Making Israel behave By now, if things had gone as they had been planned in the Camp David accords, something or other which could have gone under the name of Palestinian...

Political commentary Own goal at Wembley Ferdinand Mount Self' Could you give me some details about the Labour Party's special conference at Wemblev on Saturday? Voice from...

Notebook I was struck the other day by something I read in the New Statesman. Its editor, Mr Bruce Page, in a diary paragraph praising Mr William Shawcross's book Sideshow,...

Another voice A good policeman Auberon Waugh Two British Bobbies have recently been paraded as heroes before an admiring public. One of them was standing guard outside the...

The taming of Mr Reagan II - - -. Henry Fairlie I- Washington I Suspect that most people across the United States yawned as widely as I did when thev saw Senator Edward...

Monkeys in Zamboanga Peter Nichols Zamboanga, Philippines All that came to my sundrenched mind while watching the elegant curve of the fishing-canoes in the bay was some...

Etheldreda's Ely mmmmw??? Richard West Elv Last Fridav, next door to the Spectator, there was a demonstration by Nalgo, members whose pamphlets explain: '370) daycare and...

England's mood for manana Paul Barker Stands the church clock still at GMT? Even though we're now nearly two months into British Time, it very likely does. Now public clocks...

Castles in the air Gavin Stamp When considering some of the architectural Projects of the last few decades I am often grateful for bureaucratic inertia and procrastination The...

Letters moommow The Reagan revival Sir: The eloquent prose Mr Fairlie employs (24 May) to describe his stunning, although distorted, vision of contemporary America would be...

Pentecostal spirits Sir: Roy Kerridge's article ('Pentecost at Butlin's, 31 May) was very thoughtprovoking. I have recently become very aware of the Catholic Charismatic...

Impressionable Sir: Jeffrey Bernard writes (24 May) that Joan the barmaid 'makes a delightful picture standing against a row of bottles that puts me in mind of a Renoir.' If he...

Wisden doubted Sir: I agree with your reviewer Benny Green (24 May) that the Wisden obituaries are 'one of the glories of sporting literature', and like him I too wish that...

Joke Sir: The letter I addressed to you (31 May) in answer to that of Mrs Ian Fleming dealt faithfully and wittily with all the points she made. The letter you published was...

Unique quality Sir: It matters not that your television critic is seldom capable of sensible judgment; it matters not that his jaundiced diatribes, aimed at people possessing...

Fantastic Africa Sir: I feel compelled, in turn, to comment on Andrew Knight's criticism (Letters, 31 May) of your extract from Fantastic Invasion by Patrick Marnham. Contrary...

Who is diminished? Sir: Richard West recently referred in your Columns to the King Charles's head school of journalists, but he loyally refrained from Citing among his examples...

Worldly advice Sir: It is a pity that A.N. Wilson did not give to his reading of my review of his novel the same care that I gave to the reading of the novel itself (Letters,...

Books Chemistry and fertility Germaine Greer The Politics of Contraception Carl Djerassi (W. W Norton £6.50) Carl Djerassi is Professor of Chemistry at Stanford...

Genuine Wedgwood L.... Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd The Wedgwood Circle 1730-1897 Bar- uara and Hensleigh Wedgwood Vktn Cr( - i edwo (Studio Vista £9.9g) For t he last year...

The Quran Gai Eaton The Message of The Quran Translatedi and explained by Muhammad Asad (Dar al-Andalus/E.J. Brill £22.50) After the years of Empire, during which Europe...

Time of Teds Eric Christiansen The Three Edwards: War and State i0 England 1272-1377 Michael PrestWich (Weidenfeld £10.95) The advantages of writing the history of England as...

The Provost Nicolas Barker Montague Rhodes James R. W. Pfaff (Scolar Press £15) You could not be born and brought up in Cambridge before the war outside the shadow, long,...

June crime Harriet Waugh The domestic thriller has now moved very far from the whodunits of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Even though five out of my six books start...

Big word --- Francis King Ambrose's Vision Giles Gordon (Harvester £6.95) Central to the heart of Giles Gordon's new novel, as to the heart of his hero, Ambrose, is the...

Opera Simply frightful Rodney Milnes Die Enffuhrung aus dem Serail (Glynde- bourne) A Village Romeo and .Juliet (ENON, Leeds) Peter Wood's production of Entfiihrung at...

Art Non-stick John McEwen The Arts Council'sPier + Ocean exhibition at the Hayward Gallery (till 22 June) is currently being visited by about a hundred people a day. It is...

Theatre Blarney Polly Toynbee John Bull's Other Island (Greenwich) Livingstone and Sechele (Lyric Studio) Yeats, who commissioned John Bull's Other Island, pronounced it...

Cinema Time warps Peter Ackroyd The Final Countdown ('A' Leicester Square Theatre) The Wanderers ('X' ABC, Shaftesbury Avenue) Film-makers have become tired of the...

Television Questionable Richard Ingrams Question Time (BBC 1) has been moved to a slightly more reasonable hour of tht night and it is currently being shown at 10.15 p.m. The...

High life Talent Taki Southampton, Long Island I've been hearing people praise the Hamptons for years, but it was not until last year that I decided I was old enough to put...

Postscript Back Prod Patrick Marnham The beginning of a decade is the time when philosophers, soothsayers and more ephemeral persons such as journalists. announce the pattern...

LOW life Checking Jeffrey Bernard I've had two weeks on the road stopping overnight twice at Copenhagen, looking in at Stockholm airport once, but staying in Moscow,...