`I know I can! I know I can! . . A car bomb devastated the Israeli embassy in Kensington; another damaged a Jewish organisation's building in Finchley. No one was killed though...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 NEO-COLONIAL NONSENSE W hile food packages drop out of the air on to...

Loyalty is erupting all over the Tory backbenches in great geysers of hypocrisy BORIS JOHNSON N ow is the biter bit. Now Bill Cash knows the sensation he so often produced in...

JAMES C ompared with the millions of pounds a day lost by British Rail, the frustration caused to commuters and the damage done to small businesses, my own misfortunes as a...

Anne Applebaum argues that in modern America murder is never just a murder, at least when a celebrity is involved: it is an excuse for national self-examination New York HERE...

Christian Caryl explains how one imaginative swindler has shaken that holy of holies, the German banking system Berlin DEUTSCHE BANK has a weak spot for art. The twin towers...

I HAVE never wanted a job as a proof- reader for the telephone directory, and I have always been full of admiration for the people who do it. But the super- duper new...

persist.. . I WAS CALLED last week to a case of what — if one were cynical — one might call the pre-trial suicidal gesture syn- drome. This fell disorder usually consists of an...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft on the lessons for both Left and Right, following the latest debacle for British policy in Ulster TOO LONG a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart — and...

Oliver Walston looks back at his mother's relationship with Graham Greene In newly published biographies of Graham Greene, Catherine Walston, his god-daugh- ter, is depicted as...

Richard Ehrman argues that the biggest obstacle to economic recovery is the Government's mistimed and misjudged environmentalism WHEN the late Nicholas Ridley was Envi-...

There's a lot to be said, especially these days, for a big family PAUL JOHNSON L ast week, just round the corner from my house, I saw a family setting out for a day's...

CELEBRATED assiduously for most of this year, the Bank of England's 300th birthday has finally caught up with us. My present is Geoffrey Madan's account of Governor Montagu...

OLD SCHOOL ties at the Treasury, which now has three Etonian ministers (and a Harrovian) out of its total of five. Harold Macmillan was wrong: we need fewer Eto- nians and more...

JUST WHAT we need: Son of Hyman. Some found Joe Hyman temperamental he could hurl a mean inkwell — when ICI set him to re-organise the textile industry and lent him its cheque...

WE ALL HAVE our remedies for Lloyd's of London — dismantle it, say I — and a new and persuasive one reaches me from John Rew, the antibody in Lloyd's blood- stream. If Lloyd's...

A nice surprise for David Hunt the City has taken to thinking ahead CHRISTOPHER FILDES I hope that David Hunt is interested in the future of our leading export industry. He...

NOW MR HUGHES must catch his minis- ter on the right day, when Mr Hunt is not preoccupied with the wonders of science or staffwork. He might mention that, over at the London...

Sir: There are a few inaccuracies in Ross Clark's article about the Scottish Buddhists (`Scotch on the rocks, 23 July'), the gravest being the claim they are the only Buddhists...

Sir: I don't know why anybody should think it an achievement to `invent' or 'discover' Essex Man (Letters, 16& 23 July). I lived in Essex Man parts of Essex from 1929 to 1982...

late Canon James Owen, Vicar of Little St Mary's and Steward of the Cambridge Union. He told me that he had used it to describe Simon Heifer and his contempo- raries, members of...

Sir: The bombing of Dresden, (`Looking back to the horror of the past', 16 July) was indeed a tragedy. It was unfortunate that so much wonderful building was destroyed. But it...

Sir: Simon Jenkins' article about the National Trust and hunting (Centre point, 23 July) explains the dilemma faced by the Trust council under the chairmanship of Lord Chorley....

Sir: Paul Johnson's article on the need for a `saviour on horseback to rescue Britannia' (And another thing, 16 July) struck a chord as he addressed, without really providing a...

Peregrine Worsthorne EMINENT CHURCHILLIANS by Andrew Roberts Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 120, pp. 368 E minent Churchillians contains chap- ters tailor-made for serialisation in...

John Jolliffe GRAHAM GREENE THREE LIVES by Anthony Mockler Hunter Mackay, £14.95, pp. 237 his book, which follows Greene's life down to the end of the war in 1945 and divides...

Francis King BEFORE NIGHT FALLS by Reinaldo Arenas Viking, £16, pp. 317 E very English writer who whinges over diminishing royalties, meagre PLR pay- ments, the hostility of...

