M r Kenneth Clarke replaced Mr Nor- man Lamont as Chancellor of the Exche- quer. Mr Lamont exited in dudgeon; Mr Clarke appeared on the steps of the Trea- sury in a Garrick tie...

Y ou can't keep a bad man down. There are now plans to stage a musical about Robert Maxwell in the West End and the producers are looking for someone to play him. Names such as...

Aesthetic indifference, not perversity, is the greatest scourge of our time AUBERON WAUGH A further argument which I have not yet seen deployed against British military...

Alasdair Palmer on how the families of victims of Alzheimer's disease are made to suffer by the state 'I DON'T cry. I've lived through some ter- rible things — my husband and...

persist. . LAST WEEK, I made the cardinal error (forgivable in a young doctor, but inex- cusable in one as long in the tooth as I) of apologising to a patient. I was running a...

Anne Applebaum witnesses the post-totalitarian lust for pretty clothes, beer and mortgages Warsaw A FEW YEARS ago, if asked what kind of country he wanted to live in, an...

William Shawcross on the new hopes and fears in Cambodia after the election Phnom Penh SINCE THE counting of the ballots in the Cambodian elections started last Saturday,...

'IT IS a terrific challenge because we are really going into an unknown area, which in itself is going to be a very excit- ing period.' Who could have said that? Why, a press...

Tim Llewellyn on some provocative re-drawing of borders in post-war Iraq Umm Qasr, Iraq TAM DALYELL, MP, descendant of Scots warriors, dark-suited under the Iraqi sun,...

Edward Leigh describes how he was sacked for his principles in last week's government reshuffle A COUPLE of weeks ago a taxi-driver was taking me home from a radio station in...

Matthew Parris on Lady Thatcher's elevation from an 'ism' to a religion A REMARKABLE cover graced the sec- ond section of the Guardian some days ago. It was dominated by one...

Isabel Wolff experiences a higher vibratory level at a mind, body and spirit festival 'OK, EVERYBODY, relax. Close your eyes. Now, take a deep breath. And release. Take...

The Royal Geographical Society is in hot water. A section of its members recently passed a resolution that no more ladies should be admitted Fellows, and caused a discussion so...

Michael Heath

If you can't ban the arms, cut off the cannon-fodder PAUL JOHNSON h ere is widespread uneasiness that the end of the cold war is ushering in a period of petty war. With no...

Someone to blame it's a credible role for the incredible Chancellor CHRISTOPHER FILDES N orman Lamont on his way to 11 Downing Street looked a happy man. Lunching at the Savoy...

again. He writes: 'Bill Deedes is the only practising journalist who has worked in Fleet Street since before the war.' Not so. May I put in a word for Hugh Cudlipp (79), for...

Sir: Stephen Glover's memories of Bill Deedes's editorship of the Daily Telegraph differ diametrically from mine CA defeatist survivor', 29 May). To suggest that our leader...

Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 1 May) fears that the Catholic bishops may miss 'a historical opportunity to end the 450-year schism in English Catholicism'. Whatever does...

Sir: The last paragraph of Richard Lamb's letter on Churchill (15 May) does not make sense. Lord Beloff does ('Would Churchill have signed Maastricht?' 8 May). Churchill...

Sir: According to Matthew Parris, Agnosco — I do not know — has ceased to be an answer we dare offer to questions of poli- tics or morality' (Politics, 24 April). I don't see...

Sir: How can James Buchan in one and the same sentence speak of the barbarians' attack upon the Queen's English and of 'the Duchess of York's bosoms' (We have changed, not the...

Sir: In the 8 May issue of your journal, you have printed (Stephen Robinson, The peacekeeping that passeth understanding') the statement that George Bush was 'a young navy pilot...

Sir: It is my belief that Adolf Hitler, even in his wilder imaginings, never anticipated that the Fifth Column he attempted to set 11 13 in this country would ever cause so much...

Sir: I was touched and moved by Auberon Waugh's appeal for volunteers to help Lit- erary Review in its difficulties (Another voice, 22 May), but I felt his approach was Slightly...

Sir: I have no doubt that Oliver Franks, whom I knew fairly well, was a great and a good man, and a splendid servant of the state (Books, 22 May). But when his report mentions...

Sir: Frederick Raphael in his review of Mr Capone (Books, 22 May) attributes the novel The Jungle to Frank Norris. The novel, considered a left-wing classic in its day, was...

Royalty and royalties John Osborne ot since the Great Lisbon Earth- quake of 1755, when 30,000 people were killed and 11,000 buildings destroyed with- in six minutes, has a...

