DARKEST AFRICA THIE outbreak of fighting in northern Namibia has caused unease amongst those who for years have awarded Swapo the | absurd and dangerous title of 'sole repre- I...

Fishy Sir: Edward Whitley's article 'Water, water everywhere' (I April) actually makes the case for privatisation. The enterprise culture has not yet permeated all of our...

Blow by blow Sir: In his column (Another Voice, 25 March) Auberon Waugh asserts that I disgracefully 'sold' my mother by writing of her brief relationship with my godfather,...

L E T T E R S Private virtues Sir: I agree throug hout with Charles Moore's rejection (Diarv, 18 March), of the reasoning of A. N. Wilson's piece Time to turn to Labour' (11...

Proletarian sensibility Sir: As one of your proletarian subscribers, I wonder whether I am the only one who much prefers Auberon Waugh's excellent advice about wine buying to...

Boomerang Sir: I was fascinated by the revelation that the only military application for the Belle computer chess machine is to 'drop it from an airplane and kill someone'...

Fathers and sons Nigel Short SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER: THE WORLD OF CHESS OBSERVED BY THE FATHER OF A CHILD PRODIGY by Fred Waitzkin BodleV Head, £12. 95, pp. 256 B obby...

Orphan Mary is always in trouble Gabriele Annan MARY McCARTHY: A LIFE by Carol Gelderman Sidgwick & Jackson, £15, pp. 430 Carol Geldernman, a don at the University of New...

As natural as breathing or going for a walk Anita Brookner PASSING ON by Penelope Lively Deutsch, CI1..95, pp.210 Dorothy Glover was not a nice woman. She emasculated her son...

Forgery I- among the lepidopterists Alan Bell THE BUTTERFLY BOOKS: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF CERTAIN TWENTIETH CENTURY PAMPHLETS by Nicolas Barker Bertram Rota, £427 pp....

Blasphemy, sex and understanding Hugh Lloyd-Jones THE GREEKS AND THEIR LEGACY by K. J. Dover Basil Black v'cll, 137.50. )1p).-)352 S ir Kenneth Dover, formeriv President of...

Do not publish and be damned William Deedes TWILIGHT OF TRUTH: CHAMBERLAIN. APPEASEMENT AND THIE MANIPULATION OF THIE PRESS bv Richard Cockett iU'id('IfC'1(1. 1S.95, 1p)22 9...

Television Russian breakfast Peter Levi WhVI~ile Wendy Cope was away, I had the plan of writing about Russian television, but it turned out to be so bad I could not look at...

Low life Ghosts all around us ... Jeffrey Bernard WVandering about London as I do I find it strange to think of what it must have been like once upon a time. The present is...

j -.~~~w1~ Ar ,Birthday treats i,.rdir.,)wE.,#K~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I1 I THOUGHT we had lost the feast of the Annunciation on 25 March and would have to cancel Christmas, but...