M r John Major, the Prime Minister, made a Cabinet reshuffle: Jeremy Hanley became Chairman of the Conservative Party, Employment went to Michael Por- tillo, Education went to...

SPECTATOR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 THE SPIRIT OF 1695 I n a week of Cabinet reshuffles and...

P. D . JAMES 0 ne consequence of being a well- known writer is a daily post-bag remarkable for its size, variety and occasional eccentric- ity. Recently, apart from the usual...

It is high time for a new Great Trek, from the English countryside to southern Russia AUBERON WAUGH O ne of the happiest aspects of the film Four Weddings and a Funeral was...

As in Nazi Germany and Pol Pot's Cambodia, the massacres in Rwanda were the result of careful planning, writes John Simpson The Rwandan Patriotic Front, having just captured...

Christopher Lockwood explains why Luxembourg perfectly embodies the European ideal Luxembourg City THE SEVENTH president of the Com- mission was a dull and in the event hope-...

William Cash is amazed by the cross-racial belief in O.J. Simpson 's innocence Los Angeles TO CLAIM, as many have done, that the O.J. Simpson saga currently obsessing America...

I HAVE a dim childhood recollection of a television series which shocked the country by its depravity. Naturally, my young curiosity was aroused, but my par- ents refused to...

Sir Arthur Bryant's reputation as the 'Grand Old Man of British historical writing' should be reassessed, says Andrew Roberts ON 19 February 1979, London's literary, political...

WE WENT to the end-of-term orches- tral Mass at Westminster Cathedral and very nice it was too: a Missa Solemnis in C by Mozart and `Zadok the Priest' thrown in for luck. But...

NICE Boris Johnson notices a striking similarity between John Major and Tony Blair AS TONY BLAIR at last goes chin to chin with John Major, there is something oddly...

IN THE drawing-room at the White Lodge, Richmond, on Monday, the Royal baby was christened Edward, Albert, Christian, George, Andrew, Patrick, David. That is, he was given the...

Henry Porter complains that restaurants and food writers have reached new levels of pretentiousness The marinated scallops with lime, avocado and coriander were sensational .....

Alasdair Palmer on a case where unregulated capitalism triumphed over architectural heritage NORTHFLEET in Kent is not noted for its architectural heritage. In terms of...

The cave of a Christian Aladdin who was Gothic even in his wives PAUL JOHNSON T he greatest treat a civilised person can enjoy in London today is a visit to the Pugin show at...

IT HAS been the work of years. Mr Clarke acquired his first clue in the 1950s, when he was the Times's City editor. Barings had been bankers to the Imperial government, and Sir...

The black eagle has landed this must be the gold of the Romanovs CHRISTOPHER FILDES R are visitors to the market in gold are black eagles. Dealers must learn to look out for...

The Oldie urged itself upon its subscribers with the pointed slogan: 'Buy it before you snuff it.' Alas for them, they will now find that the Oldie has gone before them....

BAD NEWS for women who like caviar and pornography and have very small feet. All their pleasures, as Kenneth Clarke likes to point out, come free of Value Added Tax. He thinks...

FRONT END FIRST does not apply to Her Majesty's ships. The defence review (Front Line First, now I come to think of it) was meant to keep the sharp end of our forces pointing in...

Sir: 'Actual broad-sheet readers are meaner, or greedier, or less discriminato- ry than I thought' (Paul Johnson, And another thing, 2 July). As an old broad-sheet reader I...

Sir: It may be that no journalist should cast aspersions at what another finds to fill a column, but Richard Littlejohn (Diary, 16 July) is not being altogether fair. He accus-...

Sir: I agree with Mrs Carla Powell's view concerning England and its people (`She's Italian, you know', 9 July). I am a frog (as you say!) having links with England for more...

Sir: Julian Critchley takes me to task for writing that my friend Simon Heifer discov- ered Essex Man (Letters, 16 July). He claims it was he, not Mr Heifer, who first...

Sir: Being of the older generation I recall a time when debt was shameful; if you couldn't afford something you couldn't have it. Martin Vander Weyer ('Bankrupt but not broke',...

Sir: Since Dr Theodore Dalrymple has now been asked to swipe bar codes for each of his patients I wonder how long it will be before bar codes are tattooed on people (If symptoms...

12 Months 6 Months UK 0r80.00 0f41.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £91.00 0 £46.00 USA Airspeed!: USS130 0 USS66.00 USA Airmail fl USS175 0 USS88 Rest of Airmail 0 £111.00 0 £55.50 World...

How the animal rights movement taught Labour's Militant Tendency a trick or two SIMON JENKINS T he modern hunt saboteur no longer sprays aniseed and drops ballbearings under...

His significant deform W. G. Plomer TOULOUSE-LAUTREC A LIFE by Julia Frey Weidenfek4 £25, pp. 595 R ecent art historical research has been focussed on the great...

