A n IRA bomb at the Carlton club in central London injured 20 people: another at an RAF base in London exploded harmlessly. A former senior officer at the Maze Prison in...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 THE MARK OF STABILITY A few months ago only a madman would have...

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Where have all the issues gone? Gone to Brussels, every one NOEL MALCOLM I t must be so exciting, writing about politics at the moment', someone said to me at a party last...

GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT 0 ne of the reasons why Mrs Thatcher has resuscitated the War Crimes Bill (don't worry, I am not going to go over the arguments for and against the Bill...

The terrible dangers in taking a high moral line AUBERON WAUGH F or an Englishman, there was some- thing homely and reassuring in the specta- cle of those Rumanian coalminers...

Ian Buruma on the fears of Americans in the face of Japanese political lobbying and financial power Washington THE names are impressive, a veritable roll-call of big...

OH MONTREAL! Murray Sayle plumbs the hidden depths of the Canadian crisis Saint John's, Newfoundland WHEN Queen Elizabeth of Canada and other parts addresses the House of...

Michael Heath

Diana Geddes explains why the French are spending more, not less, on defence Paris WHILE everyone else is talking of dis- armament, reducing defence spending, and remodelling...

Anne Applebaum explains the political void at the heart of Solidarity's feuding Warsaw ONLY 18 short months ago, the Polish Communist Party treated the Polish nation to the...

John Simpson calls on an enlightened old friend and colleague of Kim Philby Moscow 'OLEG D. Kalugin', said the card; and underneath, 'Counsellor, Ministry of Fore- ign Affairs...

Andrew Gimson argues that, in the face of IRA terror, there is no point trying to please both sides THE bomb which exploded at the Carlton Club on Monday night may be a...

The after-eighties: A. N. Wilson talks to the Queen Mother at the dinner-table THE Queen Mother is a largely mytholo- gical being. This is not to say that she is a bogus...

Ross Clark finds the inhabitants of the Natural History Museum falling prey to savage accountants IT IS by now something of a tired cliché to compare the latterday, vulgar...

persist . • . NOT very long ago I had a patient, a drug addict, who was HIV positive. This meant there was a 75 per cent chance he would suffer from Aids within five years, and...

NEITHER Peter Simple nor John Keegan has told us, but I think the Royal Army Tailoring Corps has its headquarters mess in a colossal country house near Harro- gate. The Georgian...

TO ADD a new terror to death was the achievement of Edmund Cull, who in the 18th century waited for his subjects to be safely dead and then rushed out instant biographies. The...

THE sage William Deedes used to get lawyers' letters threatening ruinous actions for libel, if he did not at once retract something on the City pages of the news- paper he was...

THE new George Stephenson fiver, show- ing the father of railways at the Stockton & Darlington (1825), is going down badly at the Middleton Railway, established by Act of...

Europe of choice, or an early symptom of Chancellor's Itch? CHRISTOPHER FILDES I do hope that John Major has not succumbed so soon to Chancellor's Itch. It is, of course, the...

Sir: I cannot allow Mr Stamp's attack on the restoration of the Queen's House to go unchallenged (Restoration farce, 9 June). Not only are his assumptions mistaken but he is...

Abortion and morality Sir: Paul Johnson's article on abortion (The media, 23 June) was a courageous attempt to shout through the stifling fug that passes for a 'liberal...

late to engage in serious discussion. What can now happen here has now been settled by Parliament for some time to come by amendments to the Abortion Act 1967, inserted in the...

Aids myth and reality Sir: Charges of distortion and suppression, levelled against me by Michael Fumento while complaining (`The Aids tyranny', 23 June) that he failed to find...

Sir: Ray Honeyford takes me to task for portraying Islam as an entiely sinned- against religion (Letters, 23 June). This is scarcely fair to my article. It is certainly not fair...

equally alarming facts given by Paul Johnson in your issue of 5 May, I would like to draw attention to a speech made by a Dr Chin at a conference of the BMA held last month. As...

publishers on the desira- bility of books offered to them about Aids, I know better than most that the picture offered by Michael Fumento of the 'black- listing' of his Myth of...

Sousa Jamba travels to Ham- burg, Brussels and Rotterdam to see how immigrants from dif- ferent African nations have fared SOMETIMES I feel guilty for being in the West. I often...

ON TUESDAY, a very successful per- formance of the Antigone of Sophocles was given at Bradfield College, near Reading. For the first time since the overthrow of the ancient...

