m r Salman Rushdie made what appeared to be a partial 'apology' for what he called the 'genuine distress' caused to `sincere Muslims' by his book The Satanic Verses; the...

THERE will be a Memorial Meeting for Dhiren Bhagat in the Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1, at 11.30 a.m. on Monday 20 March. All are wel- come.

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 NEW MODEL MULLAH ediaeval' is a word much used in his on the Ayatollah...

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campaign for a bust of Matthew Arnold in Westminster Abbey. It was then discovered that there already was such a bust. The Abbey authorities very politely agreed, however, that...

DOMINIC LAWSON I have been here before. It was about 22 years ago. In October 1967 the Daily Express repudiated the D Notice system and published extracts from an American book...

The price Rushdie must pay for pilgering AUBERON WAUGH I n the area of Hammersmith where I spend two nights a week, the Indian shop --- as middle-class families politely call...

The Prime Minister is against government, but loves government action. Noel Malcolm analyses her contradictory populism FOOD: NOW MAGGIE STEPS IN Mrs Thatcher last night...

Salman Rushdie is being used against Benazir Bhutto. Anatol Lieven reports IslamabadlRawalpindi THE demonstrators were certainly angry about something — though whether it was...

Diana Geddes explains why the Islamic people of France have been keeping quiet Paris FRANCE has the largest Muslim popula- tion in Europe — three million, three times as many...

Stephen Robinson on the collapse of South Africa's black hero figures Johannesburg `SWAP Winnie for Nelson', demands the latest graffito along one of Johannesburg's grander...

abdicate if he too could be flown out. Such was the moral authority that Humphrys now exercised that all fighting ceased while he escorted Inyatullah and his entourage to the...

Anthony Daniels finds the capital of El Salvador under increasing guerrilla pressure San Salvador AS a patriotic television advertisement once claimed, with an understatement...

Michael Heath

Outsiders: a profile of Andrew Neil, who shares Rupert Murdoch's dislike of the English THE host of bruised journalists hoping to see Andrew Neil tumble out of the sky and...

As Britain fears food poisoning, Digby Anderson sees how the Spanish put the knife into their porkers Los Marines, Huelva WHILE pressure grows in Britain for all sorts of...

HUNGARY has beeen disturbed by an explosion of popular wrath. Among the clauses of the new Army Bill were two, one confirming the practice of using German words of command, and...

The press: Paul Johnson examines media coverage of the V&A bust-up ANGER is the enemy of persuasion. If you want to intervene effectively in a public controversy, it is well...

YOU would have thought, said the general manager of the National Westminster Bank, that when we announce a profit of more than £1,400 million and break every record, people...

BORROWERS fall back on their third and last line of defence, which is trust. They have borrowed (they say) from national institutions, famous names, with their reputations on...

If mortgages didn't exist, nobody would be allowed to invent them CHRISTOPHER FILDES Y ou signed what? An agreement to borrow money for 20 years? How much money? Dear me, that...

WHEN Robert Maxwell is looking for his next takeover — something to keep him going until teatime — I propose the Oxford University Press. This aged institution is evidently...

intrusion into the private life (a fine and a pamphlet called J'Accuse confis- cated), but I couldn't agree with you (Leading article, 4 February) more strong- ly that a similar...

Sir: Your readers will be interested to know that following Alexandra Artley's excellent article on out of school provision (Indoors and alone', 4 February), the Lord Chancellor...

secrecy, you make the common press comment that 'secrecy is an evil. . . . Governments use secrecy because they have something to hide.' What you seem to ignore is that there is...

`Private Eye's' honour Sir: I write to protest at the disgraceful libel upon myself and the magazine which I edit which appeared in Charles Moore's Diary (18 February). His...

Sir: Michael Trend's article (4 February) about the controversy over baptism engag - ing the Church of England at present has disturbing echoes of one of the most famous...

Sir: I do not know whether extracts from the interview between Yitzak Shamir and Nicholas Bethell ('Sharp methods...' 28 January) have been previously published; nor is it clear...

Sir: I enjoyed the entertaining article `Favourite maggots' by Candida Crewe in the Christmas number of The Spectator. May I however correct her over an error of fact? Ekbom's...

Sir: I write in defence of Mark Phillips's use of his rank of Captain following Anthony Howard's note (Diary, 7 January). There seems to be a quite uncalled for dislike of the...