Jane Charteris EVANGELISTA'S FAN AND OTHER STORIES by Rose Tremain Sinclair-Stevenson, £14.99, pp. 189 R ose Tremain's imagination is an unfettered thing. It roams through the...

Juliet Townsend A SLENDER REPUTATION: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Kathleen Hale Frederick Warne, £20, pp. 288 T o those of us who grew up in the 1940s and Fifties, Orlando the...

Eric Jacobs A FROLIC OF HIS OWN by William Gaddis Viking £16, pp. 586 R eviewing a novel has the advantage over reviewing a film or a play that in dire cases you can fast...

The moon woke me, the pocked and chalky moon that floods the garden with its silvery blue and cuts the shadow of one leafy branch across this bed of ours as if on to bright...

Richard 011ard ANTHONY POWELL: A BIBLIOGRAPHY by George Lilley St Paul's Bibliographies, 145, pp. INVESTIGATING POWELL'S 'A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME' by Isabelle Joyau...

Philip Mansel THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA by H. J. A. Sire Yale, £40, pp. 305 F rom the 16th to the 18th century one place where Europe was visible and audible was Malta. It was...

A Vintage Subscription Offer Give a Spectator gift subscription to a valued friend or relative, and we will give you a gift in return - a bottle of Moet & Chandon 1986 Vintage...

John Jolliffe AN INCH OF TIME by Ian Weston Smith The Book Guild, 25 High Street, Lewes, Susses £15, pp. 332 A rchie Forbes, the central character of this ambitious...

Judy Hurd A BICYCLETTE h ere is a lot to be said for writing about a new experience when it is still new. Leave it too long and familiarity will have dulled its edges. Isabelle...

Radio Uptight, gay and too posh E ighteen months ago, the chatter among the ciabatta-chewing classes ran thus. 'Such fun, Classic FM, all those tunes that you already know....

Tin soldiers and naked ladies Alistair McAlpine T he sale-room results this summer, like the British summer weather, have been a bit mixed. Prices were in free fall at...

was misprinted as 'Don Giovanni is an artiste ... ' It should have read 'Don Giovanni is an aristo '

The Epic and the Everyday: Contemporary Photographic Art (Hayward Gallery, till 29 August) Karl Weschke (Redfern Gallery, till 4 August) Just a snap Giles Auty R eaders of...

She Loves Me (Savoy) The Tempest (Barbican) Brave new productions Sheridan Morley I n the history of great Broadway musi- cals, She Loves Me (Savoy) has always been something...

An original magpie Robin Holloway T here are composers whose music one knows so well that one scarcely gives it a thought or troubles to listen to it any more. It might be an...

Sirens ('18', selected cinemas) Topless belles Mark Steyn I n marketing terms, John Duigan's Sirens has two things going for it, one calculated — you get to see Australia's...

Spot the ball Ian Hislop G -o-a-a-a-l!' screamed the commen- tator as the Brazilian captain drove the ball into the back of the net. Unfortunately this was in 1970 rather than...

Fly Virgin get a freebie Taki A Island of Zante everyone who has ever heard of Turkey knows, the Greek world took a nose dive back in 1453, when the barbar- ians breached the...

Crunch time Nigel Nicolson A garden is like a play, divided into acts and scenes. We have now reached Act Two Scene Four. The best, I used to think, is over. There will be a...

I blame the father Jeffrey Bernard A couple of kind people have recently wheeled me to the Grouch() Club which has been a marvellous change from being in what is now almost...

a fantasy more often met by proxy in the writings of Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson. One turns up at some modest hostelry, is furnished with course upon course of delicious...

i i I SINGLE MALT 5C01 ) L r H M r HISKA COMPETITION i ISLE OF j ) SINGLE WALT SCOTCH :NISEI Poetry in motion Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1839 you were invited to write a...

CHESS r 791111113TINI WV% One of us Raymond Keene THE ANNUAL MATCH between the House of Lords and the House of Commons for the trophy awarded by The Spectator has been won...

CROSSWORD GRAHAM'S PORT w. & GRAHAM'S PORT A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 8 August, with...

A person called Lake gives a lunch party, which proves to be socially and gastronomi- cally disastrous. You are invited to describe it as one of the guests. Maximum 150 words....

A Y A L I O T' 'c Eki U 3 1 T!A'B I L ' E R 7 A T 3 E. P1E911A 7. 1 A'N'O EIS 11 13 r R 'REFUEL AIOER A 1 PSE 3 tUNN9 2 g%EETIE 7AFFIOIC HI* 3 2TyR • L E V I E L Y S L u l L...

Ball predators Frank Keating THE SOUTH AFRICANS reckon that in Jonty Rhodes they have another cover point fieldsman from the same top drawer as Colin Bland. We shall see at...

Dear Mary.. Q. I suspect my boyfriend had a brief fling with a friend of mine the other night. I don't want to ask him directly because, if he admits it, it will be rather...