It is something that President Nixon has managed to find a Vice-President who (presumably) is free from the taint of corruption and malpractice and who is also politically...

There is a kind of nobility about the prospect of himself the Prime Minister demonstrates. Man to himself is always a large prospect, and when a man is a ruler then the prospect...

Sir: It seems that Mr Harold Wilson puts grievous responsibility for the recent Arab-Israeli war on Arabs only. Whose responsibility are the 1948, 1956 and 1967 wars? In 1948...

Sir: Could you explain to the incredulous how you ascribe the closing of the Schanau transit camp to "piracy of the air." Or is the Chopin Express a hovertrain? W. Griffiths 22...

Sir: C. J. Arthur (October 13) tells us to forget EEC "quibbles about the margins of national sovereignty" and to vote to keep out Labour's Marxist programme. But in a few...

Sir: That the Foreign Office should prohibit the export of arms to the Arab aggressors is right and proper, but their denial to Israel, siirrounded by enemies and fighting for...

From the Hon. Terence Prittie Sir: Nearly one week of war now in this place, and little sign of a quick ending. For the people of Israel it has been a week full of tragedy —...

Battersley , saxiom Sir: We seem to be on the verge of discovering a new educational truth which in years to come may well be known as " Hattersley's Axiom." "A good potato...

Sir: May I protest against Clive Jenkins' review of Eric Silver's book on Vic Feather (October 6)? Surely readers of The Spectator are entitled to e xpect that the reviews it...

I hope you will not be disappointed if I say that it is my habit to turn first tO the column written by your lady racing correspondent. How encouragi ng when I saw that she had...

Sir: The point which Mr Philip Baker overlooks (October 13) is that Rhodesia was, and in theory still is, a British colony. Recognition of full independence would have to...

Sir: In reply to Mr Chambers (Letters, October 6), at Kirkdale School the children do participate in making decisions about the school's central curriculum; and they don't...

Sir: In my letter which you very kindly print today you have truncated the penultimate sentence which should have read: "the truth surely is that there is no such thing as a...

Sir: Non sequitur and error fucatus suffuse Mr Chowdharay-Best's brief letter (13.10.73). A noble pipe of port even if, in its maturity, it were imprudently imbibed with copious...

From the Revd John H. Bishop. Sir: The reviewer of Vedanta for the Modern Man (September 8) is less than plain. He is fully entitled to express his liking of Vedanta, the...

Sir: While sharing Mr J. G. Watson's distaste (Letters. October 6) for pseudo, unmusica' "criticism" such as that Stones article, I feel that it's a non-sequitur for him to...

Rolling Stones' concert the "total abnegation of the critical Function" . and the loudness of the music, he feels, is evidence of its worthlessness (Letters, October 6). Mr...

ears being "all but inaudible." I meant that a military band would not have rendered his ears numb. I trust he can still answer my question (or three) — he will, won't he? John...

Sir: Egoistic correspondent Nicholas Twells's abreactive criticism (June 23 and October 13) might have psychotherapeutic advantages, but a pity that The Spectator should provide...

Sir: I am doing research on the artist Edward Francis Burney (1760-1848) and wonder if perhaps any of your readers may have drawings, notes, letters or papers which relate to...

Sir: It seems that to pour scorn on the Dean of St. Paul's is becoming a passport to respectability. I know nothing about the Dean's Greek scholarship, but perhaps it is no...

IT IS appropriate when beginning a notebook devoted to the Tory conference to recall a — quoting the title of the memorial pamphlet just published by the Conservative Political...

Attack and counter-attack Patrick Cosgravel T he personal attack, like the argument ad hominem, is one of the most difficult weapons to use in British politics. True, harsh e...

Options for peace Joel Cohen As I write, the outcome of the fourth Arab—Israeli war is still unclear. The Israeli determination to survive and the Arab determination to...

Doomed leader of a doomed nation George Patterson The first ever visit of a Dalai Lama (god-king) of Tibet to the West began in Europe in September and culminates in Britain...

No university discrimination C.C.G. Cumings In 1942 a Royal Commission under Mr Justice Asquith inquired into the principles which should guide the development of universities...

Flights of fancy David W. Wragg Euro-knocking has almost become a national pastime, replacing the uncertainties of the weather and the ineptitude of politicians as topics of...

One beggar riding Molly Mortimer The unreality of African economics is epitomised in Lesotho. A mini-mountain in the Middle of South Africa, it is a nightmare of...

A car for the millenium Oliver Stewart Is there anything new? I'm beginning to doubt it. I am not thinking of our annual motor show publicity dose of ' cars of the future' but...

How crazy can we get? John linklater For the general practitioner to give useful and wholesome advice in his counselling role as a family doctor, he must himself be guided by...

The other side of the medal Martin Sullivan Enoch is a good Biblical name. ' Dedicated' is one meaning given to it. Perhaps Mr Powell's mother had some special religious hopes...

Planting evergreens Penis Wood Unlike deciduous plants evergreens do not have a pronounced dormant period — their activities are only slowed down at low temperatures and When...

Bulldog reading Pamela Vandyke Price The soft underbelly of the French gastronomic press would appear to have received a nipping from the recent feature in the Times by the...