Celestria Noel IN A GLASS HOUSE by Nino Ricci Sinclair-Stevenson, £14.99, pp. 339 L ives of the Saints, Nino Ricci's award- winning first novel, was set in a small vil- lage in...

Christopher Hudson THE QUEEN BEHIND THE THRONE by Michael De-la-Noy Hutchinson, £17.99, pp. 328 G od bless you, Ma'am. Whatever we may say about the rest of the royal family,...

Steve Jones THE GENE WARS by Robert Cook-Degan Norton, £25, pp. 416 S cience is the objective search for knowledge, a collective endeavour pursued by those driven to seek the...

In a hotel at the bottom of the night She stands by the bed, naked, hands on hips While, knees jack-knifed to chin, the sheet stretched tight, He stares at nothing. Next door a...

A Vintage Subscription Offer Give a Spectator gift subscription to a valued friend or relative, and we will give you a gift in return - a bottle of Moet & Chandon 1986 Vintage...

David Sexton DEAREST PET: ON BESTIALITY by Midas Dekkers, translated by Paul Vincent Verso, £18.95, pp. 224 W e may pride ourselves on being ani- mal lovers in Britain but...

Architecture Praising concrete jungl es James Dunnett admires the classic works of the engineer-turned-architect, Sir Owen Williams D esigners of motorways may not gen- erally...

Just a piss artist Giles Auty T hose left floundering by yet another onslaught of avant-garde art at the inno- cent-looking Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park may care to avail...

rts ;dry . A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics OPERA Peter Grimes, Glyndeboume, (0273 813813), from 31 July. Revival of...

Listening to statistics Peter Phillips F or those who like to chronicle the ways of the British, the 100th season of the Proms, like a complete set of Wisdens, pre- sents a...

Maverick (`PG', selected cinemas) A poor game of charades Mark Steyn S ick of all those repeats on television? Then why not go to the movies and see, urn, The Beverly...

Saint Joan (Strand) Patsy Cline (Whitehall) Barbara Cook (Sadler's Wells) The Miracle Worker (Comedy) Gale force Sheridan Morley F ew theatregoers between the wars ever spoke...

A passion laid to rest Nigella Lawson A dous Huxley was the idol of my ado- lescence. I imagine he has been the idol of a great many people's adolescences. Anthony Burgess...

over £39 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spgctator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it can be to track a copy down. Now you can save yourself...

Blowing up the good times Taki L ast Tuesday, those of my fellow Greeks who watch morning television, woke up to the sight of my beautiful yacht Bushido just after it had been...

Oldies enjoy sex too Nigel Nicolson That is like saying that The Yachtsman is intended for philatelists. The Oldie never defined its market. In this valedictory issue, there...

In love with a bottle Auberon Waugh N ew Zealand sauvignon blancs have now developed a style and an intensity of fruit which are unmatched anywhere in the world. A few effete...

Park Street, Bristol BS1 5NG Tel: (0272) 214141 Fax: (0272) 221729 White Code Price No. Value 1. 300 Nobilo White Cloud 1993 12 Bots. f47.88 2. 301 Château du...

WHERE SHOULD Imperative cooks take their summer holidays? The urgency of the question was brought home to me last week when a chap I had assumed to be an enthu- siastic and...

i i ilSGIE MALT SCOICH WHIM ISLE OF COMPETITION i U RA `''' , L Or , LOIDI WIt,k1 Oxymoronic Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1840 you were invited to supply a story with an...

SPAMT 11[51 LAVA SPAES MIST CAVA Chairman of the board Raymond Keene LAST WEEK I MENTIONED that Jeremy Hanley had won the prize for the best game in the annual match between...

This fruit has often featured in popular lyrics since 1923 (`Yes! We Have No Bananas'). You are invited to provide yet another lyric in the genre. Maximum 16 lines. Entries to...

(G RA H A r#VS PORT CROSSWORD GRAHAM'S ] PORT ri 1170: Round the clock by Columba A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first...

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A handful of dust Frank Keating MIGHT Michael Atherton already have decently done the obvious thing and stepped down to spend more time with his batting? Earlier in the week,...

Dear Mary.. . Q. My secretary has started laughing after everything she says. I suspect that she may be developing a so-called nervous laugh and am keen to nip it in the bud as...