There is nothing particularly novel about a situation in which official spokesmen and journalists (even, although this may aston- ish Mr Woodrow Wyatt, non-Catholic journalists)...

Bridgwater's last chance AUBERON WAUGH Closely as one tries to follow the events of political life, I must confess that the death on 31 October 1968 of Sir Gerald Wills,...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS It is well known an African Can never really flush the pan. So it's absurd if he complains At not being given decent drains. Since Wogs are Wogs and bums...

Why Europe's row matters to us CRABRO The latest squabble among the Common Market Six in Brussels has been received on this side of the Channel with a yawn. There was a...

Red mischief TIBOR SZAMUELY People have always been slow to take in the news of great revolutions; being conservative by nature, they find it difficult to under- stand that a...

Sealed lips G. K. MANN G. K. Mann is a former Deputy Regional Controller of the Department of Health and Social Security 'And, Lo, it came to pass that Mr Robin Page, having...

Circuses for democrats GEORGE GALE When politicians calling themselves em- perors gave them—the plebs, the people—circuses, they knew what they were doing. Nowadays circuses...

J. W. M. THOMPSON I have a suggestion for the Tory shadow cabinet's pre-election council of war to be held this weekend. It arises from the recent discussion at Westminster of...

Reed all about it BILL GRUNDY Not having spoken with him lately I can't be all that sure what Mr Hugh Cudlipp is using as bedtime reading these days. But I wouldn't mind...

May the middle class preserve us FERDINAND MOUNT The obvious must be stated. Conservation is for conservatives; restoration is the business of Bourbons, baleful or otherwise....

Enter Dahlerus D. C. WATT Earlier this month Robert Blake discussed in these columns the light shed by the newly- released 1939 cabinet papers on the events leading up to the...

Hard sell LESLIE ADRIAN 'I bought a book on how to resist salesmen', confided the scatty blonde on the Rowan and Martin show; adding, with split-second timing, `The guy sold...

That special relationship DENIS BROGAN As an example of the isolation from the world one acquires on a longish sea voyage, I was not aware till I got home that Mr Wilson was...

Proust finds a vocation JOHN FLETCHER Proust, as a writer, was happiest in meta- phor. So he compared his million-word novel, Remembrance of Things Past, among other things to...

From the 'Spectator,' 29 January 1870—A Mr Cook, a professional billiard - player, is said to have worked a revolution in the manufacture of billiard tables. It is of no use to...

J. ENOCH POWELL, MP Curzon in India Vol 2: Frustration Da', id Dilks (Rupert Hart-Davis 60s) Resignations are no joke. Anybody who has ever been through one, even in a junior...

BARRY HUMPHRIES Ronald Firbank Miriam J. Benkovitz (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 63s) I never met Ronald Firbank. Indeed, I suppose I would never have thought that the author of...

Materialism HENRY TUBE A Dark Stranger Julien Gracq, translated by W. J. Strachan (Peter Owen 30s) The Ship Hans Henny Jahnn, translated by Catherine Hutter (Peter Owen 35s)...

J. G. FARRELL Memoirs of a Modern Scotland edited by Karl Miller (Faber 45s) Who cares about Scotland? Apart from the Scots themselves, almost nobody, to judge by the...

PATRICK McGRATH Mary Tudor: The While Queen Walter C, Richardson (Peter Owen 55s) This book is not, as the unwary might think, an attempt to whitewash Bloody Mary but a...

ELIZABETH BOWEN The Irish Cousins Violet Powell (Heinemann 50s) The book jacket of Violet Powell's The Irish Cousins is adorned by a family group: a framed photograph. This...

Strange meats PENELOPE HOUSTON Pigsty (Cameo Poly, 'X') In the curious canon of Pier-Paolo Pasolini, Pigsty seems to follow Theorem rather as night follows day. Once again, as...

BRYAN ROBERTSON Critical asides to the reader are a tricky business and often mean that your re- viewer, unable to give a proper account of what is in front of him, is up to no...

Fume of poppy HILARY SPURLING Opium (Hampstead Theatre Club) The Burning Mountain (Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent) Richard II (Piccadilly) It's a...

Ben trovato JOHN HIGGINS From the first drum rolls, muted yet taut and ominous, the present Covent Garden revival of Ii trovatore sounded a winner. Verdi allowed little time...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT It has never been clear to me why the Monopolies Commission and the Prices and Incomes Board were handed over to Mrs Castle's department unless the Prime...

A bad bid JOHN BULL Shareholders in International Publishing Corporation should be feeling pretty cross with their board of directors. They are taking them into a merger with...

Sir: Mr D. F. Huchison's criticisms of Glasgow's effect on Scotch culture (Letters, 17 January) are just, though he misses the real reason why. Glasgow is not Scotch. It is a...

From Vernon Bogdanor, N. McCausland, Abdul Hamid Ghazi, C. P. Brogan, Dorothy Usher, Stephen Milligan, Robert Stobbs, Heather Austen, Alec Dune, Michael Marcus, John Smith, John...

Sir: The speech of 17 January by Enoch Powell was the signal, once again, for the 'liberal' section of the political spectrum and the trendy left, to clear their throats, fill...

Sir: May I be permitted to point out a further error in your Christmas quiz (27 December)? In question VI 10 (i) Schubert is cited as the composer who did not write an oratorio....

Sir: I was amused by Mr George Gale's article (17 Januaky) and to learn that he finds to his surprise the Automobile Associa- tion on the side of the do-gooders. All too often,...

in thinking that my objections to his version of Guicciardini's Story of /tab' arose directly from his theories of transla - tion. They sprang rather from his frequent inability...

Sir: As a housemaster, I enjoyed Mr Bruce Lockhart's 'Afterthought' (17 January) on school dances, which evoked vivid memories for me. My 'middle-aged schoolmaster heart' used...

Sir: Mr Mark Brady (Letters, 17 January) displays all the worst aspects of the self- centred Little England individualism, current in part of the Liberal party a century ago....

Sir: Having learnt something of Nigerian aspirations during twenty years in the West African trade, I have watched with sadness the developments in Nigeria since the words of...

PHILIDOR G. Baksi (4th Commend, RCP Tourney 119). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 475 (Halumbirek: 1611Q6/ 2PplP2fp2N4/p7/rp2K3/1k6)...

The Socialists JOHN WELLS In a new pre-election pamphlet published by the Conservative Party Central Office, The Man, his Myth and his Magic, various distinguished Tories have...

Across 1 Wine in the inmost part: it's enough to make you crow! (7) 5 State of mind induced by a novel of Kings- ley's (7) 9 Wholly given up to being disenfranchised? (7) 10...

No. 590: Revisitations Set by E. 0. Parrott: The holiday season will soon be upon us and we shall be off on long trips round historical monuments and famous birthplaces....