Mr Sadat is not the only one who feels disappointed and depressed at the outcome of this week's Israeli-Egyptian talks. The Egyptian President's own extraordinary bravery has...

The year of the Tories? Ferdinand Mount Mr Ian Mikardo is commonly thought to be a downy old bird. Because he runs a book at the House of Commons, he enjoys the reputation for...

There IS an interesting connection between two of the arguments now being fought in The Times correspondence columns. The first broke out after the Chief Constable of...

Exodus Auberon Waugh Genuine moral indignation is a rare and beautiful sight. How else can one describe the reaction of the Matthews Press, as Beaverbrook must surely be...

Edward Mortimer Muhammad Hasanain Haikal relates that Andre Malraux once told him Egypt was like Great Britain. Why? Because it is an island. The densely populated tadpole...

Xan Smiley It is perfectly natural that when a political leader talks tenderly of 'the wishes of the people' you automatically assume he is about to perform a particularly...

Anthony Mockler The outlook for mercenaries is not good. 1976, which started off with great hopes, turned out to be a very bad year indeed; and nine mercenaries, seven of them...

Peter Paterson By winning his case against the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), Mr George Ward of Grunwick . may, ironically, have presented the Labour...

Alec Clegg The public education service has always been aware of the dichotomy between mind and spirit, between intellect and personality, between the cognitive and the...

Benny Green The cinema industry spent the season of good cheer expressing grief, either genuine or the other kind, over the death of its most distinguished figure, Charlie...

Bullish Nicholas Davenport The past year may have exasperated the private investor trying to look after his own portfolio but it has been an exciting one for a financial...

Jeffrey Bernard Thank God that's all over. Not a vintage year for me, I can tell you. It must have been fun for the Queen though, although I, personally, wouldn't like to be...

Sir: Michael Dean's article (17 December) on Gough Whitlam is a shallow and inaccurate piece, redeemed only by his depiction of Whitlam's style. His belief that Whitlam was more...

Sir: 1 have got news for all your readers who learned from Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Notebook, 17 December) of the demise of Thomas Szasz's books. Like the author himself, whom your...

Sir: Surely the ever-growing size of the life and pensions funds is not due to their efficiency in collecting the nation's savings, as Mr Nicholas Davenport stated (17...

Craftsman and classicist Alan Watkins A Little Order Evelyn Waugh: A Selection from his Journalism edited by Dermot Gallagher (Eyre Methuen £5.95) Evelyn Waugh attracted, as...

Helen Smith Morality and Architecture David Watkin (OUP e2.95) David Watkin's new book is bound to cause a considerable raising of blood pressure amongst architectural...

Auberon Waugh Harold's Years: Impression from the New Statesman and the Spectator edited by Kingsley Amis (Quartet £5.50) How does Kingsley Amis find time for it all? One opens...

Peter Ackroyd Journey Into Fire Patricia Wright (Collins £4.95) Historical novelists always run the risk of being engulfed in vast processes which they barely understand. I...

Benny Green Dixie Dean Nick Walsh (Macdonald £4.95) In admonishing a famous athlete for having composed an autobiography, Bernard Shaw cited the example of the Quaker George...

Regality and heroism Rodney Milnes Marla Stuarda (Covent Garden) Dalibor (Coliseum) Orpheus In the Underworld (Coliseum) 1977 ended on a Jekyll and Hyde note at both London...

Biblical John McEwen There can be few more peaceful or instructive ways of avoiding one's friends and relations this New Year than by holing out for an hour or two in the...

Voodn't it Clancy Sigal Bobby Deerfield (Warner West End) The Deep (Odeon Leicester Square) If you're depressed or hung-over this New Year don't see Bobby Deerfield (A) right...

Knotty Ted Whitehead The Alchemist (Aldwych) Trembling Giant (Royal Court) Fosdyke II (Bush) How many theatregoers would understand the meaning of libes' or 'knots' or lucus'...

Pre-packaged Richard Ingrams Some readers may carp about negligence and so forth, but I'm happy and unashamed to say that I managed to miss most of the Christmas goodies....

Potatoes with everything Marika Hanbury Tenison Another of my illusions has been shattered. I always believed that the dashing, cloakdropping Raleigh was responsible for...