C olonel Gaddafi was rumoured to have fled Libya, a day after American bombers operating from British bases had attacked Tripoli and Benghazi in reprisal for the recent...

REAGAN, THATCHER AND THE COLONEL O ur first reaction to the bombing of Libya is that the President of the United States has made a mistake, and that Mrs Thatcher is wrong to...

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From the halls of Marks and Spencer to the shores of Tripoli FERDINAND MOUNT A more cynical and self-protective Brit- ish Prime Minister would have behaved as M. Mitterrand...

W en WPC Yvonne Fletcher was murdered, I was in favour of trying her killers. There was nothing in international law that allowed an embassy to be used as a machine-gun post or...

Too many Donalds in pursuit of the Sunday duck AUBERON WAUGH The newest clerical Donald to emerge and make a nuisance of himself is the Revd Donald English, Moderator of the...

Christopher Hitchens shows why America ignored `wiser counsels', and wonders how its attack on Libya can bring it success in the Middle East Washington AMERICAN political life...

Charles Glass describes Tripoli during and immediately after the American attack Tripoli We have done what we had to do, and if necessary we will do it again.' Ronald Reagan,...

Middle Eastern connections before the Berlin bombing Berlin THE Hauptstrasse in West Berlin on the morning of 5 April did not look like the starting place of an international...

Stephen Robinson on how the South African government now presents co-operation with blacks as vital Cape Town THE official mouthpiece of the ruling National Party, Die...

Mr Glad- stone's earliest speech in Midlothian in November with his present policy. Mr Gladstone had then said that 'every man, woman, and child amongst us is convinced that it...

Andrew Gimson explains the paradox that Ulster loyalists should attack police homes Belfast/ Fermanagh BEFORE the Royal Ulster Constabulary officially came into being, in June...

Gavin Stamp remembers one of the most redoubtable of Englishwomen LAST Monday I telephoned Candida Lycett-Green to ask how I could get hold of her mother. I wanted her to talk...

The press: Paul Johnson on the unstudied history of Austria's war guilt THERE have been frequent complaints in this column about the decline in the stan- dards of foreign...

THE morally hazardous business of John- son Matthey Bankers hit the Governor of the Bank of England's out-tray, to a sigh of relief which registered on the Richter scale. It had...

NIGEL Robson is the City banker who wants a new and stricter code for Ministers' investments. It is a welcome change to find the City preaching to Westminster, but Mr Robson...

THE Singular Affair of Canary Wharf may rank with the Red-Headed League among our strangest adventures in the great City of London, and yet my friend would never deem it a...

Insuring for the moral hazards of the bucket-shops CHRISTOPHER FILDES M oral hazard: is it good for you? This stimulating topic for sixth-form debating societies in the better...

The locomotive of the Western World JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE T he ingenuity of my old colleague and co-author Nigel Lawson never ceases to divert us. Once upon a time, when all the...

Sir: We are asked to believe that police- men take a dim view of crimes. Perhaps somebody would explain why I have for two days been hearing deafening alarm. It is 3 a.m. 500...

Sir: How does the conclusion of Andrew Gimson's thoughtful piece ('Inhumanity beyong conception', 5 April) on embryo experiments — that to use human life as a means to an end is...

Sir: Please reassure us that Andrew Alex- ander's article on Ulster ('How Ulster could ruin Britain', 29 March) was a spoof — such utter drivel can't be serious. 11n] a war...

Sir: I cannot think of anything more detrimental to the present state of British justice, already creaking at the seams, than Ronald Payne's suggeston (22 March) that Juries be...

Sir: Nigella Lawson suggests (Restaurant, 12 April) that after dining in Bristol a taxi ride or long walk to Temple Meads Rail- way Station rounds the evening off. May 1 point...

Sir: In common with other readers of the Spectator who have the misfortune to have been born, and contrive to continue to e xist, north of Watford, I am amazed at Your inability...

Sir: You mentioned James Cagney in your 'Portrait of the Week' (5 April). He was not a 'Hollywood gangster': he was an actor who played the part of a gangster in some of his...

Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for f (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months UKJEire 0 £41.00 0 £20.50 Europe...

R eaders will remember with pleasure Paul Theroux's glowing review (Spectator, 30 November 1985) of Elias Canetti's The Human Province (Deutsch, £9.95). In it Mr Theroux...

