p er the miners came the railwaymen. After the railwaymen he e ngineers are waiting. The dockers cannot be far behind, an.d.the transport workers. The miners' strike caused a...

Maurice Macmillan has survived his swift baptism under fire remarkably well. It cannot have been easy for him, conducting admirably his first set of important and delicate...

Although the closing date for applications for the position of Editor of the New Statesman is not until Friday of this week, by Friday of last week a short-list of five had been...

At this point, things could start going wrong. It seems most unlikely to me that any sixteen journalists, let alone sixteen left-wing, political, literary, conspiratorial,...

And out of it all, who will emerge the victor? One certain factor: the Board is now desperately anxious to get a new editor as soon as possible, if only to regain control of the...

Corridors May God ever preserve the liver of that good and saintly man, Dr Reginald Bennett, Chairman of the Commons Kitchen Committee. Taking over the cellars of the Commons...

by erleY Nichols, I find myself left with an erwhelming feeling of compassion for ,:lat desperately unhappy and tortured ' w an, his father. I cannot accept that he th as an...

Period fiction Leon Garfield Some while ago I thought of writing a novel laid in the time of the French Revolution. To this end I embarked on a course of reading that became...

Robert Nye Blowfish Live in the Sea Paula Fox (Macmillan £.1.60) Birdy in Amsterdam E. W. Hildick (Macmillan £1.50) The Seige of Trapp's Mill Annabel Farjeon (Dent £1.40) The...

It will be a great relief to everyone in the book trade that the organisers of the 1972 Booker Prize for fiction have decided to relax the conditions under which the prize is...

Despite the justifiable ire of Lord Olivier and his literary manager, Kenneth Tynan, over the National Theatre Board's back-alley plan — prematurely leaked to the Observer last...

Roman balance Kenneth Hurren It is easier to find parallels with modern politics in Corioianus than in any other play of Shakespeare's — and there, I fear, is the reason why...

Boding well for Gill & Duff us John Bull For even the most intuitive short-term speculator a difficult conundrum is posed in determining the way the market will now move. At...

Mill Reef paraded round the paddock, Geoff Lewis donned Mr Mellon's silks and the pair streaked along ten furlongs of springy New bury turf to collect the loudest cheers of an...

on Mr Jenkins's cant (April 13). May I add a footnote? On the day his nauseating spiel was reverently recorded in the Times, a modest paragraph noted the publication of a new...

Sir: Whether or not there should be a referendum on the Common Market depends, I suggest, a great deal upon the phrasing of the question asked. If only the 'Brussels terms ' are...

Sir: I would take issue with Mr T. A. Stanley (Letters, March 11 — ' Cynical attacks ') when he defends the Liberal party's attitude on he EEC issue. I agree with him that the...

Sir: As readers of The Spectator will know, my theory is that what seems to us like " liberation" in sex is often a new form of enslavement. Yet we cannot see it. The dichotomy...

Sir: A couple of factual corrections to Bookbuyer's piece (Spectator, April 15), if I may. First, our initial role will not, as he put it, be confined to "production and jacket...

From Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Sir: John Letts' article (April 8) on at suggested National Museums crganisation is most timely, and there is no doubt that with the forthcoming...

ducted in your columns and elsepopulations in different areas and with a rather inadequate grasp or periods under different regimes, highly selective choice of the Sir:...

Sir: Clive Gammon reports (April 8) on his visit to Slimbridge in a very unhappy way. When we were there on January 20 all the flamingoes were out in their ponds in the sun,...

Sir: Much has been broadcast and published recently about the British Empire: emphasising, and dramatising, the inevitable, but few mistakes, failures and disasters, and...

Sir: I write to tell you that I love Benny Green — at least, I love him for his article in your April 8 issue. I find I am not alone, after all. There are others who get off a...

Sir: For goodness' sake why doesn't Benny Green stay indoors if seeing the redevelopment of London causes him so much pain? I wouldn't mind, but when he's not launching into...

Jef Smith The establishment of the British Association of Social Workers two years ago brought together seven organisations, but ironically as they amalgamated several more...