`God knows what this will do to the price of petrol!' T he QE2 joined a rescue operation to save 49 workers trapped on an accom- modation rig in the North Sea. Unofficial...

56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex: 27124; Fax: 071-242 0603 IN WHOSE INTEREST? I f President Bush seems to be striking an increasingly...

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ALEXANDER CHANCELLOR S ome people may remember that the Sun last year appointed an internal ombudsman to improve its image, which had become so tarnished that eveh football...

Gung-ho, gung-ho, it's off to war we go AUBERON WAUGH Perhaps not, but I feel this fact, if true, reflects more on Mr Randi's notion of proof than on a dowser's skills. I am...

The divorcee who has never been married is a new trends in the world of late but newly weds A YEAR and a month into marriage, free evenings — that is evenings with male...

WE wish to state that we regret the references in the interview in the issue of 18 August to the Guildford Four. We apologise for making imputations against them and against...

Charles Glass accuses the West of defending not the principles of freedom and democracy but self-interest Somewhere in Saudi Arabia BEFORE the interruption of a holiday with...

Amity Shlaes on the frustration of united action against Iraq New York THE Khanaqin and the Baba Gurgur, two Iraqi tankers loaded with oil, are chugging towards the Indian...

Once again, The Spectator is offering its readers the definitive Pocket Diary, offering all the facts and figures that are essential to any, Spectator reader, bound in soft...

Sandra Barwick investigates the incidence of suicide among Britain's farmers BARBOURS, Hunter wellingtons, and all the fashionable impedimenta of country pursuits will be on...

John Mortimer on the exposure of judicial fallibility MANY years ago, when I first took up the law, proceedings in court were shrouded in myth. In those days the country at...

Marcel Berlins asks if it matters that judges make fools of themselves WHEN he was Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham was asked why he was so opposed to allowing judges the...

persist... I ONCE had the good fortune to attend a nurses' graduation ceremony in an Afri- can hospital. How beautiful the nurses looked in their brilliant white uniforms,...

disappearance from the Correspondent and the threat to independent papers DECLARATION of interest: until last week I was editor of Sunday Correspon- dent. Leading investors...

Sir: The article by Marcel Berlins (4 August) should be entitled 'Law reform is a ass', not 'an ass'. Alluded to is the well-known passage in Oliver Twist (Chapter 51: " 'That...

Sir: We are acting for the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in the action that has been brought against them by Mrs Mar- garet Mary Brown and three other mem- bers of the...

Sir: The Lives of Lord Chancellors by Lord Campbell were so biased against their subjects that it was said of Lord Campbell that he had added a new terror to death. Can it now...

Sir: Lord Denning told A.. N. Wilson (England, his England', 18 August), 'The present system of random juries may lead to random justice.' He added, 'I've still got a firm...

Sir: Alistair Home, whose biography of Harold Macmillan was published last year, shows astonishing agility (Letters, 28 July) in turning facts on their head. He says that...

Nicholas Mosley MEMOIRS A ndrei Sakharov's life was of the stuff which makes legends — and makes them effective. Growing up in Russia at a time when there was starvation,...

William Scammell NORMAN CAMERON: COLLECTED POEMS edited by Warren Hope and Jonathan Barker Anvil Press, £14.95, pp. 160 A n almost impenetrable discretion surrounds both life...

`You'll have to clean my jumper' you say our toddler just pronounced 'as dolefully as Eeyore'. You dab the messed garment with water, then loop your styled bob behind each ear...

Francis King BOY D uring my three-year Presidency of the international writers' organisation PEN, I encountered a strange phe- nomenon whenever a writer was impris- oned or a...

Ronald Hingley THE COMPLETE POEMS OF ANNA AKHMATOVA translated by Judith Hemschemeyer, edited and with an introduction by Roberta Reeder Zephyr Press, distributed by Airlift...

John McEwen CHARLES RICKETTS: A BIOGRAPHY by J. G. P. Delaney Clarendon, LSO, pp. 429 M ention of Charles Ricketts RA (1866-1931) usually has the effect of ring- ing distant...

The only thing in the world, apart from God, that matters Is money. Not the accumulation or the gaining but The possession of it. Only then can we examine the world. There...

Reform Bill Robert Blake LORD GREY 1764-1845 by E. A. Smith OUP, f37.50, pp. 328 the 'Great Reform Act' Ministry of 1830- 34 is not an easy subject for a biographer. This...

David Wright THE PENGUIN BOOK OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN VERSE edited by Stephen Gray Penguin, £6.99, pp.402 U nhappiest of the sometime domin- ions of the sometime Empire, South...

Fiction: Veronica or the Two Nations by David Caute, Paladin, £4.99 Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, Coronet, £4.50 Pig and Pepper by David Footman, Robin Clark, £4.95 The Trick...

Exhibitions It's sensational John Henshall Graphic Design in America: A Visual Language History (Design Museum, till 21 October) Y ou can tell the Americans are in town by...

Six Degrees of Separation (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center) Trickery and truth Douglas Colby 0 verhead, in the Fifth Avenue apart- ment of a private art dealer and...

Tender sage Juliet Reynolds 0 f all India's numerous museums, one of the richest in masterpieces is located in the provincial city of Mathura which stands on the banks of the...

Beyond the New World Robin Holloway N ot only 'contemporary music' (i.e. of the last 90 years!) is neglected in large- scale concerts. A further attrition from the...

Romuald et Juliette ('12', Cannon Premiere) Happily ever after Hilary Mantel C harm is notoriously difficult to de- fine, but this film has it; it is one of the summer's...

Somebody has to buy Alistair McAlpine T he sale-rooms are no exception to the rule that August has always been the silly season. To all intents and purposes closed for the...

Troubled waters Taki Gstaad w entwent for a drink with the owner of the Palace Hotel and heard some rather in- teresting gossip. It seems that Sheikh Yamani has applied for...

No news is good news Miles Kington I have never got into the habit of watching the news on television, and have never regretted it. Television seems to me to be ill-suited to...

Spaced out Jeffrey Bernard I t is quite extraordinary to me that so many readers of newspapers and maga- zines should overreact as they do to what a hack may write. Two weeks...

Critics' corner Zenga Longmore S trange, isn't it. the effect that certain people have on • your home? Some people only have to glance around your living- room with an...

THE English vignerons (or vinearoons, as Edward Hyams, pioneer of English viticul- ture, quaintly called them) have much to contend with — frost in May, snow in June, drought in...

L. I THOUGHT I had done enough to urge the virtues of good first courses, but I have had several requests from readers and friends of The Spectator to remind them of the range...

Dutch treat Raymond Keene T he Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Be - liaysky has just celebrated one of the most significant tournament successes of his illustrious career. His...

12 YLAR OLD COMPETITION c oVAS REG A Pantoum Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1639 you were in - vited to write a pantoum on the subject of either bathrooms or kitchens. Like...

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...

been a literary tradition for people who have fled to the country to write letters, in prose or verse, to friends in the city, extolling rustic pleasures as against urban ones....

Unclued lights, individually or when correctly paired, are (see 2) exam- ples of an ignis fatuus. Winners: A. Hall, Goring-by-Sea (£20); M. J. Grocott, Lough- borough; Peter...

Goodbye to cakes and ale Frank Keating Mornin' Johnners, my dear old thing. Mornin' everyone, all set for another spiffin' day's cricket? Mornin' Trevor, old thing. Mmm. Ahh....