Law and order never seemed to make much headway as an election issue last month. This is not to say that public feel- ing on the issue played an insignificant part in the...

The man who isn't running PETER PATERSON There is something irresistibly Ruritanian about the British Labour party, with its in- trigues, its shifting coalitions, its appetite...

A land of trouble GEORGE GALE Where are the priests, where are the ministers of religion? Are they in the cross-fire, appeal- ing for peace? They are not. They are with 'their...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS It's wrong to play games against teams That are products of racist regimes, But this rule in the eyes of the picket Applies only to running and cricket. If...

1951 and all that JOHN MacCALLUM SCOTT Shortly after the 1951 election the SPECTATOR published a letter from me pointing out that there were other ways of being an effective...

Mr Barber's trip to Europe CRABRO Diplomatic correspondents are not so unlike sports reporters, much as both groups would resent the comparison. When the outcome of the match...

A cause to celebrate MURRAY KEMPTON New York — This must have been the grim- mest, most sullen and self-righting In- dependence Day within the memory of most Americans. The...

GEORGE HUTCHINSON As I might have said before we were inter- rupted so abruptly, writing for non-publica- tion is rather a drag. It's not what we're used to, those of us in the...

A very personal matter ROBERT RHODES JAMES Writing a book is a very personal and intimate affair. For a long period—amount- ing in most cases to several years—the pro- ject is...

Street of misadventure BILL GRUNDY Fleet Street has been like a casualty clearing station these last seven days or so. Not only did we have the non-appearance of this journal...

Yes, but who finds the money? GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE It was quite a coup for mac Television to dish up a musical profile of Edward Heath recently, for as well as enthusing over...

Toys for the boys PETER J. SMITH On 20 June 1968 Professor Brian Flowers, chairman of the Science Research Council, announced an important government decision. Britain was...

The royal jelly DENIS BROGAN After Mr Attlee's first year at Downing Street an observer (so the story runs) expressed his surprise at the effectively authoritative manner of...

From the 'Spectator', 9 July 1870 — There is nothing very odd, that we see, though there may be something very dangerous, in the re- ported selection of a Catholic Hohenzollern...

ANTHONY BURGESS Claude Levi-Strauss is one of the doyens of modern French thought, if by modern French thought is meant an almost un- exportable blend of myth and mysticism and...

Under arms PETER PARLEY !Terrible Hard' says Alice Christopher Wood (Constable 30s) Spies Inc Jack D. Hunter (Muller 25s) Nineteen Roger Hall (Macdonald 30s) The XYY Man...

RONALD HINGLEY You Must Know Everything: Stories 1915- 1937 Isaac Babel translated by Max Hayward (Cape 36s) Among Russian prose authors of the Soviet period Isaac Babel is by...

OLIVER WARNER The Victorian Underworld Kellow Chesney (Temple Smith 60s) With what a sneer pedagogues of a genera- tion or so ago used to refer to 'the great un- washed,'...

MICHAEL BORRIE Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy Peter Brieger, Millard Meiss and Charles S. Singleton (Rciutledge 2 vols £22) These splendid volumes, planned for...

ASHLEY BROWN Selected Letters of Theodore Roethke edited by Ralph J. Mills Jr (Faber 60s) This well-edited selection of letters will be of considerable interest to admirers of...

BARBARA MAUDE Since Silent Spring Frank Graham Jnr (Hamish Hamilton 40s) The Assaults on our Senses John Barr (Methuen 45s) When Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring her readers...

The Life of J. M.-W. Turner, RA Walter Thornbury (Ward Lock Reprints 75s). Here is one of the great oddities of biography. When Turner died, a biography was clearly called for,...

ROBERT CUSHMAN It is probably true that Ingmar Bergman's production of Hedda Gabler (National Theatre at the Cambridge) is less than a complete realisation of the play. But let...

Taylor made CLEMENT CRISP By the time you read these words the most extraordinary balletic marathon that London has known in years will have got under way. During the course...

Wild colonial , TREVOR GROVE In what looks curiously like a devilish ploy thought up by those sirening immigration men at Australia House, we appear to have come under...

Ladies' day JOHN HIGGINS Norma at Covent Garden two weeks ago be- haved much like Nijinsky winning the Irish Derby at the Curragh : a dull and un- spectacular start, nothing...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The Heathian honeymoon is over—quite a phenomenal amount of champagne has been drunk by rejoicing investors—and the City is working hard trying to puzzle out...

From R. B. Carnaghan, Eric Lubbock, T. L. Cleave, E. Davies, George Chowdharay- Best, Randolph Vigne, John L. Insley; David Mitchell, Mrs S. N. Naupoira, William Cookson, Sir...

JOHN BULL What is described as a 'new kind of invest- ment' has been launched in the savings market and I am not too happy about it. I refer to Bradford-Janus futures bonds....

Sir: Your correspondent K. I. Wiggs (Letters, 27 June) sets out to champion the cause of South Africa after completing his arcane researches into data provided (I pre- sume) by...

Sir: 'Leslie Adrian' (20 June) suggests that a British Department of Consumer and Cor- porate Affairs be set up on the Canadian model. In the strict sense, his (or her?) plea is...

Sir: May I suggest that Mr Nicholas Daven- port's reply (13 June) to my letter, about the disappearance of the equity cult, centres one-sidedly on a peculiar situation in...

Sir: Almost every part of Mr Shenfield's 'argument' (13 June) attacking white South Africa's critics was used, 'moans nuttandis, to attack the abolitionists over 150 years ago....

Sir : Might I make some reply to Ronald Hingley's review of my book 1919: Red Mirage, which appeared in the SPECTATOR on 25 April, but which has only recently come to my...

Sir : It is depressing to see as fine a writer as Martin Seymour-Smith (in his review of The Life of Ezra Pound by Noel Stock, 20 June) joining the host of inferior critics who...

Sir: The most distressing factor in the letters of recent correspondents on Northern Ire- land (20 June) is that for the most part they have fallen victim to a simple technique...

Sir: Since Anthony Burgess's article on Singapore appeared (6 June), your readers will be interested to know 'Mr Lee's dicta- torial pragmatism' has led him to order all...

Sir: In your issue of 27 June you speak, like so many, of the 'utter discredit' of the poll- sters. Quite sure? I enclose some fairly prophetic verses I made in 1959: I notice...

No. 612: Omnium gatherum Competitors are invited to incorporate the titles of eight current West End plays in a piece of verse which shall not be wholly inconsequent. Limit...

PHILIDOR G. H. Goehart (1st Prize, Olympic Composing Tourney, 1948). White to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 497 (Bartolovit-8/3R3r/...

Across I Withdrawn to get something done about confused chat (8) 5 'Fall'n —, to be weak is miserable' (Milton) (6) 9 Done in the manner of the atom? (8) 10 Slippery offspring...

Enter the Baccy Pashas JOHN WELLS They call them the Baccy Pashas. To many ordinary people they are indistinguishable from the sleepy-eyed, easy-going, show-...