International anarchy has had quite a week. An American ambassador has been traded against a group of Brazilian political prisoners. Yet another American airliner has been...

The limousine liberal AUBERON WAUGH New York—Wherever serious people meet in New York City, they end up discussing the question whether the city can survive. This usually...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS The terraces were built by Nash. They will not do for modern offices. The private man may move no stone Of property that is his own, The Ministry of Public...

Who and how after Ho? P. J. HONEY Resolutions to rule through collective leadership fail to convince. An under- developed Communist state, by its very nature, must be ruled by...

want fifteen prisoners.'

Hard slog DAVID BUCHAN The isolation of Cuba hits you even before you reach it. You must fly from either Mexico City or Prague or Madrid. I went on a Cuban government...

Friar Muggeridge at Auld Reekie MERCURIUS EDINENSIS GUID BROTHER LONDINIENSIS, I hae received your letter of the 31st in whilk you speir for news from this our Northern...

From the 'Spectator', 11 September 1869—The Bishops unequal to their work are really begin- ning to resign. Not only is it understood that the Bishop of Winchester resigns early...

J. W. M. THOMPSON In theory, political parties ought to be rather good at advertising, since their entire existence depends upon their ability to commend themselves to the...

Let's all swing together A. E. DYSON When John Braine wrote in the SPECTATOR his 'goodbye to the left' (19 July 1968), he mentioned the influence of the Moors murders on his...

Meeting season GEORGE SCOTT -r - t- With the Txrc conference behind us, the political party conferences loom alteaff. What is the proper iv treatment of these events? The...

Cannon's shot BILL GRUNDY Since this week a well-known Cannon has at last gone off with a bang, this could be as good a time as any to see what effect it's had on the target....

Disc dilemma JOHN ROWAN WILSON It happened in a disconcertingly casual way. I was playing a rather sloppy game of tennis and felt a mild ache in one side of my back. Some kind...

Game lore LESLIE ADRIAN Mr Philip Harben once wrote, for entertain- ment rather than enlightenment, that there were really only two sorts of people in the civilised world:...

Death of a public eye DENIS BROGAN Late in May in 1942, I was informe&by some British official in one of the military missions in Washington that I was to go and talk to a...

J. H. PLUMB Two well-known novelists, indeed two best sellers, have been attracted to the most dramatic period of European history when, between 1450 and 1550, the maritime...

TIBOR SZAMIJELY Message from Moscow An Observer (Cape 32s) The anonymous author of Message from Moscow describes himself as a non- communist Western student who has spent the...

ROBERT BLAKE Atemoirs of a Conservative: 1. C. C. David- ,on's Memoirs and Papers 1910-37 Robert Rhodes James (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 84s) Lord Davidson was the intimate...

Hard truth BARRY COLE The Cost of Living Like This James Kenna- way (Longmans 30s) The Hungry Grass Richard Power (Bodley Head 30s) The Cardinal in Exile Hugh Ross William-...

HENRY TUBE Westward to Laughter Colin Maclnnes (MacGibbon and Kee 30s) In the strange half-light of journalism, where subject-matter appears more important than its treatment,...

STUART HOOD. 1, Post - prison Writings and Speeches Eldridge Cleaver edited by Robert Scheer (Cape 35s) `It has been said that people get the ,rulers they deserve. I do not...

Fresh crab PETER PARLEY The Flaxborough Crab Colin Watson (Eyre and Spottiswoode 25s) The Voyeur Henry Sutton (Hodder and Stoughton 35s) The Man with the Tiny Head Ivor Drum-...

Tattoo blues PHILIP HOPE-WALLACI Aria: 0 Edinborgo citta the adoro. Th, accent is Italian this year, the twenty-third Early on a fine blue sky morning, the crisr clear view...

Old casbah's work is done PENELOPE HOUSTON For years we seem to have been reading, off and on about the cinema's wayward efforts to come to terms with the Alexan- dria...

MICHAEL NYMAN If, as Alexander Goehr recently pointed out, it is uniqueness that accounts for the constant fascination of live performance. then the sub-species, concert...

Demure walls BRYAN ROBERTSON The most exasperating and thoroughly worthwhile event in London now is a demonstration, rather than an exhibition, sponsored by the Institute of...

JOHN BULL The fight for your savings is going on right under your nose. It is a fierce, high- spending4 ccn1test. One unit trust group. Save and Prosper, pays out well over £1...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT hree weeks ago I was venturing to say that e better export news gave some en- -ouragement to the view that the then rally.. n equity shares could or should...

Sir: I regret your publication (6 September) of Christopher Booker's rag-bag of smears and non-sequiturs threatening us with 'the misery and despair of a galloping sexual...

allow me to correct two distortions which crept into Bill Grundy's article (30 August) on the Sun via, it seems, the UK Press Gazette. The concern at the moment is not so much...

From T. R. Gibson, John A. Yates, David Nathan, Tibor Szamuely, Jane Degras, T. M. Higham, D. C. Rose, W. T. Bromley, John Levy, Miles Copeland III, Stuart Montgomery, Andrew...

Sir: In your 23 August issue you had a letter from Mr W. E. Hall, 14 Park Hill Road, Birmingham 17, regarding the 'Eipick - to keep boiling eggs from cracking while being...

Sir: May I be allowed to correct the state- ment made by Stephen Gardiner in his article (30 August) on Mies van der Rohe. that the patterning of concrete with wooden shuttering...

Sir: I am told by friends more experienced in the literary world than I that it is poor form for an author or anyone connected with him to reply to a review. I really must...

Sir: I am surprised no one has taken to task Mr Barklam (Letters, 30 August) for not only perpetuating the canard that Haldane remarked that Germany was his spiritual home, but...

Sir: One hesitates to contradict such an illustrious polymath as Sir Denis Brogan (6 September), but Sydney Smith did not say of the Scilly Islanders that they lived by taking...

(Letters, 6 September) dares me to answer his 'challenge' to my facts. The task is not as difficult as he seems to believe. First, he completely distorts the text of my article....

Roger and out JOHN WELLS Passengers on domestic flights inside the United Kingdom may soon be required to produce entry visas and temporary resi- dence permits for all foreign...

Sir: Mr Davenport in his article on the National Film Finance Corporation (23 August), misjudges the past, the present and the future. His indictment of the NFFC is unfair. If...

not reply to Mr Ian Hamilton Finlay's charges =in his letter to the SPECTATOR (2 Anne) and his letters written to other journalsois lin the matter has, since before any of these...

No. 570: House of fiction Set by E. 0. Parrot!: In a recent 'After- thought' John Wells speculated on the be- haviour of Long John Silver in his role as a Labour MP. There are...

Across 1 Newfoundland? Rather nearer home! (4- 2-4) 6 To be naughty about fifty calls for tricho- logical measures (4) 10 Stupid compact (5) 11 O.S. model tie for high-ups (9)...

PHILIDOR C. Mansfield (1st Prize, Hampshire Telegrapi Post, 1915). White to play and mate in two mo‘e 5 , solution next week. Solution to no. 455 (Thomson): R-KB2 1 , threat...