A great amount of moral heat is being generated in the United States by the Watergate affair, and it is of a kind not essentially different from that generated in this country...

Yhe visit of Mr Gough Whitlam to London this week offers a timely opportunity, not merely for re-appraising Britain's relations with Australia, but for looking again and afresh...

Good stories with happy endings are not very common in the newspapers these days. The healthy survival of the four Hertfordshire schoolboys after they had become lost in bad...

In defence of the noble breed Patrick Cosgrave _Med culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. une of the severest strictures passed on journalists and public alike in Lord Massereene...

In the course of my rigorous researches I have made a discovery which puts all previous Shakespearian scholarship not merely in the shade, but quite out. In the lost property...

Shakespeare speaks at last John Bowie

Souvenir of Clarkson's Macdonald Hastings " Nora has a wonderful notion. Why don't we all go on a long weekend holiday with Clarkson's to Dubrovnik? Under e30 for a four-day...

Thames Television's one-hour discussion programme Something to Say returns to London ITV next Thursday with a debate between the Rt Hon Peter Walker, Secretary of State for...

The beam in the Lord Chamberlain's eye Dorothy Becker That those responsible for the administration of law cut corners, and set out on occasion with the intention to deceive...

Special relationships Olga Franklin I'm hoping someone, if not Mr Enoch Powell , will come forward to help stop all this immi . gration! My concern is that most of them appear...

perils of independence Molly Mortimer Exactly a century ago, Captain Moresby the Basilisk into the harbour that Dears his name, and onApril 23 ran up the 'Union Jack over...

Breezes of change Chris Pritchard Few Liberians took the promises seriously, anyway, but those who accepted at facevalue the pledge that this West African re public of freed...

Rachel Law 0 England is a liberal isle, Their queen, Elizabeth; The second of that name to rule Over a land of death. Under the first Elizabeth Was scaffold and the rack But...

H itler is much the most fascinating politician Or twentieth-century Europe. Stalin, with %%thorn he is frequently compared, faced far f ewer problems. Stalin never had to worry...

Auberon Waugh The Man Who Liked Women Marc Branklel (Eyre Methuen £2.50) The Barrier Robin Maugham (W. H. Allen £2.00) Two very pleasant novels round off my stint as The...

Hugh Brogan Eleanor: The Years Alone Joseph P. Lash (Andre Deutsch 0.50) Even admirers of Mr Lash's immense first volume on Eleanor Roosevelt may quail at the thought of...

Llew Gardner The Highland Jaunt Paul Johnson and George Gale (Collins. £2) Scotland is another country and this prickly thistle of a book captures a deal of its unique flavour....

Patrick Cosgrave In any random new pile of detective stories and thrillers on one's desk a new Emma Lath; en must take pride of place. It is true that Miss Lathen's latest...

Victorian Studies in Scarlet Richard D. Altick (Dent £3.25) Man's curiosity about murder was never stronger than in the Victorian age, "our great period in murder, our...

Bookbuyer Authors and publishers have not always seen eye to eye on money. Life would be dull if they did. Some writers — like Rider Haggard, H, E. Bates or Norman Mailer —...

Confronted last week with comedies from three different periods of this century — of 1910, 1946 and 1973 — I am 'bound to say that I found them engaging and meritorious in...

Screenplays Mark Le 'Fan • The publicity handout for A Doll's House (' A ' Academy Two) reminds us solemnly that: "1 discreet, accomplished directio n places the emphasis ....

Shared orgasm Evan Anthony . Ad Reinhardt advised his students Just before one of his exhibitions that they shouldn't pay too much attention to what the critics would Write...

Journey worthwhile Clive Gammon Long Day's Journey into Night, with the National Theatre Company cramming itself into the micro-world of the box, was a bold Easter holiday...

W aspe How long, I wondered in this box two months ago, would it be before the Royal Opera announced that Franco Zeffirelli would not. after all, be directing Carmen at Covent...

Benny Green I had intended spending my time this week reviewing a new book written by myself, so that any future reviewers might have reliable guidelines to follow. However, I...

Rodney MillleS There is one significant breakthrough in this year's festival programmes. In the past, opera, usually the most expensive but also Popular single items, has been...

Nicholas Davenport One thing which Mr Heath can be relied upon not to do is to repeat the mistake of his Tory predecessors in 1951 who applied monetary brakes to the economy on...

Following Fogarty John Bull After a bad start to the current year, picking Lesney Products as a " sell," my selection of Revertex has been well justified with the shares up 6p...

City Diary Rowland for Lonrho kmrho is once more in a mess. It IS not difficult to chose between he self-made director Tiny Row land, owning a fifth of the business and...

Markets for ropes Nephew Wilde My local vicar is a man who does not hesitate to bring politics into the pulpit. He slams big business, the Concorde, and most forms of...

Joan Woolicombe i What is really happening to the thousands of men and women on small fixed incomes, as they wrestle with the ends that never . Meet? These casualties of...

Coming of age Bernard Dixon This year sees one of the most bizarre anniversaries imaginable, whether in science, science-fiction, or everyday life. The event to be celebrated...

Gean or mazzard Denis Wood If it was at this time of the year that William Kent, in the words of Horace Walpole, "leapt the fence; and found all nature was a garden," he may...

Aged in the woods Peter Quince _ _ These are perfect days for visiting the woods which form a sort of intermittent barrier along the western boundary of this parish. The air...

The National Trust Sir: 1 would like the opportunity to comment briefly on the previous letters from Mr and Mrs Brock, and the article by Mrs Brock in your issue of April 21,...

Judging from my Easter holiday ramblings round the North of England, Messrs Whitbreads have established a firm footing in the local drinking houses and it must have suited them...