`Thank God! That's the last of the bank holidays' T he official inquiry into the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station blamed a catalogue of basic human errors,...

GREENISH VIEWS 0 n Wednesday the Labour Party pub- lished a new environmental document, designed to show that it is the greenest, in the favourable modern sense, of the main...

BISHOP Desmond Tutu's decision to in- vite a 'galaxy of international stars', and prominent foreign opponents of the South African government to his enthronement as Archbishop...

Stockton, the Times and the Anglo-Soviet alliance T.E.UTLEY T he row between the Tory Party and Mr Phibbs has, it seems to me, several very odd aspects. To begin with, I am...

C hannel 4 showed a remarkable documentary two weeks ago about a musi- cian called Clive who had completely lost his memory. Amnesia is usually portrayed in fiction as a matter...

On returning from abroad: determined to look on the bright side AUBER ON WAUGH S outhern France was baking hot while Britain has been experiencing what the Metereological...

The spadework has been taken out of the teaching of English. Valerie Grove finds that at the end of schooling many pupils cannot even write properly I TELEPHONED a London...

Peter Fabricius on the South African government's efforts to improve national morale Cape Town THE South African Bureau for Informa- tion is not noted for the levity of its...

had never been to Nea Moni before, which has filled in a gap for me of the whole Byzantine jigsaw thing'? In spite of the Bishop's professed love of 'the whole language game and...

Richard West, attending last Monday's car race, describes his worst assignment ever Birmingham ASSIGNMENTS for the Spectator have taken me to such places as Belfast, Beirut...

. . Most of these facts are taken down from the lips of a very fine old sailor, who has been 48 times across the Atlantic in sailing vessels, and in many other parts of the...

BLACK MARKS AT SCHOOL Roy Kerridge investigates the myth of underachievement by black schoolchildren THE New Testament Church of God held its centenary convention this summer...

that there is less commercial freedom of speech than meets the television eye FREEDOM of speech is one of those issues on which people are most inclined to kid themselves. They...

HUMOURLESS would be the cat which could not laugh at the spectacle of Philip Hill Investment Trust being rescued by Robert Maxwell. There has been no such feat of...

FINANCIAL reconstructions, of course, can be difficult. Philip Hill was the West End financier who backed Beecham (it is still the trust's biggest investment, and became its...

THE latest brew from Guinness is a drop of neat eyewash. This takes the form of a letter from Lord Iveagh, the chairman, explaining why Guinness has not done what it undertook...

Strong words and strong thoughts for the bank which led the world CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he biggest bank in the world was built by the fifth-ranking cashier in the head office...

Sir: In his article 'Running a red rag' (The press, 16 August), Paul Johnson likes our intention at News on Sunday to give readers a 'genuine right of reply'. I hope you do at...

Sir: How unkind of the Lamboume vicar (Low life, 9 August) to say Jeffery Bernard was beyond redemption: heaven's charms would be reduced without him when he eventually passes...

Sir: Dhiren Bhagat's piece 'Race to the top' (23 August) is a travesty of the truth from the title on. I write as an ex-employee of the Institute of Race Relations, now a member...

Sir: Alan Powers writes (Six seaside litho- graphs, 16 August) that Lord de la Warr paid for his eponymous pavilion at Bexhill- on-Sea. Like hell he did. The city fathers were...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - At 20% off the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for c (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months...

T o produce eight interesting children and 13 books, several of them excellent, might have been enough for most people, but the author of these memoirs shows that she has packed...

Anita Brookner LOVE UNKNOWN by A. N. Wilson Hamish Hamilton, f9.95 I t has become something of a clich8 to read in publishers' catalogues or the pages of the Bookseller the...

David Pryce-Jones SELECTED POEMS II by Charles Johnston Published for Charles Johnston by the Bodley Head, £4.50 S it Charles Johnston wrote poems that anyone can readily...

Victoria Glendinning TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: COLLECTED STORIES Secker & Warburg, £15 G ore Vidal's introduction to this col- lection is indulgent and paradoxical (Ten- nessee...

A pig under a tree in the Peloponnese Is a pig under a tree . . . But add to these Facts of zoology, botany, geography, A south wind, fulvous evening light, you, me, Fecundity...

Roy Fuller TENNYSON'S 'MAUD': A DEFINITIVE EDITION edited by Susan Shatto The Athlone Press, 125 T his may seem a curious book to be recommending to the general reader. The...

Brian Masters A TANGLED WEB: SEX SCANDALS IN BRITISH POLITICS AND SOCIETY by H. Montgomery Hyde Constable, f12.95 SCANDAL by Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman Weidenfeld,...

Piers Paul Read P ornography, by which I mean the use of words to conjure up images which excite sexual desire in the reader, is an ignoble adjunct to the perversions of...

Exhibitions Cool Cox's, mad Mach's Giles Auty Stephen Cox (Tate Gallery till 19 October) David Mach (Riverside Studios till 7 September) U sually we see serious paintings in...

Sugarbaby (`15', selected cinemas) German love Peter Ackroyd I n a recent film Percy Adlon chose Marcel Proust as his subject and, in the process, mimicked the techniques of...

Whispering torment Peter Phillips D ifferent kinds of audience make different kinds of noise. Since the BBC has so firmly focused our attention on the problem at the Proms,...

Romeo and Juliet (Lyric Studio, Hammersmith) Something a Little Special (La Bonne Crepe Cafe-Theatre) Tasty morsels Christopher Edwards A studio version of Romeo and Juliet...

All things to all men Ursula Buchan I ce-cold 7-Up, the singing of Janet Bak- er, the Radio 3 cricket commentary, Lincoln Cathedral, Roxy Music's Greatest Hits, the novels of...

Ageing beautifully Wendy Cope W hatever happens,' said a friend of mine 15 years ago, `at least we'll never be any older than Mick Jagger.' It was a comforting thought at the...

Story of a ship Taki W Athens henever I think of Aristotle So- crates Onassis — which mind you is not often these days — I always picture him on his boat, the Christina, named...

In and out of the cage Alice Thomas Ellis The house is haunted by the echo of your last goodbye. The place is cluttered up wi' roses that refuse to die Di dah dah di dah...

Plain- Jeffrey Bernard T here's not enough love in the world and that's a fact. There's a woman, a rather nasty piece of work to my eyes and way of thinking, who has a...

This is the last of a summer series of lithographs of the Kent and Sussex seaside by Alan Powers, entitled Views of the South Coast. The series, which has eight prints, 10" x 6...

The Caribbean Sunkissed NOW the carnival is over it doesn't have to mean goodbye to all things Caribbean till next year. Just down the road, Maida Valewards, from where all the...

IT would be interesting to know exactly when the term wine bar first appeared. It probably goes back to the late Sixties, the time when, if we are to believe the epony- mous...

Thackray (Common Lane, Sawston, Cambridge, CB2 4HW) has a closing date of 30 September 1986 (not 3 September as stated in error on the order form).

L ondon is chess crazy at the moment. When you read this, the world cham- pionship at the Park Lane Hotel will have just concluded its first leg and now trans- fers to...

Happy days Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1435 you were asked for a poem in celebration of the pleasures or advantages of age. `Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age,'...

The Times Fourth Leader, with its imitable (I hope) blend of pedantry and jocoseness, is with us again. An extract, please (max- imum 150 words) from a Fourth Leader written on...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary') will be awarded for...

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