28 OCTOBER 1995

Page 6

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

Alice in Lottery Land — the Caucus Race M r John Major, the Prime Minister, invited President Carlos Menem of Argentina to visit Britain. They had held talks in New York about...

Page 8

POLITICS

The Spectator

Is the State encouraging Britain to become a nation of curtain-twitchers and whisperers? BORIS JOHNSON I f I were an immigrant, there is one main reason why I might feel...

Page 9

DIARY

The Spectator

DOMINIC LAWSON I never thought that Jeffrey Bernard would outlive me at The Spectator. When I became editor five and a half years ago, I believed that my most pressing problem...

Page 10

ANOTHER VOICE

The Spectator

Towards a commonsense view on children and divorce AUBERON WAUGH W ould it, I wonder, help reduce the incidence of divorce in Britain, which now has the highest rate in...

Page 11

FORGIVE US OUR DIETARY TRESPASSES

The Spectator

Only one in ten people in Britain regularly attend a church or any other religious meeting. Jenny McCartney thinks the cult of self-worship is taking over from formal...

Page 12

Mind your language I STRUCK the ironing-board and cried, `No

The Spectator

more!' A little letter in the Independent on Sunday had just caught my eye as I was doing the left sleeve of one of my hus- band's shirts. 'When are we going to stop calling...

Page 14

RITES OF PROPERTY

The Spectator

Norman Stone wonders why the Germans blame the Russians for their own failure to return property confiscated after the war GERMANS ARE calling it 'the swindle of the century':...

Page 15

Fifty years ago

The Spectator

MISS WILKINSON, the Minister for Education, with the Government's over- whelming majority at her back, on Octo- ber 18th rejected the Prayer, based on every consideration of...

Page 17

TRAINS AND BOATS AND PLANES . . .

The Spectator

The winner in the cross-Channel stakes is the streetwise travelling customer; writes Martin Vander Weyer `IT'S A lovely clear day down here at Dover,' said a cheerful spokesman...

Page 20

HENRY KING

The Spectator

Michael Heath

Page 21

FIGHTING FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE

The Spectator

Simon Courtauld meets a corporate lawyer from Chicago who plans to save field sports in Britain IT WAS AN odd place to be going to dis- cuss the future of the countryside — a...

Will of the week Mrs Frances Mary MURPHY, of 323

The Spectator

Hanworth Road, Hampton, Middlesex, the arachnologist, the first woman presi- dent of the British Entomological and Natural History Society, and founder member of both the...

Page 23

THE CONTROL CONUNDRUM

The Spectator

Mrs Thatcher's legacy has meant more Whitehall interference, more legislation and more regulation, not less, writes Simon Jenkins THE Learmont Report on the Prison Ser- vice is...

Page 24

If symptoms

The Spectator

persist. IN THE eternal struggle between doctor and patient, I told a medical student last week, the patient always has the upper hand. This is because, while the doctor is...

Page 26

MEMORIES OF A GREAT NOVELIST

The Spectator

Kingsley Amis died last Sunday at the age of 73. Some friends remember him ANTHONY POWELL MY FIRST meeting with Kingsley Amis was, I think, in 1954. It was the result of my...

Page 29

AND ANOTHER THING

The Spectator

Good manners, creative genius and deleted expletives PAUL JOHNSON O ur culture boss, Virginia Bottomley, warns broadcasters that there are too many four-letter words on the...

Page 30

CITY AND SUBURBAN

The Spectator

A test case for Lloyd's of London, which still can't see what the matter is CHRISTOPHER FILDES I was heading for America when Lloyd's of London disclosed that it was parting...

Page 34

LETTERS Hot War hysteria

The Spectator

Sir: I was astonished to read Anne Apple- baum's article 'Full of eastern menace' (23 September), which was full of absurdity and confusing logic. The writer censured that...

A forest of misconceptions

The Spectator

Sir: Christopher Fildes rightly objects to huge reports from the World Bank, but no rain-forests are destroyed to produce them. Paper is generally made from soft- woods grown in...

Friends in high places Sir: I was interested to read

The Spectator

the reprinted lain Macleod article CA question of loyal- ty', 14 October), since my late husband, Geraint Morgan, was then the Conservative MP for Denbigh. The selection of...

