular, oppressive futility which this...

Sir: Many of your readers will have read and been grateful for the writings of the . late T. E. Utley — on the maintenance of the constitution, the traditions of the Church, the...

FEWER than eight per cent of Amer- ican households own compact disc play- ers . . . Berkshire Record Outlet will continue to carry vinyl albums to service the 92 per cent of...

Sir: Who on earth had Frank Johnson in mind when he wrote so disparagingly of foreign correspondents and war reporters in his memoir of Sam White (10 Septem- ber)? 'The Fleet...

Sir: As chess correspondent of The Specta- tor I feel I must rush to the defence of the Red Queen, who was so unfairly mis- quoted in Jock Bruce-Gardyne's article 'A blip round...

Sir: There's a divinity that shapes our ends. In a long life I never met a man (Another voice, 27 August) who advocated circumci- sion, or a woman who didn't. The basis of...

Sir: It is said to be cowardly not to stand up for your friend (`The Honour of God', 17 September) when you hear him being falsely accused. Then how much more wrong is it not to...

Sir: Nirad C. Chaudhuri did well in the Diary of 17 September to chide the Times for printing 'fusillade! and 'volley' when the proper word for a salute by gun is 'salvo'. He...

Arms and the man Colin Welch MUNICH: THE ELEVENTH HOUR by Robert Kee Hamish Hamilton, £14.95, pp.242 A CLASS DIVIDED: APPEASEMENT AND THE ROAD TO MUNICH by Robert Shepherd...

`Remember me She said, and he Said 'Yes of course I will. So young, such fun For everyone Except when you are ill.' 'Remember me —' She said, and he Said 'Yes of course I do....

Anita Brookner THE BEGINNING OF SPRING by Penelope Fitzgerald Collins, £10.95, pp.187 P enelope Fitzgerald has produced a real Russian comedy, at once crafty and scatty. This...

Francis King THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie Viking, £12.95, pp.547 L ike the works of such writers as Thomas Pynchon and John Barth, it is probable that Salman...

on Richard Burton Anita Brookner on Marina Warner's The Lost Father

Stephen Spender THE LETTERS OFT. S. ELIOT VOLUME I, 1898-1922 edited by Valerie Eliot Faber, £25, pp.639 O n 31 December 1914, writing to Conrad Aiken, his friend and fellow...

may remain invisible Patrick Skene Catling IN SEARCH OF J. D. SALINGER by Ian Hamilton Heinemann, £12.95, pp.222 0 nce an author has published a book and the public have...

John Osborne DIFFICULTIES WITH GIRLS by Kingsley Amis Hutchinson, £11.95, pp.256 W ill you lay your hand on your heart and swear to me that you're not an American?' It is the...

David Gilmour SOMETHING TO HOLD ONTO: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES by Richard Cobb John Murray, L12.95, pp.168 R ichard Cobb's autobiography has been appearing in instalments...

Dance Ashton's legacy Julie Kavanagh of on the heels of the obituaries come the tributes to Ashton on television and radio: Omnibus (BBC 1, 30 Septem- ber) Kaleidoscope...

The Sneeze (Aldwych) Sugar Babies (Savoy). The charm of vaudeville Christopher Edwards H ere are eight short pieces adapted by Michael Frayn from plays and stories by Anton...

Francis Bacon (Central House of the Artists, Moscow, till 6 November Formal fallacy Giles Auty I Moscow n life we are surrounded by signs and symbols to interpret how we...

Stars and Bars (`15', selected cinemas) Buster ('15', Odeon Leicester Square) Fit for a prince Hilary Mantel W e have two Englishmen abroad this week; neither of them are...

Off the rails Peter Watson examines the performance of British Rail's art investments W ith no fewer than 16 people in their respective press offices, it is not surprising...

regular critics OPERA The Devil and Kate. The 1988 Wexford Festival opens on 20 October with DvOrak's pastoral comedy; Anne-Marie Owens sings Kate and Albert Rosen conducts....

The poets muse Peter Levi n nearly all cases, the book has been better than the film, though I would not relish a book of 'Alio 'Alio (BBC 1), which is a good old-fashioned...

Hostess with the mostest 'kaki E ven if I have to say so myself, it was The Spectator's High life correspondent who initially broke the story concerning the first bimbo of...

A crying shame Jeffrey Bernard S o what about Ben Johnson then? He has really blown it and I wonder if he will be able to cope with the situation. It will surely haunt him...

Not so funny Alice Thomas Ellis The other day a man said to me, 'The harpist's arrived — unfortunately', and I don't know why, but I laughed for hours. (I can't be bothered to...

I RECEIVED a nice letter from a worried Mrs Margaret Hankins from Oswestry; who was concerned about all those tins of condensed milk exploding throughout the country when being...

Tilburg triumphs Raymond Keene A natoly Karpov has heavily rein- forced the admiring comments concerning his current form which I made two weeks ago. The tournament at...

Modernisation Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1542 you were in- vited to take the rhyme scheme of a pre- 20th-century sonnet and produce a new sonnet up to date in manner and...

The new British Telecom Dial-a-Poem service is apparently soon going to offer us a work by Barbara Cortland. Competitors are invited to anticipate (Maximum 16 lines) what this...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £13.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...

24, moods at 4, 13 & 32, towns at 21, 22 & 29, normal light at 30 and partly clued lights at 2, 11 & 36 are or were vehicles (i.e., MEDIA). Winners: J. W. Leonard, Sutton...