M rs Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the 'York- shire Ripper', was awarded £600,000 libel damages by a High Court jury against the satirical magazine Private Eye; Mr Peter Cook, the...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 SOVEREIGN REMEDIES W e do not know if this constitutes one of the 'dirty...

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The excellence of disarmament for the Soviet General Staff NOEL MALCOLM hen Mrs Thatcher was interviewed by the BBC just after the Brussels Nato summit had ended on Tuesday,...

T he longer I live, the more I come to realise that some of my habits, which often seem strange to some, are shared by many other people. When I was 15, I developed the habit of...

COMMUNITY \\\\\' CHARGE 0\ (THE SO-CALLED 'EFFING POLL TAX) HOW IT WILL WORK FOR YOU

China: the cruellest practical joke ever played on the human race AUBERON WAUGH H ong Kong hen mainland China first opened its borders to distinguished parties of selected...

Vietnamese refugees were once the the sufferings they undergo today THOUSANDS upon thousands of boat People are still pouring out of Vietnam and across the South China Sea....

. . . NO TANKS Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on the dangers that Soviet forces stillpose for Europe Washington AFTER four months in office, George Bush has at last done something...

Michael Heath

Anne Applebaum witnesses the last days of campaigning before Poland's free elections Warsaw IN A hoarding beside a hastily constructed outdoor stadium in Lomza, the names of...

Con Coughlin joins some Jewish settlers for a walk through hostile territory Hebron, 'IT'S all really, very exciting,' proclaimed Douglas, the Glasgow-born Israeli Fron-...

A REMARKABLE case of poisoning is under investigation in Liverpool. Mr James Maybrick, a stockbroker, recent- ly died in his house under circumstances which made his brother,...

Richard West visits Vauxhall as it prepares for a by-election later this month CROSSING the Thames into South Lon- don, to take a look at the Vauxhall by-election, I got the...

Donald Michie points out the dangers of making computers impenetrable FASHIONS in computer programming tend to reflect different social philo- sophies. Today it is the...

Piers Paul Read asks why the Archbishop of Westminster opposes the wishes of Catholic parents IT IS sad that, in an age when so many Roman Catholic bishops have been ex-...

The media: Paul Johnson on the sins of television documentary THE latest Report of the Media Monitor- ing Unit on British television current affairs programmes, covering the...

PUTTING the Union Discount Company of London into play? Whatever next? It is like making an indelicate advance to Queen Victoria. I was brooding here last week on the dangerous...

The economic consequences of bringing the boys home CHRISTOPHER FILDES 0 ne of the hazards of my way of life is to be collared over a drink by an eminent banker, who asks me...

SETSUBUN tenjo, higan zoko is the Japanese equivalent of, 'Sell in May and go away.' Call up your broker and impress him with this information, unless he is Alastair Ross Goobey...

THE City and Suburban theory of market seasonality is based on the achievements of an elderly broker, in a modest way of business, who astonished his acquaintances by leaving a...

Mr Lawson, doing the right deed for the wrong reason JOCK BRUCE-GARD YNE T he celebrated Victorian maverick George Labouchere once complained that he could bear the way in...

Sir: As someone caught in the middle of the Lonrho House of Fraser affair, I read Paul Johnson's article (The press, 13 May) and Donald Trelford's response (Letters, 27 May)...

Deterrents Sir: Noel Malcolm argues (Politics, 13 May) that voters in the end care more, in the nuclear area, about a 'government's belief in deterrence' than anything else....

Sir: How encouraging to see a thoroughly disingenuous letter in the public prints, demonstrating that moral courage allied to institutional loyalty has not departed from these...

Sir: In the Observer dated 22 May Jean McSorley writes, 'the Irish Sea is the most radioactively contaminated sea on earth (the Dead Sea is naturally radioactive)'. She might...

Sir: A little behindhand, may I say that I enjoyed Diana Geddes' article ('With French polish', 1 April) on French man - ners and, after nearly 40 years spent south of the...

the vigour, certainty and spir- ituality of Islam with the muddled, compla- cent materialism of the West in any article on the Rushdie business? Let us be more positive and...

Sir: The article by Nigel Cousins (`Belly dancing at lunchtime', 13 May) on the feelings of his Muslim pupils is interesting in pointing to a truth about Christian as opposed to...

Sir: I heartily applaud the Prince of Wales for castigating President Ceausescu as that dictator wantonly destroys his country's cultural heritage. His Royal Highness spoke of...

A s a pukka art historian, Robert Rosenblum appears a little shamefaced, in his preface, about descending to doggies in art. It is rather as though Seve Ballesteros were caught...

