M r Louis la Grange, the South Afri- can minister for law and order, announced there would be no remission of the state of emergency; the country's most prominent black...

WHATEVER is eventually decided in the case in Birmingham last week in which a man was convicted of drunken driving despite the fact that his breath test showed him under the...

THE CHURCH WILL SPLIT n the next few days, the General Synod I of the Church of England will decide whether to proceed with legislation to ordain women. As the moment of...

Mr Denis Healey goes on a sanctionmonious safari FERDINAND MOUNT The nuisance of the tropics is The sheer necessity of fizz. H ow abiding are the truths set out by Hillaire...

DEBORAH DEVONSHIRE T hey say the House of Commons is the best club in London. I think the Women's Institute is the best club in the country. For nearly 70 years the monthly...

Timothy Garton Ash, recently in Eastern Europe, explores the prospects for change there, after the Chernobyl disaster and 500 days of Mr Gorbachev MR GORBACHEV, memorably de-...

Christopher Hitchens on the President's amazing ability, evident last week, to win over Congress Washington HOW does he do it? It must be one of the great questions of the...

South Africa has muzzled her previously free press. Stephen Robinson sees no prospect of freedom returning Cape Town A FAVOURITE topic of conversation at parties here these...

Edward Theberton on the pathetic state of Mozambique Maputo IF THE people of Mozambique could eat slogans, they would be fat. Unfortunately, they require food, and so they are...

Rajiv Gandhi's team of clean men are not so clean. By Dhiren Bhagat Too high this Mount of Camelot for me. These high-set courtesies are not for me. Shall I not rather prove...

FitzGerald misunderstood his own people, by trying to legalise divorce Dublin GARRET FitzGerald has inexplicably failed to resign after the defeat of his government's proposal,...

Andrew Brown tests literate computers for the price of 4,500 biros MOST writers, and most journalists, loathe technology and use it very stupidly. One can now easily buy...

Roy Kerridge on the domestic pleasures of rodent friendship A TRINIDADIAN friend has recently lent me a book written by one of her country- men, V.S. Naipaul. Called Finding...

for assistance in some little verbal difficulties `THE great art of writing a column,' Kingsley Martin used to say to me, 'is getting the readers to do most of the work.' Good...

Time to buy, when a company starts to advertise itself JOHN HOWARTH B ack in the days when I worked for a living, I was at that by now legendary election meeting where our...

Sir: As chairman of two British public companies with interests in South Africa, I read Andrew Gimson's article of 21 June (`Uncle Tom's Schooldays') with interest. I wonder why...

Sir: Since November 1985, Roger Cooper, a frequent contributor to your pages, has been held in jail by the Iranian authorities. No charges have been brought, his exact...

Sir: I occasionally tape 'Home life' for a partially-sighted friend who, like me, en- joys the column very much. But we both find it hard to get our tongues round the name of...

Sir: Jameson's gaffe on the googly (Let- ters, 14 June) reminded me of my early days in England when, as a Chinese who could scarcely speak English let alone play cricket, I was...

Sir: I have just read Chistopher Hitchens's article 'Voting for the millennium' in the 7 June issue. Reference is made to several North American evangelists, one in par-...

Sir: Though I admire Ferdinand Mount's writings on political matters in general, I am not infrequently perplexed by his eco- nomic views. His latest offering on unem- ployment...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for c (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months UK/Eire ❑ £41.00 ❑...

Florrie's funky folk Colin Welch AT THE CHELSEA: A PERSONAL MEMOIR OF NEW YORK'S MOST FAMOUS HOTEL by Florence Turner Hamish Hamilton, £12.95 I n my youth I was never quite...

Vane Ivanovi6 HITLER'S GAMES: THE 1936 OLYMPICS by Duff Hart-Davis Century, f12.95 T he German Olympic committee was commissioned to stage the Olympic Games in Berlin before...

