When a union leader asked a mass meeting of Liverpool dockers this Wednesday whether they were prepared to stop blacking the containers, not one hand was raised in assent. The...

, nterbury's pilgrims Norman N v - ,, W ho argue that the clergy should tk r :„thernselve s with politics usually kt je , 'at they should embrace reform t h z . it is a long...

One of the great boons of living in the twentieth century, our liberation from what used to pass for philosophy, we owe to Bertrand Russell. Anyone wanting to understand how he...

Denis Donoghue Grub Street: Studies in a Subculture Pat Rogers (Methuen £5,50) Dr Rogers first declared his interest in Grub Street by writing a dissertation on the life and...

"It is a seller's market for doomwatchers," wrote Sir Eric Ashby in last week's Spectator, and certainly the flow of books about the dangers of ecological mismanagement have...

Bookbuyer Tambimuttu gives the impression of having made as many comebacks on the London scene as Dorothy Squires; but now he seems to be firmly established as Director and...

() Id sport p n ave chosen a better time to start ifte rm l° about television than in the Nle m at h of Bank Holiday weekend which P r edictably puddingy fare: the last thing...

Faith rewarded Kenneth Hurren John Antrobus, after God knows how many years of trying, has written a play that is at least sporadically funny; and I am as surprised to be...

Next Tuesday, in the week of the United Nations Conference on the Environment, Thames Television will be devoting three of its evening programmes to an extended study of the...

Agatha Hitchcock Christopher Hudson Interviewed on television last week, Hitchcock, when told that a number of the more highbrow film critics had professed themselves...

garden Green on'oWer," I reminded myself as I r " e out of my path, "is nothing but 1,.With a college education," and r ,-,,c4ao Wledgements to Mark Twain drifted down King...

Those who note such things will have noted that a new concert artistes' agency was licensed last week: the Horovitz Management. Its appearance may have been especially...

May 6 that Will Waspe is disturbed by this Society ' s appointment of Mr Paavo Berglund. It is clear that the whispers reaching Waspe have not fully acquainted him with the...

Sir: I read with no little interest the letter written by Tony Summers and Tom Mangold of the Lime Grove Studios of BBC in your April 8 issue; last summer these researchers were...

Sir: As a born and bred Methodist, who has for quite a time now been embraced by the Baptist fold, may I comment on Edward Norman's article — The Anglican-Methodist vote (May...

From Dr Anthony Starr Sir: In your issue of May 13, Christopher Hudson, reviewing The Underground Dictionary, refers to it as a modest work of lexicography that would have Eric...

would have Eric Partridge turning in his grave" (May 13). I would reassure Mr Hudson and your readers that Eric Partridge is alive and compiling for Routledge The Dictionary of...

Sir: Your reviewer, Mr Auberon Waugh (May 13) writing with some condescension and great learning on The Ballroom of Romance by William Trevor, carefully explains to men of...

Credit is Due (Reviewing William Trevor's short stories) O fiction reviewer not everyone loves, Why credit F. Cornford to Lear? Or had you a touch of the Fredegond Shoves? O...

Insisting on giving that couplet to Lear — You're missing so much and so much. 'Twas Cornford who wrote it (You slightly misquote it). Alas! That you're so out of touch! Iris...

of "Why do you walk through the field in gloves" read Frances C. Cornford in her poem To a fat lady seen from the train.' This is an old favourite of mine. My congratulations...

Sir: — How is it that you can retain the services of Auberon Waugh as a reviewer of books yet entrust Humphry Berkeley's unedifying account of his political abdication to the...

From Professor Glanville Williams Sir: — John Rowan Wilson says (May 13) that "abortion on demand" (a somewhat misleading expression for abortion by arrangement) is not possible...

Sir: — A working party of Labour Councillors, by a narrow majority and not fully supported by their officers, recently decided to take the retrogressive step of rescinding the...

the schools and 1 40 Y t ear it Was won by a team of six boys j V p‘ v e girls from the Loughton College ',41tedlItther Education. Each team was Pt ern - i u t° invest a...

Expensive, dodgy insurance Skinflint There is an expensive, negative and unprogressive quality about the whole subject of insurance if you are the insured, though it is a nice...

On a spending spree Nephew Wilde If all holidays were as bad as this last one I would soon become a son of toil. Every conceivable disaster befell me. On Saturday morning rain...

Health schemes Terry Mahon Sudden illness or accident whilst abroad can be devastating in more ways than one as the subsequent bill received can cause far more distress than...

Hedgerow lace Peter Quince Cow-parsley is not, if one comes to look at it dispassionately, a particularly romantic word. It has a mildly melodious sound, admittedly, but its...

Mr Heath's evasions custos The effect of entry into Europe on the Welfare State, and particularly on that unique British institution, the National Health Service, has always...

ard Dixon In 44 of th e day (as Harold Wilson . sev , rtitt l ," °ne's reaction to contemporary 'e proble ms of environment, po i the misuse 1Y : Id of science depends titt...