Monetarism, like all theologies, has several denominations. 'International monetarists', 'pragmatic monetarists', 'prac tical monetarists' and even 'unbelieving monetarists' per...

George Gale Last week I wrote about the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Humphrey Atkins, being on holiday in Tunisia in August, Ulster's cruellest month, Although...

Heart transplantation seems to have established itself as one of the most unsuccessful forms of medical treatment available. The busiest transplant surgeons in the world are...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington Jody Powell, the President's press secretary, blinked tears out of his eyes as he announced Andrew Young's resignation. Both inside and outside...

Richard Wigg New Delhi India's political crisis has, significantly, brought the country's President, Mr Sanjiva Reddy, right to the front of the national stage. He finally...

Roger Cooper The expulsion from Iran of more foreign journalists, including correspondents from the BBC and the Financial Times, provides further evidence that the Ayatollah...

Richard West A few weeks ago I was asked by an old colleague from Vietnam if I would now have written the book I wrote on that country, published in 1974, 'He asked the...

Yesterday week Cardinal Newman received congratulations from a considerable number of different bodies on his elevation to the purple, and by one of them, the committee of his...

Christopher Booker It was the other day when I was reading a guide book to Somerset that the idea first struck me, like a flash of illumination. Although the book was published...

Colin Brewer When Daniel McNaughton shot and killed Sir Robert Peel's secretary in 1839 under the influence of paranoid delusions, the Law Lords of the day were asked to...

Robin Young 'Would you', said the PR at the other end of the telephone, 'come with us to America to carry out an in-depth survey of the consumer implications of the erasable...

Sir: A few days ago I was reading the editorial, 'A good beginning', in your issue of 4 August. It ended: 'Firm purpose evident at home and signs of infirmity abroad'. I fear...

Sir: Mr Bramwell (letters, 21 July) is surely right in making the point that the burden of uncontrolled immigration fallson those least able to bear it, but confuses the...

Sir: I was deeply moved, as1 am sure many of your readers will have been, by Humphry Berkeley's African adventure (4 August) and, in particular, by the working of what he...

Sir: In case Canon Wilkinson's daughter missed your issue of II August could I offer the confirmation about the head for which Simon Courtauld asks? Canon Wilkinson lived at...

Sir: In his article on tax cuts (18 August) Tim Congdon was wrong to deny that changes in tax rates can alter living standards. In trying to be provocative he made several...

Sir, I have been commissioned by Martin Seeker & Warburg to write a biography of Alma Mahler, wife first of Gustav Mahler, then of Walter Gropius and finally of Franz Werfel. If...

Al istai r Forbes 'The Time of Love Marcel Pagnol Trans. Eileen Ellenbogen (Hamish Hamilton Z 5 .50) It would be hard to think of a more pardonable slip of the tongue than that...

Jonathan Keates Henry Fielding: A Biography Pat Rogers (Elek £8.95) What is it about Fielding's work that makes one not want to read about his life? Biographers continue to...

Alan Gibson Dartmoor Prison Rufus Endle (Bossinney Books 90p) This is a slight book, no more than a long essay, but a good one. The author, whom I r emember as a tubby, ruddy,...

Paul Ableman The Lover A.B. Yehoshua Trans. Philip Simpson (Heinemann £4.95) 'And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he...

Benny Green The death last week of the novelist James Farrell represents a loss which contemporary English fiction is hardly equipped to sustain. Now that he has been drowned...

Lord Lambton The Renaissance did not reach Russia until the beginning of the 19th century; then it exploded in a dazzling outburst of talent and genius, not dissimilar in...

John McEwen In the Sixties it was always the summer shows at the Marlborough that provided the climax to the gallery year. Now, in less opulent times, this service is...

Taki Following last week's revelations concerning a day in the life of the heir to the Throne, my secret agent, an overweight army captain who is usually to be found lurking...

Jeffrey Bernard From our Country Correspondent: They started ploughing the old barley field this morning and,-after tea, we lit the first log fire since the winter. The blue...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Mt John Mortimer QC against Lord Goodman: a legal King Kong versus 6odzilla for the silly season. But the question which the two have been debating in the...

Harry Golombek The tournament for the British Champion ship which ended last week at Chester was a magnificent struggle full of tense and excit ing moments with the lead...

Edmund Akenhead Despite the suspension of The Times, I am delighted to report that the Crossword is alive and well and was seen flourishing ill the Piccadilly Hotel last...