Peter Quennell THE CHILDREN OF THE SOULS: A TRAGEDY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR by Jeanne MacKenzie Chatto & Windus, £14.95 T he first 14 years of the present century are not an...

Philip Warner MONTY: THE FIELD-MARSHAL 1944-1975 by Nigel Hamilton Hamish Hamilton, £15 W hatever his "mental disturb- ances", his cocksure ego, his irksome van- ity, his...

Joseph O'Neill THE NEW OXFORD BOOK OF IRISH VERSE edited, with translations, by Thomas Kinsella OUP, f12.50 THE FABER BOOK OF CONTEMPORARY IRISH POETRY edited by Paul...

last week, is available in paperback for f4.95 as well as for £8.95.

Stephen Pickles STALLION GATE by Martin Cruz Smith Collins Harvill, £10.95 S tallion Gate is an unusual book, part thriller, part picaresque, part fiction. Where Gorky Park's...

Andrew Lownie THE RED AND THE BLUE by Andrew Sinclair Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £12.95 C ambridge in the Thirties has become synonymous with treachery in high places. Hardly a...

On wet days when washing lay in milky Piles through the house, my mother moved like clouds Above me, heaving to a storm — to hit me With raw-red hand and arm, as one near...

Alan Ross There are exceptions to this kind of book, notably by the outstanding Indian photographer, Raghubir Singh, whose books on Calcutta and Rajasthan contain indelible...

Dance Ballet Rambert (Sadler's Wells) Celebrating 60 years Julie Kavanagh T his whole sell-out season with its ticket queues spilling onto Rosebery Ave- nue, has been one...

Team spirit Peter Phillips A s it turned out I was only able to attend one of the concerts in the Andre Previn Music Festival at the South Bank this year — the one given by...

The Relapse (Chichester Festival Theatre) Casual depravity Christopher Edwards S ir John Vanbrugh's play The Relapse (1696) is often described as the last of the true...

A fair deal Geraldine Norman I t would look better, of course, in an old palazzo in the centre of town,' a Milanese antique dealer commented with becoming honesty as he...

Backhand compliments Ferdinand Mount T he strain on a linesman used to be purely mental — the glare from the aggrieved player, the wounding reference in the public prints to...

The relations between Russia and Bulgaria are said to be becoming more `strained' than ever. The semi-official Russian Press declares that Prince Alex- ander 'presumes to...

Technical hitch Alexander Chancellor I would like by way of this column to proffer apologies to Mr Bill Andrewes, the Managing Director of Granada TV Rental, and to Mr R....

Court order Taki T here is a horrible American proverb that says nice guys finish last, and I was hoping that this year's Wimbledon might disprove it, but now I'm not so sure....

Wheels within wheels Alice Thomas Ellis I have been thinking about wheels, and the pitfalls — or possibly potholes — they offer for those who would aspire to style. Cars, for...

Taking a break Jeffrey Bernard T he media — what a loathsome word — has spent one hell of a lot of time and space on Richard Branson this past week enthusing about his...

Costa's Grill I AM not a great lover of Greek food. True, I have never been to Greece, but I am told it is even worse there. Strange to think that the Mediterranean countries...

THE marrying of wine and food is such an inexhaustibly fascinating game that it seems a pity that it should be reduced in so many people's minds to a rigid and limited set of...

Life-saver Raymond Keene K asparov and Karpov have just announced that they will be donating all of their colossal prize from the world cham- pionship to the Chernobyl Relief...

Viva FIFA! Charles Seaton I n Competition No. 1427 you were asked for a bracing song which could be sung on World Cup occasions by players and foot- ball officials in unison....

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) will be awarded for the first...

of PALMS. Winners: Mrs Betty Turner, Ruis- lip, Middx (£20); Mrs Alfred Baker, Cobham, Kent; Bill Anderson, London W6. Dictionary prizes are sent out by the 'Post-a-Book'...

A telegram, please, from a well-known person (alive or dead) to a contemporary, together with the reply, the initial letters of the words in each telegram to spell out the name...