I n what was hailed as the Ty-election of the Century' at Glasgow Hillhead, Mr Roy Jenkins was returned to Parliament after beating the Conservative candidate by nearly 2,000...

The Alliance skips for Roy Ferdinand Mount 'y ou said, Mrs Williams, did you not, .1 that if Roy Jenkins won Hil!head, you would throw away your walking sticks?' `Yes, I did,...

I n his last book The Art of Memory, due to be posthumously published next month, the late lamented R.A. Butler tells us that the only row he ever had with Chips Channon — in...

Gk Eire Surface mail Air mail '6 months: £12.00 f13.00 £14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.00 £26.110 £29.00 137.1)0 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to...

Lessons from Cuba Auberon Waugh Cienfuegos, Cuba A conference of Latin American bishops at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968 is usually given as the moment when the Catholic Church...

Judy Dempsey Warsaw B etween 1946 and 1980, two languages and two realities existed in Poland. The official language of the party, hedged in with double truths and hypocrisy,...

Sam White Paris I t took the former government 17 years to lose a cantonal election. It has taken the present Socialist-Communist one ten months to do so. Taking account of all...

Because of the Easter holiday, next week's issue will be published a day earlier than usual, on Wednesday 7 April.

J 3 ohdan Nahaylo F or years Western commentators on Soviet affairs have been speculating about Leonid Brezhnev's health and his ability to remain at the head of the world's...

British-trained barristers, and the bureaucracy provides a lot of welcome employment. Even in the countryside the hand of the Party does not appear to lie particularly heavy....

Richard West A few weeks ago 1 mentioned how much I was looking forward to seeing the South American Handbook's 1982 edition and now (thanks to the publisher?) it has come in...

Allan Massie St Andrews D avid Steel threw his arms wide, like a Man of God in a Hollywood epic, and C alled out, 'Oh what a beautiful day.' And so it was: St Andrews in spring...

Roy Kerridge W hen the Mayor of Lambeth, in the early Fifties, publicly welcomed West Indians and gave a banquet for them in the Town Hall, he apparently never thought of...

Golden tide Tony Rudd T he old textbooks used to say that gol d was the classic store of value. In th e strict sense that the mice can't eat the stuft , that may be true. But...

Civilisers and primitives Paul Johnson T t would be a pity if the appointment of a new editor to the New Statesman were to be overshadowed by a row over political af-...

Tito in Academe Sir: I have every sympathy with Aleksa Djilas (13 March) but methinks he doth protest too much. True, there were aspects of life in Tito's Yugoslavia at which...

to Gavin Stamp's review of the Boilerhouse Project's first exhibi - tion. The effectiveness of commercia l design is something we all live with and Is therefore a subject on...

Sir: Christopher Hitchens's logic is not easy to follow when he talks about Cyprus. And although his sentimental views on the Cyprus problem are no puzzle to me — I have come...

Sir: I would not detain Spectator readers with this continuing exchange of leaden wit between your correspondent and myself were it not for the fact that Dr Gavin Stamp...

Savonarola looks back J. Enoch Powell Harold Macmillan: A Biography Nigel Fisher (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson £12.95) igel Fisher is an engaging writer. His narrative flows easily...

P. J. Kavanagh T he poet Roy Campbell managed, splen- didly, to antagonise on purpose just about everybody who could push his reputation. (He did not talk of his 'bog- trotting...

Peter Quennell Letters from Colette Selected and t ranslated by Robert Phelps (Virago £6,95) amous women novelists are seldom as communicative as we had hoped they might be....

Peter A ckroyd H is name was probably given to him by an American immigration official, and there is some doubt about the spelling of Mayer. He was a Russian Jew, but it is not...

JESSIE L. WESTON: 'The Legends of the Wagner Dramas (Studies in Mythology)', and 'From Ritual to Romance'. Any edition, any condition. Shelagh Nelson, 19a Clearwater Way,...

David Williams J ames Starley graduated from sewing machines to traction and is the begetter, so my reference-book assures, of the Safety bicycle which made the penny-farthing...

John Stewart Collis The Love Letters of William and Mary Wordsworth Edited by Beth Darlington (Chatto & Windus £10.95) And high time too. I mean we do know a .L.great deal...

Harriet Waugh In a High Place Joanne Meschery (The tIodleY Head £7.50) In a High Place Joanne Meschery (The tIodleY Head £7.50) A merica n Romanticism in literature grew up...

Stars of India John McEwen T he Arts Council inevitably is a public whipping-horse, subjected to periodic abuse — not least in the Spectator — for misdemeanours supposed...

Memories Peter Ackroyd Celeste (`AA', Camden Plaza) T he most recent attempt to film A la recherche du temps perdu failed even to get, off the ground, but that was...

Ebb and flow Mark Amory The Assassin (Greenwich) Funny Turns (King's Head) The Black Hole of Calcutta (Albany Em- pire) O lga's is a drab room in a 'small central European...

Illuminating Rodney Milnes R eactions to Cavalli, interesting in them- selves, pose certain problems of operatic aesthetics. As even good critics will remark, rightly I...

Richard Ingrams rr he BBC, we learn, is now trying to on I someone to replace Parky when h e finally leaves at the end of the season to join Peter Jay's Breakfast TV. One...

Wine and dine Jeffrey Bernard Montpelier I 9 m just back in my excellent hotel room — a lovely view, a wonderful bathroom and a refrigerator bursting with goodies — from...

Race riot Taki im Hanbury is a curly-haired, good- looking and extremely elongated young man who gives the impression his jaws were wired tight while he was at Eton. Before...

No. 1212: Title supplied Set by Jaspistos: My favourite title of a poem is Tennyson's 'Supposed Confessions of a Second-Rate Mind Not in Unity with Itself'. You arc invited to...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for an imaginary extract from Hansard which captures the rich and rare flavour of our Upper House at full moon. Lord Houghton of...

Mixed bag Raymond Keene C omputers are playing an ever-increasing role in contemporary chess life. Academic institutions are interested in c hessplaying machines as a gauge of...

Stran ge by Doc AAl • ze of tenpounds will be awarded for the first correct solution 5 6 Doughty on 19 April. Entries to: Crossword 551, The Spectator, uoughty Street,...

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