As almost hourly the threat of a massive Russian-backed ulvasion increases, appeals for help from Somalia are b ecoming more and more frenzied. What, if anything, Should the...

As good as a wink Ferdinand Mount Mr Heath is a regular attender at the House of Commons. He may not vote as often as some, but during questions and the opening speeches,...

The Italians have surely got the right idea. As a country staggers and reels towards economic decay, domestic upheaval, international impotence and, eventually, state...

The defence that failed Auberon Waugh Like most Englishmen of the middle class I was born with a solid respect for British justice. I remain unconvinced of Timothy Evans's...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington : t he Anwar Sadat travelling show played to large and generally favourable audiences Ilere. He didn't say anything he hadn't said a hundred...

Sam White Pads If the French general election next month is a cliff-hanger then the outcome will be determined as it were by a cliff-hanger within a cliff-hanger. I refer to...

David Levy Calgary, Alberta What a rotten shame, losing all those affable Russians from Ottawa, and one from l vjontreal (the ICAO man, who was particularly affable and well...

JAMES I by David Mathew, also Gardiner's 'History of England from 1603'. Write Spectator Box No. 802. D IS FOR DOG and 'Hyman Kaplan' by Leo Rosten. Hard or paperback. A. Peck,...

Edwin Hoyt Honolulu This state —which calls itself The Paradise of the Pacific — is looking desperately for a way to pull in the welcome mat that has long been characteristic...

Shiva Naipaul 'Vhen the Arts Council asked me if I would ' h ike to go on one of their Writers' Tours to rnimberside, I was a little doubtful — for a start, I could not say...

Christopher Booker Having reviewed Count Nikolai Tolstoy's book Victims of Yalta at length in these columns last week, I have inevitably in the Past few days had a good many...

Geoffrey McDermott I was personally involved, in my official capacity as a first secretary in the Foreign Office, in the policy of repatriating displaced persons to the Soviet...

Peter Ackroyd It's the nearest thing to music hall. Like some Victorian relic, battered but holding Up remarkably well, the lady in the red taffeta gown croons out the old...

Monetarism and gilts Nicholas Davenport It would appear to that distinguished City banker, Mr Walter Salomon, who objected to my recent criticism of the Governor oil the Bank...

Sir: Your admirable political correspondent, Mr Ferdinand Mount, writes (11 February): 'It is incredible, for example, that Conservative MPs. . . should have waited for six...

Sir; Do the GPO make any enquiries before allocating PO Box numbers to applicants? Apparently not, because a large quantity of Pornography comes and goes via PO Box numbers....

Sir : British Nuclear Fuels Managing Director Con Allday says (10 February) that Friends of the Earth 'have made no secret of the fact that they intend to try and delay a...

Sir: In your issue of 4 February, Trevor Jarman reasons that the Conservatives' need is for Edward Heath, while Marjorie Radway believes that Tory Salvation lies rather with...

Sir: The Post Office being what it is, I have only just received your issue of 4 February in which the usually equable Mr John Byrne expresses his displeasure at my recent...

Sir: Amidst all the hate and abuse from the Socialists, I am trying to recall what frightful measures the Conservatives leader said her party might introduce. Did she propose...

The princess and the peabrain Alastair Forbes Time and Chance: An Autobiography Peter Townsend (Collins 25.50) The King was obviously devoted to the good-looking equerry....

Richard West The Bad Bohomlan Cecil Parrott (Bodley Head V10) Those of us who reckon The Good Soldier Svejk one of the half-dozen funniest books , ever written were already...

Kenneth Lindsay An Autobiography Abba Eban (Weidenfeld and Nicol son £10) I think it was Sir Alec Douglas-Home who, when Foreign Secretary, said of Abba Eban: 'He must be the...

Anthony Mockler The Royal Race Jillian Robertson (Blond & Briggs 25.95) Princess Charlotte was one of the jolliest and most popular of the Hanoverians. The people pitied her...

Victims of , Love Colin Spencer (Quartet £5.25) You Must be Sisters Deborah Moggach (Collins £4.50) After two weeks in New Zealand, I lurched limply towards Australia, desperate...

Chekhov without cry-babies Ted Whitehead The Cherry Orchard (Olivier) Saint Joan (Old Vic) The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin (Mayfair) `Chekhov is a second-rate writer and a...

Con-man Rodney Mimes Gianni Schicchi and Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Colisium) Ariadne auf Naxos (Covent Garden) The operatic up-dating process continues apace. We read about...

Openness John McEwen Jeremy Moon was killed in a road accident in America in 1973. He was thirty-eight and left a wife and three young children. His importance as a painter...

The truth Mary Kenny Something will have to be done about sociologists and social psychologists and the way they abuse the English language. There was a woman called Rona M....

Reflex action Clancy Sigal Effi Briest (Gate, Notting Hill) Viva Knievel (Casino) Sometimes, when playgoing, I suffer what I always think of as the `Aldwych-Theatre syndrome'...

Game's up Richard Ingrams Like the member of some agreeable old club which has decided finally to let women in, I have been savouring the last days of the all-male ITN. Any...

Claude's reign Taki Paris With less than a month to go before the most crucial election in modern French history, a politically motivated act has abolished the most sacrosanct...

Cocktail time Jeffrey Bernard There •was a party, this week, at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair to launch a book about Diana Dors. I don't know whether she wrote it herself or...