If the Isle of Wight pop festival had been a thoroughgoing orgy, complete with every vice named and nameless, or if, on the other hand, it had been an idyllic paradise of peace...

Below stairs at Westminster PETER PATERSON Not very long ago, shortly before Harold . Wilson took office for the first time, the Conservative government of the day was...

Elected silence GEORGE GALE The holidays are over. The honeymoon is done. We now look for that radical change in the style of government which Heath promised us, before his...

Lebensraum FRED PENNANCE Housing i never long out of the news or off the screens. Some aspect or other is always on parade—the show never stops. Scarcely are the motorway...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS It is reported that a poll whether seamen should be allowed to take their wives to sea with them in the new containers has shown a majority in favour from...

Canal game JOHN KIMCHE In the strict sense of the word there is of course no Suez Canal front. Taken in isola- tion as it is nowadays, the situation can be described only as...

A message to Mr Chataway MICHAEL WYNN JONES In keeping with those who like to describe the Civil Service as a leviathan, or the trades union movement as a carthorse. I've...

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER Two events took place this week for which followers of the great Technological Fantasy have been waiting a long time. The first, of course, was the...

The strangeness of E. M. Forster SIMON RAVEN First, my qualifications to treat of this sub- ject. For three years, from 1948 to 1951, I was an undergraduate, and for one...

Evensong in chapel DONALD McLACHLAN I had a dream the night before last, in which a few editors, managing directors and ad- vertising managers agreed that for three or four...

The think-tank didn't think BILL GRUNDY Just about a year ago, a lot of us involved in the business were much concerned about a document you will undoubtedly have heard of but...

Casualty department JOHN ROWAN WILSON It is common knowledge that every service given to the public is a good deal sloppier now than it used to be. The post is late, the...

The American Muses DENIS BROGAN In a world of frontal exposure and an in- ability to think of words of more than four letters, the evolution of taste (good or bad) and the...

NIGEL NICOLSON The Country Life series on English country houses is not completed by James Lees- Milne's English Country Houses: Baroque, 1685-1715 (Country Life 8 gns). There...

From the 'Spectator,' 3 September 1870—The Papers have been teeming for the last few weeks with the various German songs which have become popular during the present war in the...

RONALD HINGLEY Stalin and His Generals: Soviet Memoirs of World War II edited by Seweryn Bialer (Souvenir Press 75s) So much es idence has become available on pre-1945 Germany...

BRYAN ROBERTSON Utopia or Oblivion R. Buckminster Fuller (Allen Lane: The Penguin Press 60s) Time's Thievish Progress (Autobiography III) John Rothenstein (Cassell 60s) It is...

J. B. DONNE The Arts of Africa Rene S. Wassing (Thames and Hudson 210s) The problem of the European confronted with African art is not a problem of aesthetics, but the problem...

G. V. BENNETT Robert Harley, Puritan Politician: Angus McInnes (Gollancz 48s) 'Robin the Trickster' was the most skilful politician of the reign of Queen Anne, a Prime...

Cats cradles BARRY COLE Destroy Marguerite Duras translated by Barbara Bray (Hamish Hamilton 25s) Theft Rachel Ingalls (Faber & Faber 22s) Screen Barry Malzberg (Olympia 32s)...

TIBOR SZAMUELY Dubcek William Shawcross (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 65s) 'Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory'. Disraeli's celebrated phrase...

and a co-existence problem NICHOLAS de JONGH Conceived in the limiting post-war era the Edinburgh Festival must at first have seemed a lovely, life-affirming idea, a...

J. H. PLUMB Sir Richard Steele Calhoun Winton (John Hopkins Press 86s) Professor Winton's first volume of his life of Steele, Captain Steele, was rightly and widely acclaimed,...

Disenchantment KENNETH HURREN A Midsummer Night's Dream (Stratford- upon-Avon) The stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon—a theatre still visited by a...

The boyfriends PENELOPE HOUSTON The Boys in the Band (Curzon, 'X'). Too Late the Hero (Odeon, Leicester Square, . y• Grazie, Zia (Paris Pullman, 'XI The real hazard of...

Infinite variety RODNEY MILNES The Promenade Concerts have become so much a part of our way of life, like tea, and indifferent government, that there is a danger of their...

Something to remember DUNCAN FALLOWELL If you rely largely on the newspapers for your impressions, you will in the first place be appallingly naive. Secondly and more to the...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The recession has now hit the City with a bang. With the turnover in equity shares down by 40 per cent or more many stockbrokers are failing to cover their...

JOHN BULL The battle for control of Pergamon Press has restarted. But unless you have an account- ant's training it is very hard to determine what is going on. Just...

Sir: Lionel Brett's article (22 August) was refreshing for its objectivity. For those Lon- doners, like myself, who have a great love of their city, it presented a worrying por-...

Sir: Sir Denis Brogan is collecting a danger- ous reputation for inaccuracy.- His allegation that F.E. remained at home during the first world war indicates some lack of...

From William Rees-Mogg, Jim Powell, David C. H. Ross, D. R. Smallwood, W . S. C. Copeman, Joan Delderfield. Spectator's mjtebook Sir: Mr Booker in his column (29 August)...

Sir: Dr Rhodes Boyson (22 August) has rightly mentioned the Schools Council as a possible target for cuts in expenditure. Their annual budget was approximately £1.25 million in...

in postal charges: nonetheless they seem likely to occur. Surely what we should be demanding is a more efficient service. Art important letter was posted from the Royal College...

Feast of fools JOHN WELLS Five hundred Capuchin monkeys, some of them virgins and packed fifteen to a crate one foot by two feet by three, have been bought by the Vatican at...

Sir: While reading the item 'A biology pro- ject' in Christopher Booker's column (22 August), it occurred to me that, with a single exception, I did not meet a teacher of...

PHILIDOR E. W. Beal (The Problemist, July 1970). White to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 505 (Savournin-4R3/pp4111/...

No. 620: Fairest isle? At one time and another we have had the benefit of nearly everyone's opinion of the Isle of Wight pop festivals. Now competi- tors are asked to provide a...

Across 1 No doubt cook was in the pink when she produced this! (7) 5 Used extensively in ship's galley? (7) 9 The French in essence get the wind up in these (5) 10 Please,...