Wishful thinking

The Spectator

Sir: Once I would have agreed with most of what Charles Moore writes about Conser- vatism ('How to be British', 21 October). No longer, for it seems to me that to dis- miss the...

Selective formulation

The Spectator

Sir: Robin Holloway's wounded response (Arts, 21 October) to my Times article about modern composers attributes the fol- lowing quote to me: 'If a few composers miss a few...

Page 35

Keeping up standards

The Spectator

Sir: Taki tells us of motor racing's age of innocence (High life, 7 October) when drivers wore polo helmets and Mike Hawthorn raced wearing a bow tie. For the 1939 Le Mans...

Sir: Devasting' though Ian Macleod's cri- tique of October 1963

The Spectator

may have been, to me the most devastating detail was your cover price in January 1964: is or 5p. Your present price is £1.90. You realise that this represents an inflation rate...

Outclassed

The Spectator

Sir: In his article (Another voice, 14 Octo- ber) Auberon Waugh commented on the `frisson of hatred' caused by the loud upper-class voice heard 'in every train'. Just imagine...

Easily confoosed

The Spectator

Sir: I hesitate to differ with the Kipling footnote cited by your elegant and erudite columnist Dot Wordsworth (Mind your language, 14 October), but as one whose distant...

All change

The Spectator

Sir: Congratulations on your appointment. I hearby resign from my column. The two events are connected, but you know better than anyone that this resignation is not a mark of...

Ill-breeding

The Spectator

Sir: I noticed that in the BBC reports on the contraceptive pill the users were referred to as 'patients'. Since when has child-bearing become a disease? James Brockway...

Page 36

BOOKS

The Spectator

Ever so slightly interesting Peter Levi THE PILLARS OF HERCULES by Paul Theroux Hamish Hamilton, 117.50, pp. 522 P aul Theroux is that American who had the startling idea of...

Page 37

Taking French leave

The Spectator

John Jolliffe OLD SCORES by Frederic Raphael Orion, £15.99, pp. 264 T he story opens round two sisters. The narrator, Rachel, is the 'inferior' one, i.e. unglamorous and with...

Blue remembered hills

The Spectator

Andrew Barrow WAINWRIGHT by Hunter Davies Michael Joseph, £16.99, pp. 356 T he famous fellwalker and semi- reluctant, late-flowering TV personality who is the subject of this...

Page 38

Larger than death

The Spectator

Hilary Corke THE DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF OBITUARIES edited by Hugh Massingberd Macmillan, £14.99, pp. 338 A one who failed to make the 1500- cut in the Oxford Companion to...

Will she, won't she, with the doctor?

The Spectator

Teresa Waugh PROMISES PAST by Charlotte Moore Arrow, £5.99, pp. 266 I n the mood of the times, Charlotte Moore's first novel, Promises Past, is one of family values, back to...

Page 40

The limits of power

The Spectator

Malise Ruthven THE MIDDLE EAST: 2000 YEARS OF HISTORY FROM THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE PRESENT DAY by Bernard Lewis Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 433 T wards the end of the 18th...

Rubens comes first

The Spectator

David Ekserdjian THE NATIONAL GALLERY COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE by Christopher Baker and Tom Henry National Gallery Publications, £35, pp. 790 W hen Neil Macgregor was...

Page 41

Where angels fear to tread

The Spectator

Philip Hoare TERENCE RATTIGAN by Geoffrey Wansell Fourth Estate, £20, pp. 434 A figure as reticent and retentive as Terence Rattigan is necessarily elusive biographical...

Page 42

The tumult and the shouting died

The Spectator

Andro Linklater TELL TALE HEARTS: THE ORIGINS AND IMPACT OF THE VIETNAM ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT by Adam Garfinkle Macmillan, £16, pp. 370 T he nature of the Vietnam ghost that...

Page 43

All quiet

The Spectator

on the surface Charles Duff ALWAYS AND ALWAYS: THE WARTIME LETTERS OF HUGH AND MARGARET WILLIAMS edited by Kate Dunn John Murray, £19.99, pp. 276 L iterary war-profiteering...

Page 44

Building on trust

The Spectator

Michael Prowse TRUST: THE SOCIAL VIRTUES AND THE CREATION OF PROSPERITY by Francis Fukuyama Hamish Hamilton, f25, pp. 457 F rancis Fukuyama is best known for claiming that the...

