Relief and foreboding The initial reactions must be relief and foreboding. First the relief. Hyperbole should be avoided. but Mr Jamnes. lmmy Carter has surely been the most...

Political commentary The lovable old menace Ferdinand Mount He voted for Silkin . . he didn't. . .well, he said he was going to. . . he wouldn't say he had unless he had,...

Notebook One person who will he pleased at Ronald Reagan's victorv is his old frienrd Mr- lan MacGregor, Chairman of the British Steel Corporation. Mr MacGregor believes that...

Another voice The CBI's 'only way' Auberon Waugh I never thought that I would miss Sir John Methven, the last Director General of the Confederation of British Industries, who...

The humiliation of Carter Henry Fairlie Washington Well, I did say that, if Governor Reagan, Wvon he would win big. But not even his rnfst enthusiastic and convinced...

Why Reagan won Nicholas von Hoffman Washington The television said it was a conservative tidesweep or tide or trend, but the election was more like a national coin flip. The...

The laughing revolution Tim Garton Ash Warsaw 'We demand registration for Solidarity', the Posters still proclaim all over Gdansk. BUt Someone has added with unchanged...

Russia: the fear of contagion Bohdan Nahaylo The Russians are clearly worried that recent events in Poland may have repercussions within the Soviet Union. On 20 August the...

Fair play and the Revenue Geoffrey Wheatcroft nII Venice once, three condemned prisoners Were being marched to execution, to underg death by one of the refined tortures Which...

Capitalism and the big steal Jack Trevor Story Shoplifting is one of the very few excitements left. It is a way of climbing mountains in vour own town. 'I did it because it...

In the City The defence business Tony Rudd The ghost of Sir Basil Zaharoff. who was the greatest of all arms salesmen, stalks the markets. For in a world of industrial...

Guarding against tyranny Sir: Replying to Mr Maycock (1 NOVeOl' ber), and at the risk of being charged with splitting hairs, may I submit that it is the Queen in Parliament who...

The new English literature Sir: It is all very well to pontificate in Y0" leader (25 October) on the virtues ol English writing, but it was perhaps to expected that you could...

Letters Sighting an editor Sir: Byron Rogers's article on editor hunting - 'In search of William Rees-Mogg' (I November) - recalls a sighting of a cdistinguished editor of the...

Living cathedrals Sir: I like Mrs Warehouse's story (20 September) of her small nephew in front of Leslie Durbin's Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Ripon Cathedral - how he called...

Books The funniest writer in England Richard West The Stretchford Chronicles: 25 Years of Peter Simple Extracts from the 'Way of the World column of the Daily Telegraph...

Ripped open A.N. Wilson The Tennyson Album Andrew Wheatcroft TOutlede P£10 50) ennyson: The Unquiet Heart Robert 13ernard Martin (Oxford £12.95) Who said that reading the...

Sad genius Gavin Stamp Edwin Lutyens by his Daughter Mary Lutyens (Murray £12.95) Lutelns is a name even to those who have no interest in architecture and have probably...

Visionaries Francis King The Past Neil Jordan (Cape £6.50) To recreate the past is always, in some measure, to invent it. This is the basic theme of Neil Jordan's boldly...

Arts Light relief Bryan Robertson The Price (Shaw Theatre) The Provok'd Wife (Lyttelton Theatre) A first rate company, well directed by Anthony Cornish, is providing...

Cinema Roman follies Peter Ackroyd Caligula ('X', Prince Charles Cinema) Even if the Romans in Britain were appallingly vulgar, as the latest dramatic evidence suggests, on...

Art - Not surprising - l John McEwen anhle number of shows now opening, running t, csing makes this a sharp-shooting In't the Serpentine Gallery (till 16 B ennber and then...

Television Right to know Richard Ingrams I am glad to see that Robin Day's Question Time has been brought forward now to the reasonable time of 10.15, but it is still far too...

High life Seriously Taki Although Edmund Wilson was by MOst accounts not the nicest of men, he Is nevertheless almost a hero of mine. He was very important to people like...

Low life Bliss Jeffrey Bernard Ihere was a harmless spread in last week's tlh Y Express which caught my eye and eT Summoned my gall which was headed beaU HAPPINESS Is ... and...

Postscript Bee news Patrick Marnham The world of bees was recently rocked to its foundations by the news that Brother Adam, the bee king of Buckfast Abbey, had been robbed...