Famous Gatt war photograph A fire which broke out in the Queen's private chapel destroyed large parts of Windsor Castle, including St George's Hall and the Waterloo Chamber. The...

Why it may help the Government to look across St George's Channel SIMON HEFFER h e best speech the Prime Minister made in the election campaign earlier this year — indeed,...

WILLIAM REES-MOGG I t has been a terrible year for the royal family, with three failed marriages going through different stages, and now the fire at Windsor. The fire must be...

An exposition of the benefits of culturally insensitive Catholicism AUBERON WAUGH bl ether one liked her or not, Andrea Dworkin cut a strangely moving figure when she defended...

Anne McElvoy on the contradictions of the Russian President, and the uncertain world they create London/Moscow THE DEAN of St Paul's, Boris Yeltsin and several overgrown...

Janine di Giovanni reports on the attempt by the British Army to save lives in the war zone Tomislavgrad IT IS COMFORTING to know that the British troops are settling into the...

John Simpson argues that the British Government is now ',flying the price for breaking its own sanctions A STICK of Iraqi bombs fell close by, and a few more spouts of...

Derek Davies explains why the old Foreign Office China hands are so scathing about the present Governor of Hong Kong SIR JOHN ADDIS, British ambassador to Peking, sinologist and...

persist.. . LAST WEEK, I did a clinic in a prison I'd never visited before. It was in one of those beautiful English county towns whose centuries of accumulated grace and...

Isabel Wolff talks to men who have been beaten, battered and bruised by their wives `ONE NIGHT I was sitting up in bed when my wife suddenly wiLeeled round and pulled her...

The Queen calls for gentle criticism as an engine for change. Anthony Holden supplies some ONE AUTUMN weekend each year, by long-standing royal tradition, Sandringham House in...

THE PANAMA SCANDAL is develop- ing into a dangerous political affair, more serious that M. Wilson's sale of decorations. On Monday, M. Delahaye, who votes with the Right, rose...

Parliamentarian of the year the winners T he ninth annual Highland Park/Spec- tator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards took place on Wednesday. The awards were presented by Mr...

Brrrm, brrrm, goes the ERM, and suddenly the air is full of flying metal CHRISTOPHER FILDES M y memory goes back to the BRM, which must have stood for British Racing Motor-car...

Sir: On 12 October 1991 I wrote a letter to The Spectator taking issue with Stephen Robinson's critique of President Bush's for- eign policy and accusing him of paying too much...

Sir: It was with great interest that I read your article 'Not always blessed are the peacemakers' (31 October). Along with Rigoberta Menchu's well- deserved award, this article...

Sir: Simon Courtauld has good reason for his dissatisfaction with Bupa, but the case he goes on to make in 'A pain in the wallet' (14 November) has disturbing implications....

Sir: Poor Charles Moore (Another voice, 21 November) may not necessarily find a Catholic priest who will help him out on the matter of priestesses and Church authority: a recent...

Sir: If the mediaeval legend of Pope Joan may be credited, then the use of the expres- sion 'well-hung' to denote a gentleman's sporting equipment (Mind your English, 14...

A further selection of the best and most overrated books of the year, chosen by some of The Spectator's regular contributors William Boyd Adam Thorpe is a fine poet and his...

Hilary Mantel HIGH SOCIETY by Pamela Horn Allan Sutton, f16.99, pp. 215 I n her earlier books, Pamela Horn has kept company with rural schoolmistresses and wheelwright's...

Fiction: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, Mandarin, £4.99 Blue River by Ethan Canin, Picador, £5.99 Birchwood by John Banville, Minerva, £4.99 Lust by Elfriede Jelinek,...

Peter Hebblethwaite THE MONEY CHANGERS by Charles Raw Narvik £20, pp. 518 R oberto Calvi, the man who made the Banco Ambrosiano an international bank, was founding swinging...

Nicholas Ridley THE SPECTATOR ANNUAL edited by Dominic Lawson HarperCollins, 177.50, pp. 262 M ost people are hooked on periodi- cals. They feel deprived, even out of touch, if...

John Grigg MORE BY ACCIDENT by Denis Greenhill Wilton 65, available from Daunt Books, Hatchards, Heywood Hill and John Sandoe, 116.95, pp. 197 T he memoirs of Whitehall...

