Loyalist's Lament

Sir: Whenever there is an inquest on a Con- servative debacle, we get wailing sing-songs about the inadequate presentation of the party's message: leaders without charisma,......

Blooming Beautiful

Sir: Among Philip Hensher's numerous dis- gruntled remarks about Ulysses (Books, 26 July), I was particularly surprised to learn that he found the book 'unfunny in the extreme'.......

No Infant Prodigy

Sir: Andrew Roberts (Diary, 26 July) says that the Master of Caius College, Cam- bridge, discovered 'the long-lost mid-18th- century plans Sir John Soane drew up for an......

Wellington's Beef

Sir: The paranoid attitude of some modern politicians towards an often hostile press, highlighted in Kelvin MacKenzie's article (`Hair yesterday, gone today', 19 July), is one......

Sir: I Read With Interest Simon Barnes's Article On South

African rugby being the game of apartheid. Actually, it is the game of all true South Africans and, but for them, Simon Barnes's black leader, clad in the sporting uniform of......

Sports Retort

Sir: I found Simon Barnes's account of the Lions' rugby tour, and the attitude of South Africans to rugby football interesting and fairly accurate (Spectator sport, 12 July). He......