Mrs Thatcher's visit to the United States was successful in that she and President Reagan clearly established a friendly working relationship. They think in much the same way,...

Another little Vietnam? Ferdinand Mount . They looked charming together, and somehow cosy. Looking at President Reagan and Mrs Thatcher in her pillbox hat, you could not help...

Next month I am planning to go to Venice for a little holiday. I am looking forward to it, and I will, I trust, enjoy myself rather more and behave myself rather better than did...

A thoroughly English Cardinal Auberon Waugh 'I don't mind your making a noise so long as you don't mind my stopping you'., said Cardinal Hume when he was a housemaster at...

Murray Sayle Tokyo It was hot in the Philippines, weather and welcome. Crowds of up to three million massed under the banana and palm trees of eight cities to yellifiva el...

Richard West The marching song of the US Marine Corps halls of , Montezuma . .', but in fact they have never gone into Mexico City, only the outskirts of the country. However,...

Peter Nichols Rome About all that compares nowadays with Mussolini's vision of Roman crowds pressing through triumphal highways to do honour to their leader is the human mass...

Tim Garton Ash Berlin Last month Mr Honecker, the East German Party leader, rediscovered Germany. Since h e came to power a decade ago, the word Germany' has disappeared from...

Christopher Booker Mr Graham Greene was recently suggesting in these columns (Letters, 14 February) that the Soviet Union's attempts to `Russify' its far-flung empire, and to...

John Horain It seems to have become the accepted view that the only difference between the social democrats who are about to leave the Labour Party and those who remain is one...

The literary event of the week has been the publication of Carlyle's reminiscences of his father, of his wife, of Lord Jeffrey, Southey, and Wordsworth, besides incidental...

C. H. Sisson Having now pushed aside the Book of Common Prayer, the Synod of the Church of England, in its session last week, turned its attention to less important...

'Tiny' rocks the boat Paul Johnson I have always thought that that remark about 'the unacceptable face of capitalism' told us more about Edward Heath than Tiny Rowland; such...

Style in management Tony Rudd Three events last week demonstrated just how varied the style of management can be in top British companies these days. Creat ing a successful...

Sir: Andrew Brown's picture of the Swedish way of death (14 February) is, I fear, far too rosy for reality, and differs little from the British picture. While some doctors may...

Sir: It is not enough for Taki merely to say ('Iron lady', 21 February) that he was pro-junta. He should admit that thereby he was pro-torture (see trials), pro-overthrow of...

Sir: As an unwilling addict of the Establishment press (The Times and Private Eye) but a free and admiring subscriber to the Spectator I thought that one of the few things I...

Sir: In a previous Notebook signed by Alexander Chancellor, there were disparaging remarks about the carabinieri. To support his opinion of their stupidity and incompetence he...

Sir: Tony Rudd refers in his article 'Risky ventures' (21 February) to 'the late Sir Frank Whittle'. Sir Frank is alive and well and living in Columbia, Maryland. As a member of...

Sir: Further to your television columnist's remarks (28 February) about my genealogical revelations on Nationwide, I feel your readers should be told that Richard Ingrams is...

Nest of stifled lovebirds Jonathan Keates Britten & Auden in the Thirties Donald Mitchell (Faber, pp. 176 £7.50). Among the best of many good stories told about Tennyson is...

Michael Wharton God's Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age: 1890-1940. William Gerhardie. Edited and with an Introduction by Michael Holroyd and Robert Skidelsky. (Hodder &...

Eric Christiansen Estuary: Land and Water in the lower Thames basin A.K. Astbury (Carnforth Press pp. 326, £8.75) By taking the long view, and tracing the great arteries of...

Douglas Johnson Origins of the French Revolution William Doyle (Oxford University Press, pp, 272 £12.50, pp. 247 £4.95 paperback). Every 0-leveller knows about it. There is a...

Unthrilling Paul Ableman The Fate of Mary Rose Caroline Blackwood (Cape pp. 208, £5.95) This is a disappointing novel. It promises more than it delivers. The author has style...

Tim Garton Ash The Bureaucracy of Truth: How Commun ist Governments Manage the News Paul Lendvai (Burnett Books, pp.258, £6.95) I have made a New Year's Resolution never to use...

Window dressings John McEwen Of better known American artists none have more titillated the sensibilities of Europeans than Joseph Cornell and Edward Hopper. This is...

Blood and guts Peter Ackroyd The Long Good Friday ('X', selected cinemas) An English gangster film? The idea brings back memories of Ealing Studios — of detectives wearing...

Echoes Peter Jenkins Reunion and Dark Pony (King's Head) Faith Healer (Royal Court) In the nearly three years I have been reviewing plays for the Spectator the writer whose...

Prised Richard Ingrams Part of the trouble with telly is that it is instant and ephemeral, seldom showing any interest in or awareness of its own past. Recently I was lucky...

Firing squad Takt New York In a country where television reigns supreme, and producers assiduously follow Mencken's motto that no one ever went broke underestimating the...

Buffeted Jeffrey Bernard I've just done the 60-hour trip to Boulogne. It works out at £19 for the return fare which wouldn't be bad if the service was operated by any other...