Sir: It was a pleasant surprise to receive several consecutive issues of The Spectator during last weeks but only now, after getting your letter of 12 January, I under- stand...

Sir: It is a matter of regret to me that Motability has apparently some responsi- bility for having provoked an uncharacter- istically petulant article (The lead balloon goes...

Change of Hart Michael Howard LIDDELL HART AND THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY by John J. Mearsheimer Brassey's Defence Publishers, £15.95, pp.234 T he figure of Liddell Hart...

Rupert Christiansen BERLIOZ, VOLUME I: THE MAKING. OF AN ARTIST by David Cairns Deutsch, £25, pp.586 ■ hen the young Berlioz sent the score of a first version of his...

Richard Dorment THE DEVIL AND DR BARNES: PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR by Howard Greenfeld Marian Boyers, £19.95, pp. 306 Y ou may think you know the work of Douanier...

Barbara Day LEITERS TO OLGA by Vaclav Havel Faber, £27.50, pp.397 NS. W hen the sun sets behind Prague Castle, Olga and Vaclav Havel can, for- tune permitting, contemplate...

Rhoda Koenig THE FACTS: A NOVELIST'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Philip Roth Cape, f11.95, pp.195 F or a satirist, Philip Roth sure wants to be liked — or, as he might put it, 'under-...

Noel Malcolm THE LETTERS OF MARSILIO FICINO, VOLUME IX translated by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London Shepheard-Walwyn, £13.95,...

Brian Masters MARKING TIME by Michael Bettsworth Macmillan, f12.95, pp. 242 INSIDE TIME by Ken Smith Harrap, £12.95, pp. 237 F or more than five years now I have been...

Nicolas Barker S ome people like going round factories, others hate it: it is one way of dividing up the human race. I love it. Any industrial process fascinates me: quarries...

Crafts An appetite for beauty Tanya Harrod Walter Crane: Artist, Designer and Socialist (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, till 27 March) The Holy Grail Tapestries and Pre-...

Britten from scratch Louis Jebb T wo years ago many people found it unbearable to be in the same room as me while I was singing, so loud and coarse was the noise, and I took...

Valued Friends (Hampstead) The World According To Me (Playhouse) Hot property Christopher Edwards S tephen Jeffreys' observant new satire dramatises the reactions of a group...

Authentic Broadway Robin Holloway T he 50th anniversay in 1987 of George Gershwin's death was marked among much else by a festival at the Barbican, a glitzy two-part...

The Accused (`18', selected cinemas) Ashamedly commercial Hilary Mantel A spokeswoman for the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders was quoted...

Joan Miro: Paintings and Drawings 1929-1941 (Whitechapel Art Gallery, till 23 April) Andrzej Jackowski (Marlborough Fine Art, till 10 March) Morose Miros Giles Auty here is...

Phony war Taki our-letter words are banned from this column. Seven-letter words might just slip through. However hard I have tried, I've been unable to come up with a more...

Good news Wendy Cope 0 ne of the functions of early evening news programmes is to give people an excuse for switching on. In some families the individual who is keenest to...

...wish I wasn't Alice Thomas Ellis I travel as little as possible. I hare packing and I hate unpacking more. Tick - ets and passports and travellers' cheques are bureaucratic...

Wish you were here... Jeffrey Bernard ingapore, the stop-off on the way to Sydney, was a disappointment. The great Japanese-financed consumer society thousands of shops...

iimiore■ \,‘ - k.- „, 4.„/ (ar (6'72 Old-style burgundy is back DEVOTEES of old-style red burgundy — deep-coloured, full-bodied, meaty — have been regarded by most...

Terror tactics Raymond Keene A ll four quarter-finals in the World Championship cycle have now been com- pleted. Readers will remember that Jon Speelman defeated Nigel Short...

After Gorey Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1562 you were in- vited to rival a poem in couplets by Edward Gorey about imaginary animals, inventing your own and covering eight...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary' above) for the first three correct...

You are invited to incorporate the words of the titles of at least ten plays or films currently running in London into a passage from a thriller or a detective or adventure...

unclued lights viz. — 2 (36), 3 16A), 4 26), 5 (10), 6 (17), 7 25D), 8 (12), 9 (32), 10 (16D), J 7), O (37), K (4), A (38). Winners: John M. Brown, Rolleston-on-Dove, Staffs...