In the small shop, where apples shrink, Potatoes sprout, the lettuce is green leather, Past tins, they draw me, bright enough to drink, Red Pools in the brown crumpled bag. No...

M.R.D. Foot Past Imperfect by Tony Judt University of California Press, £20.00, pp.358 T here seems to be something volcanic in the history of modern France. Since the great...

P. N. Furbank THE USE OF MEMORY by Tom Burns Sheed & Ward, £19.95, pp. 202 I t is the practice now for obituaries to come signed, and to that degree to be a little more...

he missed it Anne Applebaum HOPE DIES LAST by Alexander Dubcek liarperCollins, .£20, pp. 354 here is no such thing, they used to say in Eastern Europe, as a communist who is...

Anxious, unsociable, uninteresting (Despite what others tell me), I confess Of all I've known there's only the one thing Vindicates me, and that is to express Something I'd...

Anthony Howard FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT by Christopher Hitchens Verso, £19.95, pp. 353 O f all contemporary transatlantic com- mentators Christopher Hitchens tends to provoke...

George McKay Brown THE LIGHTS BELOW by Carl MacDougall Secicer & Warburg, £7.99, pp. 243 A lecturer used to wonder, during our English Literature class, why a great, tumultuous...

John Whitworth THE WORM AND THE STAR by John Fuller Chatto, £9.99, pp. 246 D ylan Thomas Is an unlikely source of prosaic wisdom, but he did once wonder what a poet ought to get...

The season slid from Winter to the next, snowdrop and crocus to hawthorn blossom, the hum of bees, then pansy, rose, chrysanthemum. The whole happy gamut hardly vexed by touches...

William Dalrymple A RIVER SUTRA by Gita Mehta Heinemann, £9.99, pp. 275 h e Hampstead novel this is not. In Gita Mehta's slim new volume we meet a cast the likes of which has...

Exhibitions 1 Tradition and Revolution in French Art 1700-1880 (National Gallery, till 11 July) Lessons from Elizabeth Mortimer I t seems unexpectedly auspicious that the...

225th Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy, till 15 August) A multi-sided face Giles Auty T he event which is one of the more dif- ficult to write about in the annual calendar is...

Creative confusion Claudia Woolgar found Russia's present turmoil reflected in its theatres C onfusing variety appears to be the new order in the theatres of Russia, reflect-...

Madame Bovary (PG', selected cinemas) Cop and a Half (PG', selected cinemas) Wrung-out dishcloth Vanessa Letts I n Claude Chabrol's dishcloth version of Madame Bovary the...

Shakespeare For My Father (Helen Hayes Theater, New York) Relative Values (Chichester) Daddy dearest Sheridan Morley A the rump end of an undistinguished Broadway season, of...

Is there anyone listening? Marcus Berkmann I t's not just the audience that has given up on mainstream pop music — it's the musicians too. When the charts are domi- nated by...

Father figures Martyn Harris T he star of Barlow, Regan, Pyall and Fancy (BBC 2, Monday, 8.50 p.m.) was Andy Beaumont, a superintendent in the Thames Valley police. Amiable...

It shouldn't happen to a vet Taki I would have given anything to be in Washington DC last Sunday when the draft-dodger addressed the brave men who had answered their country's...

Grandstand view Jeffrey Bernard I daren't have a bath these days for fear of slipping when I get in or out, so I have to get help, otherwise it is a strip wash in front of the...

Another language Nigel Nicolson s I waited in the lobby of my hotel last week, the manager was having a tele- phone row with a distant customer, suppli- er or rival hotelier —...

Imperative cooking: beware the travellers 01 I HAD breakfast recently in an English hotel. It was all right — to start with. Visualise the plate. It was oval, as the current...

Chesterbelloc Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1781 you were invited to write a 20-line ballade with the title 'Nostalgia'. Purists were quick to point out that a ballade by...

Raymond Keene TRADITIONALLY Russia has been the main provider of chess champions. In 1972 Bobby Fischer made a brief incursion on behalf of the US, while Nigel Short is now...

1112: Drinkads by Doc A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 21 June, with two runners-up prizes of...

A whiff of nostalgia Frank Keating I WAS overcome by a potent whiff of nos- talgia this week. It was almost a hankie job, as a sudden reverie dumped me back to a carefree,...

Dear Mary. . . Q. I live in London but spend at least one weekend a month with my parents-in-law in the country. Each visit I make is preceded by a request from my...