For a very long time Lebanon has been essentially a stable country. In spite of the necessity for American intervention in Lebanese affairs under President Eisenhower, and in...

Sir: Nicholas Ridley MP (The Spectator, June 21) performed a signal service to true understanding of Middle East issues by drawing attention to (among other things) the real...

Sir: I feel that Commander Young's (Letters, June 28) criticism of my article on defence cannot pass unchallenged. We live in a cynical world in which such 'old-fashioned'...

Sir: Nothing has better illustrated Mr Heath's total unfitness for the leadership of a great party than his attitude towards those laced with the unenviable task of restoring...

Sir: What a sad comment on our insularity as a nation and lack of vision as a people (politicians can be forgiven, they're not 'people'), that so little iMPortance was and is...

Sir: After reading Sir Keith Joseph's seven 'Tory re-think' speeches and the first pamphlet from the Centre for Policy Studies I agree with Patrick Cosgrave (June 21) that they...

Sir: I have not read Professor Fritz Fischer's book and therefore can comment only on the views expressed in A. L. Rowse's review of it (The Spectator, June 28). His...

Sir: Many parents are seriously concerned at the extension of comprehensive schools and, as a practical counter-measure, I would suggest the setting-up in all our towns and...

From Professor G. L. Huxley Sir: The United Kingdom ceased to be an imperial power years ago, and now, having joined the EEC, the country is not even an autonomous...

Sir: A Spectator article by Erin Pizzey ('Violence begins at home', November 23, 1974) outlined the needs and difficulties of women who were trying in the most desperate...

After Woolwich-the advantage and the danger Patrick Cosgrave The consequences of a by-election are often impalpable; and quite frequently bear little relation to any...

I attended last week a lunch given by the Anglo-Israeli Friendship League to meet General Chaim Herzog and his sister-in-law, Pnina. The occasion was the publication of two...

My electoral devices My opponents think aren't nice; Saying bribery entices Bureaucrats to count votes twice. But Goodness, Gracious, Me; That's just democracy! Such wild...

Condensed from the book by Martin D. Weiss Between 1964 and 1974, the Western world was thrust headlong into the most accelerated period of business and financial activity of...

Suppression, the law and the 'balance of convenience' James Michael So the Attorney-General is trying to stop publication of the Crossman diaries. One needn't be a High Court...

Double Crossman Kenneth Young The late Richard Crossman, whose diaries when he was a Cabinet Minister have caused controversy, himself figured in the war-time diaries of Sir...

Although it has been almost continuously sunny in South-East England for the last few weeks it was raining very hard on the day 1 went with the National Trust to Calais to take...

It is an inexpressible Pleasure to know a little of the World and be of no Character or Significancy in it. To be ever unconcerned and ever looking on new Objects with an...

The Prospect Theatre Company, the touring group most usually associated with classical revivals, are breaking new ground this season with a musical called Pilgrim which is...

One of the sillier difficulties of starting your own company is actually finding a name. Take for instance young Richard Webb, the former publicity director of Michael Joseph...

It is a pity that discussion about the novels and pamphlets written by the writer who called himself Celine should so frequently be dominated by the question of his behaviour...

William Sargant Familiar to ALL William Lilly and Astrology in the Seventeenth Century Derek Parker (Cape £5.50). The literary editor may have had his tongue in his cheek when...

Llew Gardner Voices from the Middle Class Jane Deverson and Katherine Lindsay (Hutchinson £3.75) An aeon or so ago when the middle class had good reason to suppose that man had...

Richard Luckett Dolmetsch: the man and his work Margaret Campbell (Hamish Hamilton £5.25) Charles Ives: a portrait David Wooldridge (Faber £6.00) Arnold Dolmetsch Can quite...

The Marriage Machine Gillian Freeman (Hamish Hamilton £3.50) The Present Gabriel Josipovici (Gollancz £2.95) The fable of the "G.I. bride", all rings and scarves and looking out...

How it was Benny Green Professional writers provide the best anecdotes for the same reason that professional ' bakers provide the best bread; it is their job. The poor...

Sunday paper uncertainties Punchdrunk

-The Observer's condition is an interesting example of Giffen's paradox, which has been expounded before now in his Notebook by the editor of this paper. The paradox is that,...

Picking an agency Philip Kleinman Advertising agencies are finding the going tough. Anyone who doubted it must have been convinced by last month's news that . one of the...

The cost of faith Martin Sullivan Thirty years ago the distinguished Cambridge divine, H. H. Farmer, wrote an essay in which he examined some fundamental reasons why many of...

Professional status Bernard Dixon During the first world war, graduate chemists employed by the War Office were paid labourer's wages. Curious to find this fact cited, in a...

Cruelty to critics and horses Kenneth Robinson The Infernal Trio. Director: Francis Girod. Stars: Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, Mascha Gomsha 'X' Rialto (110 mins). The...

One man's Thurber Kenneth Hurren Thurber, as selected and played by William Windom (New London Theatre) The temptation to tangle with an analysis of the late James Thurber's...

Rodney Milnes Cosi fan Tutte languished under a cloud for 150 years while the nineteenth century tried (not too hard) to discover what it was about, but it now seems to be...

The Lehman controversy Ruth Berenson New York's Metropolitan Museum, famous the world over for the breadth and quality of its cbllecbons, has just opened a new addition....

Michael Ivens A potent myth is that defenders of the free and enterprising society are a small and lonely band. of warriors, waging an inevitably losing battle against the...

Nicholas Davenport - To carry on with the present rate of wage increases," said Mr Len Murray at the TUC General Council, "is plain draft. Working people are getting into a...

Instant heirlooms Bernard Hollowood Have you bought any family heirlooms lately? I only ask because advertisements in the press have recently been making a song and dance...

Charles lt. Stahl The failure of the June 10-11 meetin g of the IMF Interim Committee in Paris will reverberate in the future of most Western countries, since the free world,...