' . . it's a right to the body, and now a left! I've never seen anything like it! What a fight, ladies and gentlemen! Now Ivana's got him against the ropes, but Donald's hitting...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 MANDARINS WIN A s foreign secretaries came and went, making slightly...

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Lies, damned lies and predictions of a Labour majority NOEL MALCOLM T he old saying ' that you can prove anything with statistics is, of course, an exaggeration. Statistics...

E mlyn Williams once said that only virgins, generals and professional writers keep diaries. I would like to think of myself as belonging to that last category but I've never...

Timothy Garton Ash watches Germany uniting, and talks to Mrs Thatcher's one admirer Bonn—Berlin 'YOU can't come through here,' says the senior East German frontier officer at...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard examines Nicaragua's polarised politics on the eve of the election Managua The old poor, the new poor, and the barefoot waited patiently in the Plaza...

Super collider WHO'S contemplating the expenditure of $2,000 million above a budgeted $5,900 million, at Waxahachie (Texas), on what? The US Department of Ener- gy on a...

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party won last weekend's election. Murray Sayle calculates the cost Tokyo ASSESSING the feat of the combined opposition in wresting control of the...

Michael Heath

Mark Almond asks whether Rumania's turncoats have really changed for the better Bucharest `IT'S already February,' whispers a car- toon demon with the features of Nicolae...

Anthony Daniels on the inflated hero of a nation ON THE 137th anniversary of the birth of Cuba's 'heroe nacional', Jose Marti, the official organ of the Revolutionary Armed...

Tony Samstag reveals that Soviet leaders have been studying Scandinavian-style socialism Oslo MY STORY begins two years ago, at just about this same dark time of the New Year,...

To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sir — Your article in the Spectator of February 15th draws attention to a phase of human nature frequently noticed, little understood —...

a Conservative's solutions to family breakdown AT THE core of Conservatism is a wise old view that there's not much governments ' can do to alter human nature. Progressive...

The media: Paul Johnson on a piece of duopoly cheeseparing IN THE West Country, there has been some contemptuous sneering at the latest proposal from 'the best TV service in...

February) that a Christian or Jewish fundamentalist is quite as bad as a Muslim one. Perhaps one difference is that, in this century at least, Jews and Christians have refrained...

Sir: In the euphoria of post-communist Czechoslovakia, there is an important group of men of continuous courage and integrity who are in danger of being ignored by European...

Sir: Noel Malcolm (Politics, 3 February) perhaps misinterprets Mrs Thatcher's reasons for expressing opposition to Ger- man reunification when he says that 'like many of her...

Sir: Anwer Bati's intemperate and abusive • style (`A billion Muslims can't be wrong', 10 February) suggests some inner insecur- ity. If! am — in his words — influential, it can...

Sir: In order to save my husband from an apoplectic demise would you please reas- sure him that 'Wallace Arnold' is The Spectator's version of Nornington Cres- cent'? Kate...

Sir: I hate to fall out with my old friend Susan Hill, whose writing I have always admired, but her letter (17 February) about the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award is a...

Sir: Amongst the many interesting figures quoted by Mr Raison (Divorce a la mode, 10 February) the large percentage of di- vorces requested by female partners was not provided....

Sir: For someone who can apparently regard homes daubed with graffiti as en- dearingly 'quirky' as thatched roofs or ragged beams, it is little wonder that Nicholas Farrell...

Muddles of a brilliant mind Colin Welch THE MIRROR MAKER by Primo Levi, translated by Raymond Rosenthal Methuen, £12.99, pp.I77 P rimo Levi left behind him one great and...

Teresa Waugh TURGENEV by Henri Troyat, translated by Nancy Amphoux Allison & BusbylW. H. Allen, 114.95, pp.184 A nyone who is even vaguely familiar with the novels of Ivan...

A rat with his head in a tin enjoys low tide. The river has exposed its flanks of mud and shingle: tusks of wood at the water's edge speak of mammoths or great amphibians but...

Eric Christiansen THE LOST KING OF ENGLAND: THE EAST EUROPEAN ADVENTURES OF EDWARD THE EXILE by Gabriel Ronny The Boydell Press, £19.50, pp. 222 M ediaeval detective stories...

