it seemed by no means certain that the NUM executive would secure the necessary majority in favour of a strike. Arthur Scargill blamed Joe Gormley, the outgoing President, who...

No time for Sandy Ferdinand Mount 'The beggars wrapped in their blankets 1 squatting outside the old souk of Tamanrasset were as dismal a crowd as I had met in the Sahara....

T he Rastafarians have become a familiar sight in many English cities. They are YOung West Indians' who wear their hair in lO ng ringlets known as 'dreadlocks'. They also wear...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £12.00 £13.00 £14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.00 £26.00 £29.00 £37.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

Hero of British labour Auberon Waugh Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes. Galileo: No, unhappy the land that needs heroes. (Brecht) C ome years ago (Spectator, 6...

West Berlin T hey had a dream. They saw a world in which the Soviet Union felt secure r ,nough to relax its stranglehold on Eastern "tope; in which Western economic sup- ,..,...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington T he 30th of the month marks the 100th anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's birthday, but in this city of monuments there is none to commemorate...

Christopher Hitchens New York - 0 very day, thousands of people here watch the new film Ragtime and see. Norman Mailer (playing Stanford White) shot in the head in the first...

Peter Paterson L ast year, amidst the banging of drums and the tinkling of cymbals, it was an- nounced that the most fearsome weapon ever devised in the history of British...

Roy Kerridge T hat's Wigan Pier', said the young man, pointing. I gazed at the jutting- out piece of towpath by the canal, which faced a decaying boathouse on the other side....

Richard West A few weeks ago, the diarist in the new The Times reproached Denis That- c her, the Prime Minister's husband, because he had flown to Bahrein by Gulf Air rather...

The Legislative Council in India, on the 19th inst., repealed the Vernacular Press Act, and restored to the natives the liberty of discussion, subject to the or- dinary laws of...

The Big Read Paul Johnson W hat would journalists do without Michael Foot? Not even his best friends would rate him as a great leader of the Labour Party. But as a provider of...

Sir: Paul Johnson's reference (2 January) to how the late Claud Cockburn wielded `the dangerous gift of charm' so effectively reminded me of an incident during the Six- ties: I...

The price of slavery Sir: Why is the sex life of Cato the Elder's slaves consistently misinterpreted so as to make it a prime example of 'nauseating ex- ploitation'? Peter Levi...

Money rules Tony Rudd A t a moment when practically every- thing seems to be getting less valuable, the only safe haven seems to be money i tself. This is a pretty sad...

E.C. Barrin g ton's letter published in your 28 November issue in which he opines that the sources of power in Hon g Kon g lie in (1) the Jockey Club, (2) Jardine Matheson and...

Sir: I hope I may be allowed to join issue with my old parliamentary colleague Enoch Powell when he states in his review of R. F. Foster's life of Lord Randolph Churchill (9...

Sir: Mr Stamp gave me a shock when he stated (9 January): 'E. W. Godwin (fathe r of Edward Gordon Craig and Ellen TerrY): He meant Edith, as Ellen Terry was their mother. In my...

Sir: I was saddened to read in your Notebook (9 January) of the death, due to neglect, of Mr James Prior's carp; Or neglect it was. l live in Japan and the Japanese cover their...

Sir: May I suggest that Auberon Waugh's fears are based on a dubious premise (9 January)? He assumes that Sunday riffle s , readers can read, firstly that journal, an d secondly...

Vicky and Dearest Mama Peter Quennell The Other Victoria: The Princess and the Great Game of Europe Andrew Sinclair ( Weidenfeld & Nicolson pp. 282, £10) D uring the summer of...

James. Cameron The Druid Leonard Mosley (Eyre Methuen pp. 256, £7.50) rrlhe double-decade 1930s-1950s is almost I certainly the last historical period in which any decent spy...

Allan Maclean rr he Victorians found great pleasure in I the Cathedrals of England. Some ecclesiastics questioned their use, but most valued their tradition, and the public...

Anthony Storr S hnone de Beauvoir: A Life of Freedom , "' a ro' Ascher (Harvester, pp. 254, £9.95) intone de Beauvoir has written about herself so well and at such length that...

A. N. Wilson R eligion does funny things to the mind. When you think of the ceaseless misery caused to the human race by the very ex- istence of Jerusalem, it seems odd that...

Paul Ableman A Book of Sea Journeys ed. Ludovic Ken' nedy (Collins pp. 395, £7.95) n 1573, Eugenio de Salazar, a Spanis h I colonial administrator who peaked a; Governor of...

J. B. Steane P ercy Grainger is that blessed exception, a composer who has not-been 'done'. In the first place, nobody knows exactly how much of him there is, and though this...

Mark Amory R ound and round we go this year and possibly down and down we go as well. It is the 51st anniversary of the death of Sc hnitzler, so his copyright has expired and...

Coming through Duncan Fallowell Rich and Famous ('X', selected cinemas) A few weeks ago we had the spectacle of ..Dudley Moore daring to go off and make it on the West Coast...

The stroke of 12 John McEwen Ten years ago Lord Eccles, when Mini- ster responsible for the Arts, set up the Crafts Advisory Committee. This in turn became the present Crafts...

Carrying on Alan Gibson N obody has been quite certain how to celebrate Geoffrey Boycott's latest s tatistical triumphs. Partly this is because all the proper things were said...

In the dark Richard Ingrams I ris Murdoch's novel The Bell, adapted for BBC 2 by Reg Gadney, began in a very similar way to the ill-fated Bor g ias with a little strip show....

Cards Jeffrey Bernard I t's been a perfectly dreadful week relieved only by the reappearance of Tom Bak ei who's finished his stint in Treasure Islan d and survived the...

Below par Gstaad I have come to the conclusion that the only way I can stay healthy is to be sick. Despite the contradiction, it is true. Take all last week, for example. No...

No. 1202: Pet aversions Set by Jaspis.tos: You are invited to provide an extract from an autobiography or diary of a domestic pet with an uncongenial owner (maximum 150 words)....

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a poetical lament by a parking meter attendant on the unhappiness of his or her lot. No sooner had I set this competition than I...

Evans, `RhosY r, Llangefni, Ang esey, Gwynedd.

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 8 February. Entries to: Crossword 541, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL. 1 2...

Panto time Raymond Keene T he most serious obstacle to concen- tration at Hastings is the annual pan- tomime, which inevitably clashes with the chess congress and is...