The far west of Barbary Alastair Forbes MATISSE IN MOROCCO: NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON Thames & Hudson, £28, pp.293 TWO YEARS BESIDE THE STRAIT by Paul Bowles Peter...

Eric Christiansen WHERE TROY ONCE STOOD: THE MYSTERY OF HOMER'S ILIAD AND ODYSSEY REVEALED by Iman Wilkens Rider, f16.95, pp. 365 D on't on't touch it', said the classical...

Anthony Powell THE OXFORD GUIDE TO HERALDRY by Thomas Woodcock, Somerset Herald and John Martin Robinson, Maltravers Herald Extraordinary OUP, f9.95, pp. 246 W hen Rabelais's...

Edward Mortimer A SATANIC AFFAIR: SALMAN RUSHDIE AND THE RAGE OF ISLAM by Manse Ruthven Chatto & Windus, f14.95, pp. 184 LETTER TO CHRISTENDOM by Rana Kabbani Virago, £3.99,...

J. L. Carr THE MAKER'S MARK by Roy Hattersley Macmillan, £13.95, pp.558 T his is a long novel, a family's everyday history which, like any West Riding pro- nouncement,...

Women spread sideways, by vegetative means. Planted in their cache-peau in the sitting room, tendrils a-twitch, like centipedes, they sniff out dirt beneath the objects on the...

Michael Levey RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS by Lorne Campbell Yale University Press, £35, pp.290 L ike clocks, portraits are among the most significant phenomena that define the...

David Gilmour TRIBES WITH FLAGS: A JOURNEY CURTAILED by Charles Glass Seeker & Warburg, £16.95, pp. 510 E gypt is the only nation-state in the Middle East', a Cairene diplomat...

Architecture The Iron Revolution: Architects, Engineers and Structural Innovation 1780-1880 (RIBA Heinz Gallery, till 20 July) Men of iron Gavin Stamp T he Crystal Palace no...

Flamenco foothills Ruth Rees C uriously enough, the British and the Spanish have more in common temper- amentally than most other European coun- tries, and I believe this...

Triumph of the Spirit ('18', Odeon Leicester Square) Music Box (`15', Odeon Haymarket) Silence is best Hilary Mantel U ntil I saw the first of these films I had no opinion on...

Devitsil: Czech Avant-garde Art, Archi- tecture and Design of the 1920s and 30s (Design Museum, until 22 July) Irresistible forces John Henshall I f one thing about this...

After Monroe Christopher Edwards W hile you could hardly say that Arthur Miller is an unsung hero in his American homeland, his work continues to receive more, and more...

A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics The Lord of the Flies (15). Hot- coloured, updated version of Golding's masterpiece,...

Hans Hofmann (Crane Gallery, till 31 July) Wisdom of old men Giles Auty Do not let me hear Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly, Their fear of fear and frenzy,...

Glitz- Taki Monte Carlo ven from a distance the French Riviera ain't what it used to be. It is now Las Vegas-sur-mer, or perhaps Beirut be- fore the you-know-what hit the fan....

Kind of weird Wendy Cope A t a lunch a little while ago I met a man who is writing a book about philis- tines. He said I'm in it. Well, I don't mind really, but it did cause...

Tagging along to the zoo Zenga Longmore F or an original and delightful birthday treat, it was decided that Clawhammer Jones Bingo's son Adam should be taken to the zoo. Save...

Field work Jeffrey Bernard Anyway, the Peacock Inn wasn't what it is now. It was then run by a rather querulous, vaguely upper-class widow who had had a tragic war. In the...

1989 bordeaux and others IT DOES not do to praise anyone, or anything, too extravagantly when they are very young. We all know the disastrous results which follow from the...

/ 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY COMPETITION CaWAS REG AL 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Exegetic exercise Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1631 you were asked to explain, seriously...

G.K. Mark 2 Raymond Keene S ome weeks ago I discussed the possible contenders for the world championship after the duopoly of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov has finally...

R I hEUN I T Ilk/OBBL EN ittk B S T E _ L i uwi Urr4T li ER71 AR 3;14 1, W 1 ? 0 E L S T 1*4 E Col P rZ P J . I. I 0 I –EL N E ND OrT sI G G NiO,MLOINFAIOR L I 8 T I The extra...

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...

Under the impression that he is a political- ly influential writer, Hitler entertains P. G. Wodehouse at Berchtesgaden in prewar 1939, alone or with other company — you decide....

The net Profit Frank Keating 4 0 n the ball, City', an old Corinthian touchline exhortation, has a more general- ly literal connotation these days. The teams are out for the...