THEATRE Old carwitchets HILARY SPURLNG Bartholomew Fair (Aldwych) My Little Boy ... My Big Girl (Fortune) Ben Jonson's contract with the critics, laid down in the induction...

CINEMA French nuts PENELOPE HOUSTON The Mladwomian of C(haii/ot (Warner, 'U') Goilo, shian( of Love (Paris Pullman, X') Coming away from The Mad iiontan of (Chaillo/ (say it...

GREECE Waiting for the army M. LLEWELLYN SMITH The recent explosion of a number of bombs in and around Athens by resistance movements, combined with vigorous condemnation of...

TABLE TALK Our young lighthearted masters DENIS BROGAN About fifteen years ago, I found myself on a station platform in Germany. I can't now recall whether it was in Mainz or...

VIEWPOINT To Tunisia with love GEORGE GALE oe of the few aspects of newsworthy life t newspaper sub-editors strike me as ring sound on is natural disaster. My a'ourite Fleet...

FOREIGN FOCUS Which exit from Vietnam? CRABRO President Nixon's major speech on Vietnam on Monday night was ostensibly addressed to his own electorate. But the core of its...

Bird in cheek RONALD HINGLEY Russian Futurism Vladimir Markov (MacGibbon and Kee 168s) Mr Markov offers an erudite and welldocumented chronicle of a neglected episode in...

Good start CHARLES STUART The Younger Pitt John Ehrman (Constable 75s) The Younger Pitt has always been an ideal subject for historical study because of his extraordinary...

THE ROYAL COURT BAN Anderson's complaint NIGEL LAWSON A nderson's Complaint (m-ndaisanz kamplei-nt) [after Lindsay Gordon Anderson (1923- )]. A disorder in which an innate...

Sex '69 CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS It is reported that the repeal of the Danish obscenity laws has been followed by a diminution of immoral conduct among the youth of Denmark. A...

AMERICA Washington, Delinquent City JOHN GRAHAM Washington-Some of my best friends have been raped. Others have been stabbed, or shot at. None has so far been killed, though...

Arithmetic of devastation Sir: In a recent article (4 October) I claimed that the eventual cost of the (it c's motorw ay proposals would be £2.o0o million. This was an...

The BBC and Biafra Sir: With reference to the further correspondence on the BB '.S coverage of the Nigerian Civil War, the BB( 's position of impartiality and objectivitv was...

Swinging together ir: With all respect to Mr Hynam (Letters, No%'ember) the doctrine of original sin Des not in any way deny that men have myt of good and healthy instincts,...

Traveller's joy Sir: Mr J. W. M. Thompson in Spectator's notebook' (25 October) is mistaken if ne believes that cars designed to his utility specification are not exhibited at...

AFTERTHOUGHT Christmas goose JOHN WELLS November! The cold. dark single of the vealr \\hen the cracked vyello\ prote of the ad~ertlserent'n floats domn thicker and faster in...

OPERA Mal occhio JOHN HIGGINS Verdi had some troublesome weeks before the first performance of Luisa Miller at the San Carlo in 1849. The cholera epidemic In Italy meant that...

ARTS Faces across the sea PAUL GRINKE Irish Portraits. 1660-1860' may seem a forbidding title for an exhibition -albeit handsomely mounted, as one has come to expect from the...

Grey magic SIMON RAVEN The Confessions of Aleister Crowley edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant (Cape 105s) Aleister Crowley was born in 1875, the son of a middle-aged...

Wild Boers ROBERT BIRLEY The Afrikaners John Fisher (Cassell 50') The aim of this book, the author tells u.>. 'to offer a logical account of the circufli stances and events...

Honourable men LORD GOODMAN Biafra: Britain's Shame Auberon Waugh and Suzanne Cronj6 (Michael Joseph 30s) No one, not even a supporter of the Government's Nigerian policy...

Now to grasp the olive branch i would be the crowning tragedy of a )ameful episode in British foreign policy the latest Biafran offer-to waive insistnce on its sovereignty in...

SCIENCE The poisoned sei PETER J. SMITH After the last war, tens of thousands of to of chemical warfare material, mainly( German origin, were dumped in the d sea under...

PERSONAL COLUMN Regina v Sir James Barrie GRAHAM GREENE Members of the jury, this case has already lasted almost a week and I realise that much of the expert evidence-you may...

LETTERS From Christopher Booker, Michael A rmstrong, Alfred Sherman, Graham Hallett, Penry Jones, George Scoit-Moncrieff, Christopher Hollis, Professor David Wiggins, W. H....

Open letter to Edward Boyle Sir: Professor Ayer (Letters, I November) shows less respect for facts, logic or words than we have a right to expect from a university teacher,...

What about the people? Sir: In her letter (25 October), Susan Banks says, 'It would be possible to demonstrate logically, step by step, the false similarity between these two'...

Tests for comprehensives TSi h e evidence which rf Boyson eites (I lmveusbeio t o mw tAt the case for somprehensves ba no4 been proWd Is moleading. First he compares the 1968...

God's own propaganda Sir: I think it is possible to reduce Mr GalL'! 'demo' against The Question Why ( \ie" point,' 25 October) to two complaints: th there are too many people...

Ambition's debt HENRY TUBE The Collected P!ays of Jolhn Whiting edited by Ronald Hayman (Heinemann Educational 2 vols 55s each) Playwrights seem to spring up on English soil...

Behind bars STUART HOOD The Demonstration in Pushkin Square Pavel -1it'inov translated by Manya Harari (Harxill Press 30s) In September 1967 Vladimir Bukovsky deed...

For God and profit HAMMOND INNES The Portuguese Seaborne Empire C. R. Boxer (Hutchinson 55s) The Loss of El Dorado V. S. Naipaul (Deutsch 35s) Who was Prester John? Why did...

PORTFOLIO Scragg end JOHN BULL Since I first bought Ernest Scragg for my portfolio I have warned that the shares follow a switchback course and that holders must be prepared...

THE PRESS Blackballed BILL GRUNDY Last week I happened to describe those great big advertising supplements, which so often fill the quality papers, as 'the nearest thing to...

His master's echo PETER DAUBENY A Talent to Amuse Sheridan Morley (Heinemann 63s) On 16 December Noel Coward is seventy. London will celebrate his birthday on television, with...

Morning glory ROBERT BLAKE perior Person Kenneth Rose (Weidenfeld d Nicolson 75s) rzon is a natural subject for the bioapher. The many tales about him, his trar talent, the...

Stout Post PETER FLEMING Etiqu'ette Fmi IN Post (('assell 45s) Somewhere in the late Mrs Post's 619 pages she adjures the hostess at a formal dinner to greet her guests sAith...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY Saviour of the environment AUBERON WAUGH Events have confirmed all the gloomy predictions which appeared in this column about the difficulty of merging...