Thoroughly disillusioned by the performance of Sky Fever, the price of Katie Cecil and the non-appearance of Silk Stocking, my fillies let me down in a big way at Ascot. In...

Benny Green Not long ago Frank Swinnerton's The Georgian Literary Scene reappeared as a paperback and no doubt commended itself to all those students who in the normal run of...

In a decently ordered world — a world, that is, Which comported itself according to the dictates of the better class of middlebrow fiction — it is inconceivable that in the...

Elaine Moss As reviewers of children's books we are in danger of becoming the least important link in the long chain between the author and the Child reader: our influence is...

Isabel Quigley T eenagers are quite a recent invention, like t elevision or astronauts; in fact I well r emember when they didn't exist. Even at the right age I was never one...

Leon Garfield Good books for the nine to eleven year olds are thin on the ground. It would seem that the more ambitious toilers in the vineyards of Children's Literature look...

Edward Blishen A person of that order of well-guarded gravity that sometimes comes halfway between thirty and forty caught me reading, for review, the latest (reissued) Graham...

John Rowe Townsend After six dormant years, the Garner volcano has erupted at last. In the fairly small (adult) world of those concerned with children's books, this has to be...

Peggy Heeks While specialists on children's fiction busily contest its potential readership (Is Watership Down a book for children; are Garner and Mayne now writing for anyone...

Anne Wood The appearance of The Faber Storybook 'edited by Kathleen Lines in a cheap edition at £1.50 seemed something of a breakthrough in paperbacks at the time, about...

Brian Alderson In all the arguments and counter-arguments about children and literacy one claim generally stands unquestioned: that it is highly desirable for children to be...

Alan Tucker , What the child sees out of the window is an alien planet, a moonscape. It is planet earth — a dump. Some are born at home wherever they are, but many are not: the...

The Funny Little Woman Arlene Mosel (Longman £1.50) An unusual tale, for 6-8 year olds, about a little woman in old Japan who lives in a cottage cooking rice dumplings. She...

Law, Legislation and Liberty F. A. Hayek (Routledge and Kegan Paul £3.00) Reason and Compassion Richard S. Peters (Routledge and Kegan Paul £1.80) Professor Hayek and Professor...

serve Peter Ackroyd Plough over the Bones David Garnett (Macmillan £2.50). Quite a Good Address Douglas Hayes (Macmillan 12.95) Nothing and a Shade John Ginger (Gollancz...

A.L. Rowse r,tie Ceeils of Hatfield House, David Cecil ( C onstable £4.50) What a pleasure it is to read a book on a really rewarding subject, by a writer who Tows how to make...

Richard Shone Burne - Jones Bill Waters and Martin Harrison (Barrie and Jenkins E10.50) It is extremely tempting to make fun of Burne-Jones but easier to really have a laugh...

Philip Ziegler George IV Regent And King, Christopher Hibbert (Allen Lane £4.25) "Not a fatter fish than he Flounders round the polar sea, See his blubbers — at his gills What...

Llew Gardner The Devil's Decade, Claud Cockburn (Sidgwick & Jackson £3.50) Emlyn, Emlyn Williams (Bodley Head £3) Here are two books about life in the 'thirties each, one...

Paperbacks There was a Noel Coward song, in those balmy days before the war, in which the rhymes of a song were a series of variations on 'Bellini.' Now at last we can discover...

Ziegfeld Charles Higham (W. H. Allen £2.75) Anyone curious about the origins of that familiar mythical beast, the Monstrous lmpressario, need look no further; Florenz Ziegfeld...

Bookend As the book trade suffers its annual dose of Book Fair purgatory in Frankfurt, the talk is of mice, men and paperbacks. The softcover shuffle certainly continues apace,...

When it becomes the first priority of film producers to surfeit the eye and starve the intelligence, your reviewer, punch-drunk with spec tacle, is left with little to do but...

Ultimate weapon - Kenneth Hurren An off-Broadway playwright named Philip Magdalany has had, in Section Nine, an idea for a little revue sketch that is both amusing and...

Late Yeats rates Harold Matthews Nothing in the Dublin Festival excelled the carry-overs from previous weeks at the state-sponsored Abbey Theatre and Peacock Theatre, widely...

Grand tour Rodney Eines During the last opera season, five subsidised companies were on the move: Sadler's Wells, the Welsh National, Scottish Opera, the English Opera Group...

Orwellian insights Clive Gammon 1 Frank Cvitanovich's moving and evocative treatment of The Road to Wigan Pier (Thames) wasn't ten minutes old when an unbidden action replay...

Hanging matter Evan Anthony Did you know that there is a college in upstate New York that offers a course in picture hanging? I learned of it the other day from a student who...

After struggling with the project for a year or more, the Jesus Christ Superstar boys, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, have given up their attempt to make a musical out of...

I must confess that I was most disappointed by the general critical condemnation of Mr Desmond Bradley's Violin Concerto, which was performed by the composer in its revised...

Nicholas Davenport After the unrealistic propositions of the Labour party conference it was comforting to listen to the down-to-earth talk of commonsensible and fair-minded Ted...