That Mr Ian Paisley has added his scorn to the threats Which the Provisional IRA have directed against the w omen's peace movement in Northern Ireland is merely an indication of...

With the Prime Minister, M. Chirac, resigning, France had its problems this week. For supplying arms to South Africa an oil embargo against France was demanded by the conference...

Placemen galore John Grigg When people talk of 'big government' what they usually mean is the whole apparatus of officialdom in a country which, like ours, has an outsized...

The world press shudders at the possibility that, if he wins the Presidency, Mr Jimmy Carter might make Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski his Secretary of State—shuddering, not...

Kenny's Law Auberon Waugh It was in the dog days of August, as I mused h appily about the July trade deficit and wondered whether to write to The Tittles about High-Rise...

P atrick Marnham Accra The radio in the Star Hotel, Accra. is tuned 13 1 , a channel which normally gives out high'ire music. Before the news this is interru pted by a school...

Patrick Cosg rave Everybody who has written a book -other than the kind of book under discussion— is familiar with a certain kind of stomachchurning feeling which manifests...

Elisabeth Dunn Just under a year ago, a friend of ours bought a shiny new motor-car. Well, not a new one, but a shiny secondhand job. inrimac. cond., taxed, MOT; and he drove it...

Playgirls Jeffrey Bernard The feature race at Kempton Park last Saturday was the Playboy Nursery Handicap Stakes and, thanks to the sponsors, the course was liberally littered...

Sir: May I draw the attention of Mr Auberon Waugh to a feature of the Liturgy controversy which has passed unnoticed? The present English liturgy is unsatisfactory, wanting in...

Sir: Although not wishing detrimentally to influence the sales of Mr Farson's book-tobe, I feel that he has, in his article 'In defence of dogs', omitted to deal with the most...

Sir: Gordon Evans denounces Anthony Lejeune's article on Rhodesia and seeks to prove that sanctions cannot be beneficial to the recipient country. He is, however, mistaken in...

Sir: No self-respecting reviewer these days, it seems, would dream of being entirelY factual! Your own reviewer, Denis Donoghue (21 August), living up to this expectancy, errs...

Sir: Richard West predicts a gloomy future for Scotland whatever happens. According to him we have the option of continuing as an unhappy and ill-governed province of an even...

William Trevor Mervyn Peake John Watney (Michael Joseph 6.90) Little is known about creative talent, and since it cannot be classified as a disease this status quo is likely...

Peter Ackroyd Thought, Words and Creativity F. R. Leavis (Chatto and Windus £4.00) In this latest book, Dr Leavis forgoes his recent polemical essays and reverts to the works...

Robert Skidelsky L indbergh: A Biography Leonard Mosl ey (Hodder and Stoughton £6.50) BY making the first non-stop flight from N ew York to Paris in 1927, Charles L indbergh...

LIGHT VERSE by A A Milne, J B Morton ( Beachcomber). D 8 Wyndham Lewis ('Timothy Shy') and A P. Herbert (not the patriotic wartime poems). Also Poetical Works of Thomas...

Nick Totton The Second Mrs Whitberg Chaim Bermant (George Allen and Unwin £3 95) Eaters of the Dead Michael Crichton (Jonathan Cape £3.25) The Dying of the Light Brian...

borrowed . . • Benny Green The Space Machine Christopher Priest (Faber £3.50) Swing, Swing Together Peter LoveseY (Macmillan £2.95) Dr Johnson, a man I am not in the habit of...

Donald Watt Trafalgar John Terraine (Sidgwick and Jackson £5.95) John Terraine is more familiar to readers as a military historian, defender of FieldMarshal Earl Haig and others...

Duncan Fallowell The Memsahibs: The Women of Victorian India Pat Barr (Secker and Warburg £4.90) There are bizarre angles here, gleaned from the genteel bush. The regular...

Hugh Lloyd-Jones Rome's Debt to Greece Alan Wardman (Paul Elek £5.50) Here is a small book purporting to be about a large subject. In religion, in technology of every kind, in...

Ian Cameron After two weeks of seasonable inactivity, we are offered three major films opening on a single August night. This doubtless represents commercial sophistication of...

War-worn Kenneth Hurren Troilus and Cressida (Stratford-uponAvon) After the number of occasions on which I have been less than charitable about the cavalier treatment handed...

John McEwen In the art world as elsewhere August is the doldrums of the year. The West End gallery owners go on holiday, leaving morose shorthand typists to guard their summer...

Night work Richard Ingrams After two weeks of dilatoriness, I decided t° make a real effort and tune in to a Pr ° ,., gramme of the type I wouldn't nornah/ dream of watching....