From Cyprus, pommes de terre not pommes d'amour - Deep winter, our own murphies past their best. But these are thin-skinned as the goddess, tanned Lightly, as she, too, in that...

John Gielgud AGATE: A BIOGRAPHY by James Harding Methuen, £12.95 T he cover of this striking biography bas been most cunningly designed to introduce the reader to the...

Anita Brookner FOUND IN THE STREET by Patricia Highsmith Heinemann, f9.95 T he sentimental Victorian title of Patri- c ia Highsmith's latest novel — her 14th, by MY...

John Mortimer THE OXFORD BOOK OF LEGAL ANECDOTES edited by Michael Gilbert Oxford University Press, f12.50 I sometimes think that the chilling things in the law are the...

Elizabeth Longford LADY ANNE BLUNT: JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE, 1878-1917 edited by Rosemary Archer and James Fleming Alexander Heriot, £25 I cannot think of anyone who would...

John Bayley PHILOSOPHY IN RUSSIA: FROM HERZEN TO LENIN by Frederick C. Copleston Search Press/University of Notre Dame, f25 T his book is very honest, as well as clear and...

Juliet Townsend PART OF THE PATTERN by Elaine Moss Bodley Head, £8.95 T here have been three threads running through children's literature from the be- ginning — imagination,...

Nicholas Barker W hen I first went to work at the British Library, then not long separate d from the British Museum but still occupy - ing a large part of the Museum, I called...

I step from a hot train. There is a platform stippled like shortbread, sanded with weak sunlight. There is a pigeon's iced spatter, a tipexed squat, there, by the wrought...

Hawtree on 15 March 1986 In the 15 March edition of the Spectator we commented adversely on the late arrival of our review copy of Homage to Qwert Yuiop by Anthony Burgess and...

Exhibitions Falls the Shadow (Hayward till 15 June) Arthur Boyd (Fischer Fine Art till 9 May) Modern British Art III (Austin Desmond, Saturdays till 10 May) 10 May) Wayward...

The Beaux' Stratagem (Lyric Hammersmith) Humanity and wit Christopher Edwards T he death of George Farquhar (167 1- 1707) at the very young age of 30 was a great loss to...

A Room with a View (PG'. Curzon, Mayfair) Pictures from Italy Peter Ackroyd T he film has all the makings of a genteel elegance, from the carefully ironic credits at the...

Sounds from the past Peter Phillips R ecently EMI have dipped into their store-house of historical recordings and come out with two reissues of music by Vaughan Williams,...

Springtime blues Alan Gibson W hen, a few years ago, the start of the championship cricket season was set back for a fortnight, the universities, governed by term time,...

Wide-awake women Alexander Chancellor And gentlemen of England, now abed c Shall think themselves accursed they we t not here. S o far as BBC television is concerne d, there...

Into action Taki Most of them have been in places like Palm Beach and Beverly Hills doing social work among the rich, and putting the final touches to their tans. Others have...

Temporary insanity Jeffrey Bernard talking of things maritime, although it is difficult to estimate her body beneath the severe black and white costume obligatory to serve...

Uncommon courtesy Alice Thomas Ellis I think people have forgotten how to be easily polite. Americans over here overdo it (I don't know how they behave back home) and a lot of...

one would ordin- ary people. Even the simplest restaurant decor would look over the top in some- one's house. But I think I can safely say that I've come across what must be one...

LESS THAN HALF-PRICE More stimulating than any lecture, funnier than the set books, The Spectator should be required reading for every student. With Student Subscriptions...

Cuckoo cookery Japistos I n Competition No. 1416 you were asked for the title and publisher's blurb for yet another unnecessary cookery book with a new angle. Miles Kington...

Brussels sprouts Raymond Keene B elgians have in the past not been noted for their collective prowess at chess. Indeed, for many years by far their most prominent player was...

V E' R 0 U N AI Nr0 0 N9 ua P "2 E B' C "E A S E I L Y 0 L AINT 0 E I' S The solutions/lights of the unnum- bered clues are RED 38, BLUE 21D, BERYL 21A, BLACK 35, COPPER 23,...

'A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) will be awarded for the first...

April 30 is the 50th anniversary of A. E. Housman's death. You are invited to supply a poem (maximum 16 lines) such as he might have written had his favourite scene been not...