A party of refugees from the Falklands arrived at Gatwick Airport. They reported that the Argentinian forces were so hungry that they had been reduced , to begging for food from...

Mr Pym goes to Washington Ferdinand Mount Fr he globe feels global again. 8,000 miles I is still a lot of ocean. Or is it 7,000? Both figures are bandied. Time equals distance...

I have tended in the past to regard with some envy the stars of television like Michael Parkinson and Russell Harty. It is not their fame that I have envied, because nobody in...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 1RE17.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 1R£35.50 £37.00 £49.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

Gerda Cohen Shaun-et-Sheikh W hen things sound really serious in Israel, on the brink of war for in- stance, I telephone my in-laws and ask, `Has Bukovich been called up?' If...

Gerald Kaufman T he last time I saw Sinai, I had a kosher meal there. Kosher meals are now being withdrawn from that contentious penin- sula, as part of the Camp David peace...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft A t dawn last Thursday Lieutenant Khaled Islambouli was shot in Cairo. Four of his co-conspirators were either shot or hanged for the assassination of...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington T hat portion of the country which takes an interest in foreign affairs has been watching television pictures of our prolix Secretary of State...

Richard West Bangkok T his is my first experience of the Thai New Year, or Songkran feast, when everyone splashes water on everyone else; in the cafe where I am writing this,...

A poet for our time Roy Kerridge T inton Kwesi Johnson is the winner of a la Cecil Day Lewis Fellowship, and has been described as 'the foremost young West Indian poet' and...

Anthony Blond `Sir, why do people dislike the Jews?' `Because, Blond, they killed Christ.' F orty years on such an exchange would be unlikely in any schoolroom in the world,...

Byron Rogers T he Welsh will vote this year on whether their pubs are to open on Sundays. The outcome will be of great interest to the tourist trade. But some believe a way of...

The trial of Roderick Edward MacLean for high treason, for firing a pistol at the Queen, on March 2nd last, at Windsor, took place before the Lord Chief Justice and Mr Baron...

Alastair Best F armers and landowners need not fear: the steady conversion of the British countryside into one vast food-producing factory floor can proceed unchecked. As many...

Hopalong Sitafence Paul Johnson O dd to think that only a few weeks ago Margaret Thatcher was secretly ar- ranging for Ronald Reagan to address both Houses of Parliament in...

Marking time Tony Rudd A s the fleet continues to steam south- wards towards the Falklands the markets seem to have suspended judgment. They are engaged in a reflective pause...

Sir: Timothy Garton Ash argues (10 APril ) that Hungary should be offered fresh Western finance, while Poland, Romani a and the Soviet Union should not. He seems to be...

The strategy of Graf Spee Sir: According to your 'Argies, go home' (10 April), Admiral Count Spee, the Com - mander of the German East Asian Squadron in November 1914, while...

Sir: We are all right: Djilas fill, though he overstates his case, as is pardonable in one so much younger than the rest of us (13 March), Djilas pere, Sir Fitzroy Maclean, whom...

Sir: Mr Peter Paterson (10 April) describes Alger Hiss as another Dreyfus, i.e. a man falsely accused of treason. He describes Whittaker Chambers, who provided the Principal but...

Sir: Being a researcher interested in health care and having just returned from the West Bank, I believe Gerda Cohen (10 April) totally fails to appreciate the dire state of...

Sir: I read with interest your cartoon, 'I wish someone would support me — I'm a right-wing gay' in the Spectator (3 April). Sadly it is true that a large majority of Con-...

Sir: Being a devoted fan both of the cinema and the Spectator I feel obliged to write and tell you of Mr Ackroyd's mistake in his Vic- tor/Victoria review (10 April), the...

Sir: For those of us who have not sat op- posite Mr Alastair Forbes at a dinner party, his review of All the President's Kin (17 April) was our first opportunity to read his...

Rab's last words John Grigg L ord Butler of Saffron Walden (herein- after Rab) was, as everyone agrees, a man of rare intelligence and fascination. He brought to politics, in...

Philip Warner Alanbrooke David Fraser (Collins £12.95) T his excellent book begins with the chronicle of a day in Alanbrooke's life in 1944. He was 60. Work started when he...

Arthur Marshall French False Friends C. W. E. Kirk-Greene ( Routledge & Kegan Paul £7.95) French False Friends C. W. E. Kirk-Greene ( Routledge & Kegan Paul £7.95) T hose of us...

Terence de Vere White Burne-Jones Talking His conversations 1 895-98, preserved by his studio assistant Thomas Rooke, edited by Mary Lago (John Murray £12.50) T his is an odd...

Anthony Storr Koestler lain Hamilton (Seeker & Warburg £12) ne day, some earnest seeker after a doctorate will catalogue the contribu- tions made to English life and culture...

Anthony Blond Au Revoir Monsieur Bonjour T last saw her, I was going to say in 'public, but as that and her private life are indistinguishable, and now more so, I had better...

James Neidpath Heydrich: The Pursuit of Total Power Gunther Deschner (Orbis f10) C hristabel Bielenberg, visiting the Oranienberg concentration camp where her husband was...

Francis King The Voyage of the Destiny Robert NYC (Hamish Hamilton, £8.50) I n February 1618, Sir Walter Ralegh , ageing and ailing, was aboard his flagship the Destiny,...

ADELAIDE WEINBERG: 'John Elliot Cairnes and The American Civil War', (Kingswood Press). D. F. McCormack, 79 Waterland Road, Dublin 4. REV. A. W. FLETCHER: 'Eckington; The Story...

Naomi Mitchison Megalithomania John Michell (Thames & Hudson £8.50) J ohn Michell is a very cunning author. First you think this is a delightful picture book with a bit of...

John McEwen A culture foreign to one's own can be just as foreign in its pictures as in its writings, that is one lesson to be drawn from some of the more prominent shows of...

That old-fashioned feeling Peter Ackroyd The Grass Is Singing ('A', selected cinemas) D oris Lessing's novel, from which The Grass Is Singing has been adapted, opens with a...

Team-work Richard Ingrams A s the weeks pass I become more more convinced that the way out of Ow economic mess is for the Governmen t ,f hand the BBC over to private...

Home thoughts Mark Amory Not Quite Jerusalem (Royal Court) Bring Me Sunshine, Bring Me Smiles (Shaw) Not in Front of the Audience (Drury Lane) N ot Quite Jerusalem is...

Long-distance Jeffrey Bernard T f one needed proof of the stupidity of 'Americans beyond the democratic elec- tion of both Mr Carter and Mr Reagan then surely Heaven's Union,...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a poem to suit Tennyson's title for one of his: 'Supposed Confessions of a Second- rate Mind Not in Unity with Itself. Carelessly...

No. 1215: Funny faces Set by Charles Seaton: A new hazard for public personalities is that they may be chosen as the subject of the drawing in 'Bir- thdays Today' in The Times....

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 10 May. Entries to: Crossword 554, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. a im NM...

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Festival Raymond Keene T here is still well over a week left to see a team of world class Grandmasters plus c hampion Anatoly Karpov in action at the Phillips and Drew Kings...