Page 45

The way we are ruled now

The Spectator

Anthony Howard THE HIDDEN WIRING: UNEARTHING THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION by Peter Hennessy Gollancz, £17.99, pp. 261 TOO CLOSE TO CALL: POWER AND POLITICS: JOHN MAJOR IN NO 10 by...

Page 46

Sigmund Freud in Hampstead

The Spectator

Godlike grown to self-forgiveness as the trauma sings where every secret trips itself and spills, The tiniest vacuum forms a blister at the heart of things. Vienna has chosen...

His words were his Bond

The Spectator

Alan Judd IAN FLEMING by Andrew Lycett Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 486 M ost writers don't make much difference to the world but Ian Fleming set the tone for a period and contributed...

Page 48

ARTS

The Spectator

Pop music The sound of grating music Marcus Berkmann hears Cher's vocal tic resounding in his ears at all times of the day and night T he release of a new single by Cher is...

Page 49

Exhibitions

The Spectator

Multiple choice A tour round the current shows in Europe O ne of the great exhibitions of our time, the restrospective devoted to paint- ings and works on paper by Cezanne, is...

Opera

The Spectator

The Fairy Queen (London Coliseum) Owen Wingrave (Glyndebourne Touring Opera) I believe in honesty Rupert Christiansen P eople seem to assume that I have some deep-seated...

Page 51

Cinema

The Spectator

To Die For (15, selected cinemas) Murderous at the top Mark Steyn T he cameras turn, the flashlights pop, and Suzanne Stone is in heaven. Not liter- ally, of course: she's...

Theatre

The Spectator

Son of Man (The Pit, Barbican) The Way of the World (Lyttelton, National Theatre) Venice Preserved (Almeida) Love has no laws Sheridan Morley D oath, as Gore Vidal once...

Page 53

Television

The Spectator

Time to get together Nigella Lawson A ngus Deayton — or rather, Till Love Us Do Part (Sunday BBC1, 10.10pm) the second instalment of In Search of Happiness — has rather...

Motoring

The Spectator

Thunderbirds are go Alan Judd I couldn't have attended the press day at London's motor show with all the other motoring correspondents even if I had been invited because I was...

Page 54

High life

The Spectator

Made in heaven Taki L ast week, on a brilliant autumn day, a pretty English girl married her earl, and lived happily ever after. At least I hope so. Cazzy Neville, the second...

Page 55

Low life

The Spectator

Not floating into oblivion Jeffrey Bernard I have had to weigh in again, this time at University College Hospital. I tipped the scales at a horrific 48 kilos which means that...

Page 56

Half life

The Spectator

Screening friends Carole Morin I used to hate the cinema in Baker Street. In the confined space you feel as if you're it Mass with a few staring atheists who have nothing...

Page 57

Long life

The Spectator

A real conundrum Nigel Nicolson T he extraordinary story of Dawn Lang- ley Simmons has received scant publicity in this country because her recent autobiogra - phy, called...

MADEIRA

The Spectator

BRIDGE Spot the error Andrew Robson I RECEIVED A COMPLAINT at the rub- ber table last night that all my columns fea- ture brilliance — that blunders are brushed under the...

Page 58

Imperative cooking: flying with the lower classes

The Spectator

IMPERATIVE COOKS do not eat airline food. On short flights, they eat nothing. On long ones, they take their own food. A nine-hour flight surely deserves some raw oysters or...

Page 60

CHESS

The Spectator

Past masters Raymond Keene WITH THE WORLD championship over, and Kasparov firmly re-established as champion, I intend, over the next few weeks, to take a look at some of...

ISLE OF

The Spectator

i ,,LE VALI SCOTCH %MP) i ISLE OF j uRA ,,.... ,,% L? VF LT SCOICN 1MISK1 COMPETITION Cautionary tale Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1904 you were invited to submit, in...

Page 61

CROSSWORD 1233: Ward off by Doc

The Spectator

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 13 November, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

Page 63

SPECTATOR SPORT

The Spectator

Team spirit Simon Barnes THE demon fast bowler who destroys the cream of a nation's batting has a role: hero for one country, pantomime villain for the other. So it is with...

YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED

The Spectator

. . Dear Mary. Q. On my 40th birthday a number of misguided but well-intentioned friends arranged a surprise birthday party for me. Such was my confusion that I managed to get...