It would have been a far, far better thing had the Olympic marathon in Munich broken up, rather than that Rhodesia be excluded in the manner in which she has been. It would have...

Last June we first argued at length why Britain should float the pound. Then, after the Government had done so, we criticised Mr Heath's and Mr Barber's declared policy...

The House and the box Hugh Macpherson At the start of the new session, on October 19, the Commons will once more debate the issue of televising its proceedings. In the best...

As my editor departed for his hols in County Cork last week I promised him that my first Notebook would consist entirely of grouses, some of which I have been saving up for some...

The great illusion T. E. Utley No prizes will be offered for a correct prediction of the outcome of Mr Whitelaw's conference of the Northern Irish political parties at the end...

General Oufkir's last interview Peter Johnson The last time they tried to kill Hassan, General Mohammed Oufkir called it "an incident on the road." Exactly a year later, in a...

How to help the Third World Michael Sharpston Until recently, the rich developed countries had a virtual monopoly in world trade of manufactures. This is now changing, and the...

This is a strange kind of literary history,• but perhaps it has to be. Our selfconsciousness about the problems of history, judgement and analysis is rapidly making all literary...

Auberon Waugh Timetable for the General Bernard Frizell (Collins 1.80). Heaven forbid that anyone of my generation should seem insufficiently grateful to the generation which...

Joan Robinson China Today Klaus Mehnert (Thames and Hudson E2.50) 800,000,000: The Real China Ross Terrill (Heinemann £2.50) Red Guard: Schoolboy to 'Little General' in Mao's...

J. I. M. Stewart The Art of I. Compton-Burnett edited by Charles Burkhart (Gollancz £3) He formed a peculiar idea of comick excellence, which he supposed to consist in gay...

Denis Brogan Upstate: Records and Recollections of Northern New York Edmund Wilson (Macmillan £4.50) This posthumous work by Edmund Wilson justifies, if any justification was...

Bookbuyer The thriller writer William Haggard was once described by the Sunday Express as the adults' Ian Fleming. His seventeenth book, The Protectors (Cassell £1.80) is...

How to handle Big Brother Patrick Cosgrave I have decided that I must be the most patient and tolerant reviewer of books now living. My decision is based on the fact that,...

Into the family business Christopher Hudson The Godfather (` X ' Paramount, Universal, Empire and ABC 1) is a film about the Mafia. It has grossed £20 million so far in...

Caged round Rodney Milnes I think it was Anthony Hope who emerged from a performance of Peter Pan with the remark, "Oh for an hour of Herod." Puritans attending HPSCHD, the...

Still unclassified Kenneth Hurren The fourth play of Alan Ayckbourn's that London has seen, Time and Time Again, turned up last week at the Comedy, and in the case of almost...

Athletes moot Clive Gammon I've been experiencing at first hand the fury of those who live in 'fringe' reception areas and who pay a full licence fee for viewing what looked...

Benny Green Oscar Levant, who died in Los Angeles last week, was one of those indeterminate characters whose status is never quite defined either to their own satisfaction or...

Waspe The salvation of the Olympics by the exclusion of Rhodesia may also have been the salvation of BBC-tv's Munich operation — a numbing 170 hours of coverage. Early this...

Stung again Peter Quince Not for the first time, I find myself at odds with the wisdom of the ages as it has been distilled into proverbial form. It is better, so that...

your City diary on August 12, you refer to the charitable trust, which Miss Bridget D'Oyly. Carte recently estabHshed, by the gift to it of Savoy shares. In the course of your...

Sir: After reading your leader on Britain's duty to accept the Ugandan Asians into our community (August 12) I was greatly disturbed by this abdication of responsibility. It is...

meaning of the Word 'Racialism ' to some men. Two I can think of with opposite View s: (I) General Amin's — his outright cruelty to another race flat his own. (2) Our...

which have appeared in your columns over the P, ast few months purporting to re',ate to the present political, indus`Nal and economic situations in which Britain is deadlocked....

Sir: Antony Flew (August 5) has botched his arithmetic. If students spent more than thirty-three hours a week on 'academic work ', then they would have no time to get an...

Sir: Frank Field's article on homeless single people rightly stresses the urgency of the need for short term reforms. There is a great danger that the wide-ranging debate both...

the rapidly increasing problem of homelessness amongst single young people (August 5). However, his recommendation that what is needed is a reception centre for young people...

Sir: In his article entitled ' What is Psychotherapy?' (August 3) Jef Smith neither hazards a definition nor attempts to clarify the problems involved in trying to do so....

5) repeats the myth that the Arab Sir: Mr David M. Jacobs (August refugees from Palestine and the Oriental Jewish immigrants to Israel constituted "an exchange of population."...

fears of being swamped by Arabs. There is only one way to help the Arab refugees, therefore — by removing the fear. This can be done by: (a) Pressing the Soviet to release all...

of the Egypt-Israel conflict in consequence of the enforced Russian departure prompts me to suggest that this may be the moment for taking an entirely new look at an intractable...

Sir: Dr Dixon expounds one side of the white versus brown bread argument with great clarity (July 15), but there is another side. A growing number of doctors and nutritionists...

Sir: Mr Chowdary-Best writes that he is biased in favour of studies about war at sea by men who have reached high rank in the naval service, as aginst those of civilian...

From Professor Robin Fax Sir: Mr Liam Hudson's review of The Imperial Animal has just reached me, and while his total inability to grasp the argument of the book will 'he clear...

Sir: As a member of the same university, perhaps you will allow me to apologise for Mr Row . ie's ungracious and offensive letter. As you know, Rowse is very proud of his humble...

19). Is a back colour writer: one who spurs on his gaudy felt-tip words, or is he a somewhat pedestrian un-equestrian aesthetician? Is he a philosopher confined to home...

Sir: In the absence of George Feifer I should like to answer some of the arguments raised by Messrs Floyd and Bazarov (Letters, August 19), against our biography of Solzhenitsyn...

Wednesday, July 26 marked the turning point in the fortunes of the 1972 classic generation. On that sultry afternoon at Goodwood first Stilvi and Deep Diver, then Sallust and...

Nicholas Davenport The idle chatter from the market place about the end of the bull market is what you would expect when people have had a fright. As violence rears its ugly...

The stench of corruption in the public service is not new. A friend has been telling me that after the war he was visiting one of the ministries to get orders for his small...

Shipping around for a share Nephew Wilde One thing I tend to get incredibly irate about is paternalism. Whether it is the boss on a sugar plantation calling his workers " boys...

Carpet backing John Bull As a major group, Carpets International has been largely neglected by the stock market over the last few months. Too much account is given to the mess...

George Bender An adult is, nutritionally as well as Physically, a resilient creature. With the limited amount of information available we have a reasonable set of figures for...

The death of consensus Jef Smith or the second time within a few months there have been press photos of social Workers publically protesting against the Policies of their...

Relevant science Bernard Dixon Scientists rarely lay bets about their colleagues' work. The very idea clashes violently with the spirit of scientific enquiry and the...

Choice in stalls custos Those who do not come from 'Old Mother Hubbard' backgrounds must find it difficult to appreciate just how strong is the shame of being poor. But shame...

Carol Wright And so prices continue to sink for packaged holidays to the Caribbean. The old Noel Coward and smart set in Jamaica and dinner jacket dinner scene at Sandy Lane in...