Re-arranging the deekchairs M rs Thatcher's Cabinet reshuffle con- tained many surprises, none bigger than Sir Geoffrey Howe's replacement at the Fore- ign Office by Mr John...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES h e Prime Minister, we are told, is 'appalled' at the recent wave of reported enormous pay increases for company bos-...

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Not so much the Titanic, more a Morning Cloud NOEL MALCOLM L istening to Labour politicians being interviewed on the news programmes in the immediate aftermath of the Cabinet...

CHARLES MOORE W e do not know what, if anything, Mr John Major, the new Foreign Secretary, thinks about Hong Kong. But at least he was not the author of any agreement over the...

Hattersley in the process of dying for other people's rights AUBERON WAUGH I do not think British politics has ever provided a more enjoyable spectacle than that of Roy...

When the vanguard of the workers downs tools in the r workers' state', it is time for the rulers to panic. Stephen Handelman reports on the Soviet miners' strike Moscow LAST...

Richard Nations saw what really happened in Tiananmen Square Peking BLOOD sanctifies whether it is spilled ever the altar or runs through the streets. `So what does it...

Argentina lives on illusions and funny money. Ambrose-Evans Pritchard reports Buenos Aires ARGENTINES have some quaint preten- sions. Flatterers keep telling them that Buenos...

SINCE the Royal wedding is only solemnised to-day, it is impossible for us to do more than chronicle the prepa- rations. The ceremony takes place in the chapel of Buckingham...

Michael Trend wonders why Amnesty International links hanging with human rights SINGLE-ISSUE pressure groups can play a significant part in public affairs through exercising a...

Candida Crewe meets the energetic defender of hormone replacement 'THERE'S a clinic now where a man can go and have a plastic rod stuck in his winkle to keep it up,' the MP...

COLD WAR TO COLD STORE Ross Clark wins this year's Spectator Young Writer award with a report from Kentucky The Winners Judges' report: There were more than 200 entries for...

how US judges provoke British censorship WHILE I was in Hong Kong last week, I read in the Asian Wall Street Journal that Sir James Goldsmith, the prime mover in the world's...

Mr Lawson sighs with relief as the dollar heads south K BRUCE-GARDYNE JOC M r Alan Greenspan, Uncle Sam's Central Banker, has been described as a 'Keynesian monetarist'. This...

I HOPE, even more than usual, that the Royal Family is keeping well — because the family undertakers, J. H. Kenyon, have been taken over, and, more shocking still, have fallen...

THE patent medicine men are out with a cure for expensive mortgages. Why, they say, suffer the pain of borrowing pounds? We can arrange you a mortgage in a nice sensible...

National Westminster Bank is purged in a refiner's fire CHRISTOPHER FILDES I knew it was a mistake for the National Westminster Bank to set its new television commercial to...

THE Treasury looks at the reshuffle and can congratulate itself on a good war. It is not just that the Chancellor himself has put on another fine show of indispensability. His...

Sir: Your otherwise perceptive article `Nuclear waste of money' (15 July) sadly saw fit to make a side-swipe at the coal industry by mentioning claims by priva- tised...

that the costs being charged by British Nuclear Fuels for reprocessing 'have multi- plied, with enormous overruns both of timing and capital requirements'. The facts do not...

Sir: Paul Johnson (8 July) points out that Freddie Ayer was good company — he was — but is otherwise dismissive: 'superficial brilliance'. Ayer's lucidity and occasional...

Ayer, I would have thought that the last thing A. J. Ayer would have subscribed to was 'the greatest good for the greatest number'. A logical positivist would have found that...

Sir: As an American Continuing Church- man, I feel compelled to write to you regarding Charles Moore's article, Worth holding the fort' (10 June). While I generally agree that...

Sir: In his somewhat acrimonious obituary of Herbert von Karajan (Arts, 22 July) Rodney Milnes cites an editing error in the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mozart's The Magic...

Sir: I was fascinated to read Allan Massie's review of John Prebble's book The King's Jaunt (Books, 15 July). I was particularly interested in his revelation that: 'Charles I...

Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne (Diary, 22 July) will not find the word `naff in the United States, though plenty of occasions for its use. Its origin is Romany-based slang favoured...

Sir: It is to be regretted that in his review of William Charlton's Philosophy and Christ- ian Belief Renford Bambrough perpetuates the myth that today's theologians have...

Sir: With reference to your correspond- ence about the French language (15 July), my father, Claude Elliott, when Head- master of Eton, said most forcibly to me that 'if you...