Richard Ingrams FAMILY SINS AND OTHER STORIES by William Trevor Bad1ey Head, £11.95, pp. 256 A fter the dearth of good books last year, one snatches up William Trevor's new...

Cyril Ray ALAN MOOREHEAD by Tom Pocock Bodley Head, 176.95, pp.31I T he President of the Immortals . . . had ended his sport with Tess' are the words that close Hardy's Tess....

Robert Corbett ANALYSIS OF THE HUNTING FIELD by R. S. Surtees The Surtees Society, 06.95, pp.326 T o be asked to review a book that is 122 years old is a daunting task, and I...

sets of all ten volumes at £144. Prices include packing and postage. Orders and cheques to the R. S. Surtees Society, Tacker's Cottage, Nunney, Nr Frome, Somerset BAH 4NP.

Gilbert Adair LOUISE BROOKS by Barry Paris Hamish Hamilton, .C20, pp.609 I recall, as a student, participating in a sociology project that consisted of visiting various local...

D. J. Taylor I first came across Piers Paul Read's novels sometime in the late 1970s when my father brought home a copy of Polonaise from the local branch library. In those...

We watch the workers walk away, We hear a time-clock punched in time. The whole account is in the red But not much in the shops today. Ruin is coming like a rhyme. The party is...

Exhibitions Wright of Derby (Tate Gallery, till 22 April) More wrong than Wright Giles Auty ronically, the Tate's current exhibition of the 18th-century artist Wright of...

Man of the Moment (Globe) A very happy man Christopher Edwards Ian Ayckbourn's new play is set in Spain in the villa of Vic Parks (Peter Bowles), one-time bank robber and...

Brahms and the sardines Robin Holloway he English are lucky in their writers on music. Tovey remains the finest'there has ever been on its actual workings; more recently...

La forza del destino (Scottish Opera, Glasgow) Don Giovanni (Opera Factory, Queen Elizabeth Hall) A matter of context Rodney Milnes T he only trouble with Verdi's original St...

Sea of Love ('15', Piccadilly Plaza) When I Fall in Love (`15', Cannon Shaftesbury Avenue) Only a game Hilary Mantel I t's a risky business, hawking your per- sonal charms...

Going for the bronzes Peter Watson Y u could be forgiven for thinking that mad cow disease has afflicted the art market. Herds of collectors, awash in milk and honey, lock...

How time flies... Wendy Cope S ome scientists did an experiment. They put an atomic clock in a jet plane and sent it round the world. They kept an identical clock in the...

Frank, fearless and fined Taki n Armenian philosopher once com- pared Austria to an opera performed by the understudies. If that's the case, then Greece is like a police...

Motherhood goes metric Zenga Longrnore S omeone, somewhere, has gone through a list of the top London hospitals, picked out the best one and said, 'Yell, that's the one we'll...

Past caring Jeffrey Bernard A s is my occasional habit I went down to the stalls bar for a drink last week to see what was buzzing and who should be there but she would once...

BORDEAUX has an extraordinary way of hogging the limelight. If you hear people talk of '85s, '86s and especially '82s and '61s, you tend to assume they are talking about claret....

L4L e al "Lfi nlik % THIS is the most popular season of the year for dying, and an annual reminder of the importance of the obligation to leave one's affairs tidy and with...

Oddball cast Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1613 you were given the names of BeachcoMber's 12 red- bearded dwarfs and asked to provide au- thor's descriptions of six of them,...

Slippery Pole Raymond Keene he Winawer variation of the French Defence (1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4) is one of the most popular in contemporary chess, but who was its inventor?...

'S .12N T 4 1 M 4 E N T 'A ' L 4 17 1 7 I T 4 1-1 A E l ei A L 1 0. M i. ....., A 14! I ' A YIEll 0 UTIAIAEA:la R 1 °1' N l if A . N j i A rb N s _g_ T I ol fil LI r 140 9 WI I...

Please carry on in a Tennysonian manner (for a maximum of another 15 lines), assuming that the well - known line near the end of Idylls of the King reads: ' And slowly answered...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...