UNEXPLODED BOMB SCARE... S ir Edward Heath and five other retired Cabinet ministers took the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's `United States of...

Is Ken Clarke trying to wreck the Government or does he just not care? BRUCE ANDERSON K nneth Clarke's motives are now the most important factor in British electoral politics....

DAVID HARE O f all the right wing's most obvious propaganda techniques, nothing is lamer than its use of the word 'trendy' to denote ideas of which it disapproves. Whenever some...

Privatisation, cuts in child benefit, Thatcherism what happens when the Left wins PETRONELLA WYATT I n Hungary, where I have been visiting relatives, there are beggars on the...

Caroline O'Driscoll has bad news for small investors. A little-noticed Euro-directive means that lawyers, not shareholders, will make money out of takeovers NO ONE wants it, no...

Martin Vander Weyer on the paradox of the brilliant British car firm that hasn't been brilliantly driven TWO of the tiredest headlines in the motoring press are 'Lotus...

SOCRATES said that no man did wrong knowingly. The past was another coun- try, however, as I hope the future will also be. All I can say is that, round here, things must have...

Andrew Gimson goes to a region which Germans have renounced, but which entices their tourists and their imaginations East Prussia IN THE first three and half weeks of...

I AM never happier than with some- thing easy like a steak and kidney pud- ding (can't go wrong) singing away on the stove and a volume of Skeat's Prin- ciples of English...

It's that Hitler almost won. Milton Shulman discourages chauvinism and militaristic nostalgia in our schools BECAUSE we revere the numerical neat- ness of the decimalisation...

It's the most commented upon aspect of his campaign so far. James Srodes explains it Washington LISA BERGER, a respected author on mental health topics, turned to a self-dep-...

Matthew Parris's explanation for why so many have been killed in former Yugoslavia has angered Melanie McDonagh AN UNMENTIONABLE thought is trou- bling me, one that I have...

Christian Caryl points out that the most unlikely countries looted Jewish gold and wealth during, and after, the second world war THE JOURNALIST who uncovered the scandal...

Simon Courtauld recalls a Spectator lunch for Vice-President Agnew. Barry Humphries left the table and returned as Dame Edna Everage THE editorial lunch at The Spectator has...

A.A. Gill studies a Pinteresque husband and wife in the Ivy, and Mr Pinter's new play on the printed page ON FIRST nights, the Ivy — that com- munal greenroom for the boulevard...

The real rights and wrongs of sacerdotal celibacy PAUL JOHNSON T he transgressions of Bishop Wright of Argyll have been exploited by the enemies of the Catholic Church —...

Clarke backs the nobs against the knockers - I diagnose Chancellor's Itch CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he governing party is now split between grandees and populists, or nobs and...

Sir: I read the article by Nicholas Farrell ('For American eyes only', 21 September) with interest and alarm. The act of the BBC in marketing any version of their pro- gramme on...

Sir: It's good to see the tired word 'incredi- bly' employed for a change with accuracy and finesse, making as it does the perfect headline modifier to the absurd article by...

Sir: In your issue of 14 September, Pere- grine Worsthorne (`The unasked questions about the Cold War') remarks that Bertrand Russell was the first to promul- gate the view that...

ly invite us (Letters, 21 September) to endorse Sir Peregrine Worsthorne's renun- ciation of the principle of nuclear deter- rence. We must disappoint them. Like others...

of West- ern values are feeling some form of guilt over their brilliant triumph in the battle against tyranny. Worsthorne is uncomfort- able with the West's having possessed a...

Sir: Mr Mark Steyn, in his review (14 September) of the American film of Emma (which I haven't seen) states that it is 'pep- pered with non-Austenisms like "good God!" '. In...

as he might have sus- pected, the ideas of others will have been bruised. There are such notable omissions in his chosen XI that I cannot remain silent. While agreeing, most...

Sir: 'Where is Rachel Campbell-Johnston?' Stephen Glover (Media studies, 21 Septem- ber) asked, mockingly. She is, if he really wants to know, writing well-crafted obituar- ies...

Sir: I'm obviously a lightweight, but it is with great alacrity and anticipation that I turn to Taki's column soon after the weekly arrival of The Spectator. The bile heaped on...

attack on my friend Max Hastings for criticising Sir James Goldsmith and his motives with the Referendum Party. Whether Goldsmith is being patriotic or using his wealth for...

Sir: Michael Henderson's XI is a strong one (Arts, 21 September). I would replicate eight of his selections (even a bad tourist like Wagner, the Tufnell of this side, though not...

Beware front-page hype — it won't be cheerfully tolerated in our daily broadsheets STEPHEN GLOVER T he appearance of our broadsheet newspapers has changed more over the last...

A primate wrongly damned John Grigg ROBERT RUNCIE: THE RELUCTANT ARCHBISHOP by Humphrey Carpenter Hodder & Stoughton, f20, pp. 300 o much has already been written about this...

it's pretty scary. Recently a man I'd never seen before Without so much as a by-your-leave walked through my front door, Ensconced himself in my favourite chair, Helped himself...

Not bloody likely! Alastair Forbes JACQUELINE BOUVIER: AN INTIMATE MEMOIR by John H. Davis John Wiley, £19.99, pp. 208 T he death of his subject took the author of this little...