Sir: I have now tried the recipe for roast dachshund recommended by your corres- pondent A. Artley ('Everything but the bark', 24 June). It is not true that there is little...

Sir: In defence of the Government's refusal to grant the right of abode in Britain to Hong Kong British Dependent Territory citizens, the Foreign Secretary said in the House of...

The invisible seam Bevis Hillier THE SELECTED LETTERS OF SOMERVILLE AND ROSS edited by Gifford Lewis Faber, 114.99, pp. 308 I f you wanted to be mean about this book, you...

THE SPECTATOR BOOK OF WORLD WAR II FIFTY YEARS after the outbreak of the Second World War comes a collection of the best contemporary writing from the pages of The Spectator—...

Lucy Hughes-Hallett FOR SYLVIA by Valentine Ackland Chatto (Cc Windus, £6.95, pp.135 SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER: A BIOGRAPHY by Claire Harman Chatto &Windus, £16.95, pp.358 I n...

Francis King A PARTICULAR PLACE by Mary Hocking Chatio & Windus, f12.95, pp- 216 h e chief characters of Mary Hocking's novel are a vicar, Michael Hoath, newly arrived in a...

Raymond Carr BLANCO WHITE: SELF-BANISHED SPANIARD by Martin Murphy Yale, £19.95, pp.270 ho on earth, you may ask, was Blanco White? And why should you read this splendidly...

Frances Partridge ANNA FREUD: A BIOGRAPHY by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl Macmillan, £18.95, pp.527 FREUD by Anthony Storr OUP, £3.95, pp.135 ......„ h e two female photographs...

Alan Watkins NOT ALWAYS WITH THE PACK by Dennis Walters Constable, £12.95, pp.208 o r the past decade the recently knight- ed Sir Dennis Walters has been an anachronism, and...

Opera Arabella (Glyndcbournc) Delicious summer pudding Rodney Wiles W hat seemed like the bad news in advance of this revival of Strauss's opera turned out to be a large...

The critic as celebrity Christopher Edwards H alf a century ago Alexander Woo11- cott was a famous name in America: broadcaster, Algonquin wit, pundit, egot- ist, bon viveur...

Not cricket Hilary Mantel I n 1919, the 'All-American pursuit' of baseball is a family affair; in the stands are cheering ladies with large hats, and freckle- faced little...

Jolly good show Ursula Buchan The two-day flower show which took place in the New Horticultural Hall in Greycoat Street, Westminster in mid-June was organised by the selfsame...

Lucy Harwood (Sally Hunter Fine Art, till 11 August) Summer Exhibition (Michael Parkin Gallery, till 8 September) Summer Exhibition (Cadogan Contemporary, till 2 September)...

Without peers Peter Levi W e did get to see the second half of Melvyn Bragg's Olivier film on Channel 4 a week after the first: it was even better than I remembered it,...

A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics. MUSIC The Proms will host five foreign symphony orchestras during August: the...

Out, legs before wicket Jeffrey Bernard I t would be good if as many of you readers as possible could come along to the Oval on Saturday, 29 July, to watch the cricket match...

Thieves to the last Taki ast weekend I boarded my father's beautiful blue cruiser and sailed, flag at half-mast, down towards the island of Spetsai and its environs....

THE Graves area, the original cradle of quality wine production in Bordeaux situ- ated on the gravel-banks immediately south and west of the city, has a straggling, moth-eaten...

Tenderly towed away Alice Thomas Ellis A friend having negligently parked his car in a stretch of the Brompton Road returned to find it gone: taken away to the police pound....

Stephen Bull FOOD which is neither the best nor the Worst is the hardest to write about. Not that the cooking at Stephen Bull is mediocre. Mr Bull is far too committed and...

The Spectator is offering its readers the definitive Pocket Diary. Bound in soft green leather, it offers all the facts, figures and numbers that are essential to any Spectator...

Tradition Raymond Keene S hatranj, the ancient Arabic chess, flourished in the Baghdad Caliphate from the 8th to 10th centuries AD. Indeed, it is said that the Golden Age of...

Macaronies Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1584 you were in- vited to offer up to 12 lines of macaronie verse. This style of verse-making was apparent- ly popularised by...

Winners: E. C. Hunt, Norwich (£20); Mrs C. M. Paddick, Watford; Olga Lloyd, Burton on Trent. l D ' A N ' D A ' S 0 L 'U -- `Et El'A i rN EINE! JLCII E STE int N E ORTAFIIIIEEL...

Boswell gives us Johnson's very conven- tional account of his tete-a-tete with George III. You are invited to supply, in his or her style, a less conventional account by a...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...