Peter Kellner POLITICS FOR A RATIONAL LEFT by Eric Hobsbawm Verso, f29.95, f8.95, pp.250 I n an article in the Guardian last July. Eric Hobsbawm asked: 'Who would not rather...

Denis Hills OPERATION AUTONOMOUS by Ivor Porter Chatto & Windus, £18, pp.268 I vor Porter went to Bucharest university as a British Council lecturer in March 1939. He describes...

Michael Davie AUSTRALIAN CRICKET: THE GAME AND THE PLAYERS by Jack Pollard Angus 4:4c Robertson, £29.95, pp.1231 H ot on the heels of the arrival in England of the Australian...

Patrick Skene Catling JOE BOB GOES TO THE DRIVE-IN by Joe Bob Briggs Penguin, .C5.99, pp.325 J oe Bob Briggs is the strangest contribu- tor to Penguin's new series of...

Lucasta Miller hen it was published in Germany, Aurora's Motive (Cape, £10.95, pp.115) leapt instantly into the bestseller lists and was awarded the 1987 Aspecte-...

At the end of the lonely footpath through the fields The house stood empty on its dirty hill. All round it pampas-grasses grew so thick It seemed half-sunken when the wind was...

When in the water from the well Clearly my reflection swam, I, that should not say it, said it: Golly, what a doll I am. Anonymous (perhaps 15th century)

Along the valleys, here and there, Warm breezes pass to bring Small moistures from the winter's ice, A sprinkled glittering Which makes these shining water- drops The first...

In the dark base of a thicket On this summer-wasted land, Their scarlet showing unremarked, The red star lilies stand. To burn with love, and yet to be Not even noticed....

How could a woman old as I, An old old woman, come to be So dunced by love that puling tots Seem wise old men compared with me? Translated from the Japanese by Graeme Wilson

John Whitworth FLAUBERT by Herbert Lottman Methuen, £17.95, pp.396 So the shit in the shuttered chateau Who does his five hundred words Then parts out the rest of the day...

Nicholas Lezard PUNISHMENTS by Francis King Hamish Hamilton, f11.95, pp.198 T hese days, we look at prolific authors as at mothers of unviably large families (when will they...

Architecture Keeping up with Jones Edward Chaney investigates the institutional squabbles which are preventing a magnificent exhibition of Inigo Jones's architectural drawings...

The Tempest (Barbican) The Plain Dealer (Pit) Special effects Christopher Edwards T he opening storm scene in this trans- fer of The Tempest from Stratford is both bold and...

regular critics. DANCE English National Ballet (formerly Festival Ballet), Dominion Theatre (5809562), 12 Junc-1 July. Repertory includes Napoli, Coppelia, La Sylphide, Onegin...

Street Scene (Scottish Opera, Glasgow) Notes and queries Rodney Milnes T here are few more dispiriting things than a new opera that doesn't quite work — save, I suppose, to...

Art in Latin America: The Modern Era 1820-1980 (Hayward Gallery, till 6 August) Down Mexico way Giles Auty W hile congratulating all responsible for assembling the vast and...

A Cry in the Dark (`15', selected cinemas) Streep show Hilary Mantel A gentleman has written from Texas to ask, 'Could you say a few things about Meryl Streep?' A few bad...

Fish is a feminist issue Wendy Cope L ast week thirtysomething (Channel 4, 10 p.m., Tuesday) was back on form with an episode about Nancy's and Melissa's love-lives. Love, I...

On the crest of a wave Taki New York Next to Arsenio Hall, a toothy black man with a minus IQ, the major seemed to possess plenipotential dignity. He was neither tipsy nor did...

Hard sell Alice Thomas Ellis Q uite often I don't know what the ads on telly are actually trying to sell. I liked watching Maureen Lipmann so much that I didn't ask myself...

Charmed life Jeffrey Bernard Billy's bus will seem half-empty now that Fat Tom has departed this life but it is the only way to go if you haven't your own box. But the...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

T he annual general meeting of the Grandmaster Association (the AGM of the GMA) took place in Moscow over the weekend of 27 and 28 May. I attended this with Jon Speelman, who...

write a Sun leader on a) the voluntary resignation of the Monarchy; b) the abolition of cricket matches due to crowd hooliganism; or c) the replacement of our policemen's...

I. 4 0 4*.J 4114 .—.4 0 /L. m' WE HAVE now come to a lull after all the high days and holidays (both proper and improper) we have been enjoying, prob- ably a lull in the amazing...

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You are invited to produce anagrams (any number of entries allowed) of single lines from Shakespeare's plays (modern spell- ing). Please give chapter and verse. Extra points...