Anita Brookner THE ARCHERS: THE TRUE STORY: THE HISTORY OF RADIO'S MOST FAMOUS PROGRAMME by William Smethurst Michael O'Mara Books, £16.99, pp. 256 W hen Simon Pemberton hit...

Juliet Townsend QUEST FOR KIM: IN SEARCH OF KIPLING'S GREAT GAME by Peter Hopldrk John Murray, f15.99, pp. 274 P eter Hopkirk opens his Quest for Kim with the story of a young...

Charles Powell DIPLOMACY AND DISILLUSION AT THE COURT OF MARGARET THATCHER by George Urban 1 B. Tauris, f19.95, pp. 206 G eorge Urban was a key figure in Margaret Thatcher's...

Nicholas Henderson THE LAST AMERICAN ARISTOCRAT by Nelson D. Lankford Little, Brown, £17.50, pp. 484 D avid Bruce occupied a greater num- ber of important diplomatic posts than...

James Lees-Milne A GENTLEMAN PUBLISHER'S COMMONPLACE BOOK edited by John G. Murray John Murray, f9.95, pp. 119 M r John Murray I's publishing firm was established in 1768. It...

John Fowles BRIGHT PARADISE: VICTORIAN SCIENTIFIC TRAVELLERS by Peter Raby Chatto, f20, pp. 276 W hen I was a suburban schoolboy in the 1930s I was an avid reader of Talbot...

Sebastian Faulks THE ATLAS OF LITERATURE edited by Malcolm Bradbury De Agostini Editions, f25, pp. 352 T his handsome book purports to explore the connection between writers and...

The following are from A Gentleman Publisher's Commonplace Book, reviewed by James Lees-Milne on page 50 All beginnings are delightful, the thresh- old is the place to pause....

Patrick Leigh Fermor An image like a god's I gazed on as I slept, ' Which a resplendent throne full richly did upraise, While foolish multitudes, from need or pleasure, crept...

Making friends in the North The arts establishment is famously London-centric. But is this changing? asks Rosie Millard A ccording to the gallery café staff it was the...

Total contrasts Robin Holloway I must turn aside from the riches of an exceptionally diverse Proms season to com- plete the promise of reviewing only its new symphonies and...

Edward Lucie-Smith visits the National Portrait Gallery's redesigned galleries T he National Portrait Gallery is a Vic- torian institution, and its vast collection of 19th- and...

Dead or alive? John Parry T he new season for classical music con- certs is getting under way — and already the air is filled with the sound and fury of those predicting...

Put it down to experience Marcus Berkmann T hese have been emotional weeks for thousands of men in their thirties and early forties, several of whom have beards. Many years...

Jane Eyre (PG, selected cinemas) Last Man Standing (15, selected cinemas) Plain Jane Mark Steyn T he guy ahead of me at the Quebec movie theatre wanted to know what the...

Ashes to Ashes (Ambassadors) World Musical of the Year (Aarhus, Denmark) Sarrasine (Lyric Hammersmith) Disturbing hour Sheridan Morley S omething vet . ) , curious seems to...

Pioneering days Michael Vestey T his Sunday, Radio Three begins a month-long celebration of its 50th anniver- sary. The BBC sound archives — not yet owned by Virgin — have...

Kiddies' night Simon Hoggart A new series of postage stamps cele,- brates children's television as it was in the days of Muffin the Mule (20p) and Sooty (26p). Sooty does...

Young men's games Taki Tennis was great fun back then. I trav- elled with Nico Kalogeropoulos, who won Junior Wimbledon as well as the French in 1963. In Greece we lost only...

Perseverance pays Robin Oakley R unning a racecourse these days goes a little further than seeing the grass is watered. During my five-minute chat with Major-General David...

Out to lunch Jeffrey Bernard L ast week The Spectator kindly gave me a lunch, which had been postponed since July, to celebrate the fact that I didn't die when I went to...

Roman holiday Leanda de Lisle The temple of Vesta is just across the valley from the ancient monastery of Sant' Antonio where we spent our holiday last week. Owned by the...

Beat the odds Andrew Robson WHILST A knowledge of percentages is important to declarer, it is easy to be blind- ed by that knowledge. Dealer South Neither side vulnerable...

arry, Le Peche Mignon and Hote kegina THE Guide Michelin France continues to damage restaurant cooking. The guide puts too much emphasis on decor and furnishings, and gives too...

IN•THE•STRAND SIMPSON'S IN-THE•STRAND CHESS Top again Raymond Keene HARDLY a tournament seems to go by nowadays without yet another first prize by either the Fide world...

URA t j 1 I W ll .1 I ...MI COMPETITION Homage to Bentley Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1951 you were invited to supply clerihews featuring famous people, living or dead. I...

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1990 Port for the First correct solution opened on 14 October, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

Goodbye, Number One Simon Barnes THE LAST point has been played at Num- ber One Court in Wimbledon, and with it a host of well-loved and ancient matters must be laid to rest —...

Dear Mary.. . Hasty note about your correspondent 'T.H.' (7 September) wanting to know how to keep the pages of books open. Clips are effective with smallish, flattish books,...