It _ THE SPECTATOR A MUFFLED OPPOSITION WVestland has provided the opposition Parties with their best opportunity in this Parliament, and the Fulham by-election will be the...

| Margaret FitzHerbert IVIARGARET FitzHerbert, a regular and highly perceptive contributor to the Spectator, was killed in a street accident last week at the age of 43. Her...

JAMES FOR SALE AS TAXATION bites, country house after country house is threatened. Now there is Monkton, but this is different. It is a 20th-century house: a test of taste to...

P O L I T I C S The Winslow Boy and the Westland Woman FERDINAND MOUNT Mrs Winslow: . . . They all get so terribly worked up you find yourself getting worked up too. Sir...

WITH MUSEVENI IN UGANDA John Nagenda visits the victor in his country's civil war WE, RONNIE Mutebi, heir to the kingdom of Buganda, and I, went to visit the National...

CITY AND SUBURBAN Watch the markets break the cartels in tin, in oil, in money CHRISTOPHER FILDES All right, then, hands up: who thinks sterling wouldn't be in this pickle...

Inflated balloons I HAVE been absent this last fortnight, making a first-hand study of the Moroccan economy (rugs firm, oranges advancing), much helped by Walter Harris, the...

Lesson from Leyland ONCE upon a recent time there was a company called Leyland Motors, which lived at Leyland in Lancashire, and made buses and lorries, and was run by an old...

Pen friends Sir: In writing ('High Life', 25 January) that International Pen is 'an organisation . . . whose members meet periodically to denounce the United States in general,...

Shir: Te Bishop of Stepney has given up on fo t proposal to dispose of this property r housing development. He has stated t e is convinced it is not suitable for the Present...

L E T T E R S St George's Sir: Your correspondent, Mrs Pat Beale kLetters, 25 January), says that her letters to me about St George-in-the-East have not been answered. The...

Something was said Sir: Alan Protheroe may, as he says, be 'a journalist of some years' standing', but he has not yet learned to check his facts (Letters, 1 February). What...

Flashy conifers Sir: Why does Ursula Buchan (Gardens, 1 February) chide nursery gardens for lumping conifers together? There are excellent and obvious reasons for it - they are...

From darkest Wapping | Sir: When I visited the Times in its new premises last week, a man entered the office asking for a copy of the Spectator. Unfortunately, neither I nor...

B O OKS A pinch of salt Colin Welch THE ESPIONAGE OF THE SAINTS: TWO ESSAYS ON SILENCE AND THE STATE by David Caute Hamish Hamilton, £12.95 W henever I'm in France, I order...

A horrible book Norman Stone THE HOLOCAUST: THE JEWISH TRAGEDY by Martin Gilbert Collins, £17.50 .lhere have been several very large histories of the Holocaust. Martin...

Wet day Stapled to boredom, the poison fag of a pen between smudged fingers, I survey the garden. Or rather, don't. Because - who's kidding who? Me, not rain's the trouble....

Words seemed too much Anthony Storr THE SILENT TWINS by Marjorie Wallace Chatto & Windus, £0. 95 Psychiatrists become accustomed to hearing strange stories and encountering...

In spite of all, a real vocation Peter Levi THE SEVEN MOUNTAINS OF THOMAS MERTON by Michael Mott Sheldon Press (SPCK), £19.50 The sensation of reading these 670 pages is like...

The nose has it Peter Hebblethwaite A JOURNALIST'S ODYSSEY by Patrick O'Donovan Esmonde Publishing, £5.95 T his is not so much a book as a memento mori. I never knew the slim...

Radio Unhappy hour Noel Malcolm Each time I switch on Radio 3 1 seem to get the same programme, an endless series of organ concerts called Music for the Iron Voice. I cannot...

Music Wigmore delights Peter Phillips S ince we are now in the thick of what promoters lightly refer to as 'the season' of concert-giving. I shall take the opportunity to...

Cinema Revolution ('PG', selected cinemas) The failed revolution Peter Ackroyd Perhaps it ought to have been produced as a silent film, not least because of its script....

Theatre The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC, Barbican) Blithe Spirit (Vaudeville) Slightness and light Christopher Edwards It is a pleasure, not to say a surprise, to report...

Television Offcentre Alexander Chancellor I he Murdoch revolution has finally Stluck home. I was watching the local Thatnes' news on television the other day 4a4Td heard the...

High life All in the mind Taki I New YorkI think it was about six years ago that I wrote in these pages about a match at Wimbledon that was won after a long struggle by...

Home life Ghost stories Alice Thomas Ellis It is, as somebody has remarked, a small world. I had arranged with my friend the analyst that I would go and stay in the flat of...

Low life The arena Jeffrey Bernard Last Sunday lunchtime I turned up an hour too early for a slice of the home life and so had to kill time in a Camden Town pub that was...

III~iIIIIAI .II, 1111-11H l No';~~ j, .. I I~~~SINZI'~ T'ang UNTIL recently a certain culinary racism has coloured this country's restaurantgoing. The prejudice has not...