Gilbert Adair SCREENING HISTORY by Gore Vidal Deutsch, f12.99, pp. 97 T he very first, mock-solemn sentence of Screening History unfurls in front of the reader's eyes like a...

Graeme Wright HALF-TIME WHISTLE by Frank Keating Robson Books, £16.95, pp. 227 J uxtaposition is all important when you're looking for an angle. Or a man, come to that. Just...

John Whitworth THE GAZE OF THE GORGON by Tony Harrison Bloodaxe, L5.95, pp. 80 S omeone once said of my first book that it contained poems as good as Tony Harri- son's. I...

Marina Warner PAULA REGO by John McEwen Phaidon, L29.95, pp. 214 A the very beginning of this exemplary and fascinating account of the artist and her work, Paula Rego tells a...

Alan Coren F or a small word, gag is a busy little bastard. Nor is its bastardy straight- forward: while many a word has been spawned from dodgy couplings, most such offer at...

Mary Keen MAGNIFICENT MENAGERIE by Lucinda Lambton HarperCollins, f20, pp. 344 reat Britain's is a history of a coun- try bristling with unashamed ardour for animals', writes...

Charles Saumarez Smith TOWN AND COUNTRY by Mark Girouard Yale, US, pp. 274 F or anyone who was involved in archi- tectural history in the 1960s and 1970s, Mark Girouard is...

James Walton THE GOD-FEARER by Dan Jacobson Bloomsbury, f13.99, pp. 159 THE HEATHER BLAZING by Colm Toibin Picador, f14.99, pp. 245 LEPORELLO by William Palmer Secker, f15.99,...

Exhibitions The Turner Prize 1992: Exhibition of Short-listed Artists (Tate Gallery, till 29 November) Prize idiocy Giles Auty on the inevitable consequences of a tyranny of...

Single White Female (`18', selected cinemas) Sister Act (`PG', selected cinemas) Nutty excuse Vanessa Letts I n what could politely be described as rigorous homage to Roman...

Princess Ida (London Coliseum) Die Frau ohne Schatten (Covent Garden) Warm and wonderful Rupert Christiansen I can hardly bear to think about Ken Russell's production of...

Brave new sound-world Robin Holloway O ratorio', as shorthand for large- scale serious statement for massed voices and instruments, has figured three times in Alexander...

All was not gold John Martin Robinson on the real value of what was lost in the fire at Windsor T he press coverage of the fire at Wind- sor has been fascinating, for it has...

T S A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics OPERA Billy Budd, Grand Theatre, Leeds (0532 459351), from 11 December. Strong...

Travels With My Aunt (Wyndham's) Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (King's Head) Poem, panto and cabaret Sheridan Morley T ime once again for the telling of old...

Talking peacock Martyn Harris M oral issues, as Gore Vidal says, are so much more interesting than real issues, which is why the Matrix Churchill affair will run well into the...

Fire and brimstone Taki M New York ean-spirited wags over this side of the ocean are calling it John Bryan's and Fergie's revenge, but in my not so humble opinion it has more...

Heartbreak hotel Jeffrey Bernard I was right to be apprehensive about staying in the refurbished Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. It was dreadful. Any lingering echoes of the past...

Class of '32 Nigel Nicolson O ld boys — I mean old men who were once young boys — no longer feel the same devotion to their schools that their grand- fathers did. Attempts to...

POLITICIANS ARE out to stop you and me from buying the meat we want, from well-hung beef to lambs' brains, fresh tripe, giblets and blood for boudin and morcilla. They already...

Rope trick Raymond Keene A match which would have attracted great attention, had it not been for the Fischer-Spassky circus in Belgrade, was the clash between two of the...

Ladies' Week Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1755 you were in- vited to supply an extract from a letter written by a lady to a female friend after she has visited the home of...

A . first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 V intage Port for the first correct solution opened on 14 December, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK...

Lion or leprechaun? Frank Keating AFTER Australia's victory in the rugby union World Cup final at Twickenham in 1991, David Campese announced his retire- ment from the game....

Dear Mary.. . Q. In recent weeks I have been inundated by a veritable flood of invitations to 'Christ- mas Sales' where wives of Lloyd's names and similar club together to hold...