I n Northern Ireland five men were killed and an eight-year-old boy shot in the eye on the Saturday before Christmas. IRA fire- bombs caused the whole London Under- ground,...

Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 HEART AND SOUL Critics of Britain's entry into the ERM, such as The Spectator, have always argued that the 'discipline'...

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T he Feast of the Circumcision (1 Jan- uary), which we have all just celebrated, seemed a good moment to reconsider the relations between Jews and Christians. There has been...

A demonstration of the drawbacks of human interest journalism CHARLES MOORE F rom time to time, when I have turned in a piece for this column which the editor regards as...

John Simpson fears that the death of the Soviet union only marks the beginning of the nightmare for the new order Moscow `THE COUNTRY needs movement, har- mony, co-ordination....

John Patten is relieved that antique cars are now once more for driving THE ROARING affluence of the 1980s temporarily reduced the ability to gratify certain innocent tastes —...

by P.D. JAMES A crime for Christmas: Part Two I HAD FOUND it difficult to sleep since my husband had been killed, and now I lay rigid under the canopy of the four-poster...

persist.. . AT THE end of the consultation my patient took a small manila envelope from her handbag and slid it diffidently across my desk. `I'm so grateful for what you've...

Marcel Berlins believes that our legal system is in danger of becoming the laughing stock of the world LAST MONTH 50 solicitors in Southamp- ton started industrial action. It...

A reader received this letter, addressed to the finance manager of his company: Dear Sirs W T Air Cargo Limited would like to wish all their customers a Merry Christ- mas and a...

Deborah Boehm marvels at the linguistic ingenuity of a Japanese art form Kyoto 'I AM A COOL DUD,' proclaimed the most popular T-shirt worn, with a certain cosmopolitan...

Michael Heath

Simon Courtauld wonders who deserves this form of old-fashioned respect BRIAN REDHEAD was interviewing Lord Carrington on the future of Yugoslavia. It might have been...

Should the Valkyries ride over Jerusalem? PAUL JOHNSON I t is easy to sympathise with those Israelis who do not want Wagner's music to be played in their country. Wagner was...

Not so much a budget, more a manifesto from Cold Comfort Chevening CHRISTOPHER FILDES N ight falls on Chevening. Sleet blasts across the frozen landscape, rattling the windows...

Sir: I refer to Mr William Oddie's, 'Never on a Sunday,' (14 December). Mr Oddie gave evidence for B & Q, prosecuted for Sunday trading in the Torfaen vs B & Q case. Apparently,...

Sir: I must take issue with Mark Almond's characterisation of Adolf Hitler as a vege- tarian (`Animal crackers', 16 November). As I am the author of a recently published book...

Sir: I was sorry to read in your Christmas bumper issue that Taki, who, although a foreigner, is normally an exemplary gram- marian, has caught the HIV virus infection from the...

Sir: John Laughland's devastating article on Germany's drive to Euro-federalism (`European union the German way', 30 November) points out that the Germans contribute 68 per cent...

Sir: William Dalrymple in his Diary (14 December) is mistaken in saying that the bungalows in New Delhi designed by Lutyens were replaced by 'Corbusier- inspired high-rise...

At the end of the mourning Geoffrey Wheatcroft TRIAL OF STRENGTH: WILLIAM FURTWANGLER AND THE THIRD REICH by Fred K. Prieberg Quartet, f30, pp.394 D efending himself during...

Florence O'Donoghue MR SMYLLIE, SIR by Tony Gray Gill & Macmillan, .C14.99, pp. 229 R .M. Smyllie edited the Irish Times from 1934 to his death in 1954. He was one of the...

Andro Linklater THE BIRTHDAY BOYS by Beryl Bainbridge Duckworth, £12.99, pp. 189 T he fall of a hero produces a curiously intense sensation — a surge of libertarian delight...

Richard Cockett BROOKS'S: A SOCIAL HISTORY edited by Philip Ziegler and Desmond Seward Constable, £20, pp. 233 R eaders of The Spectator will be pleased to know that the ancien...

Tony Osman STEPHEN HAWKING: A LIFE IN SCIENCE by Michael White and John Gribbin Ming, £16.99, pp. 304 S tephen Hawking, this fascinating book reminds us, is Britain's most...

Under the March sky and the sign of Pisces below the ranked woods and the silver surface, beneath all possibility of human breath, the humble rejoice: No one is fishing, we are...

Montagu Curzon SAGITTARIUS SURVIVING by Cecil Lewis Leo Cooper, f12.95, pp.150 I n 1941 the RAF decided to allow any- one who had formerly been a pilot to apply for flying...

Art The happiest years Giles Auty on the disillusionment awaiting young art students A month ago I attended a reception hosted by the Secretary of State for Educa- tion, the...

A better Nutcracker Deirdre McMahon on the masterly choreography of Disney's Fantasia S ince its release on video at the begin- ning of November Walt Disney's Fantasia has sold...

A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics OPERA Cosi fan tulle, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), from 9 January. Johannes Schaafs...

Phantom of the Opera (Shaftesbury ) Double vision Christopher Edwards A ndrew Lloyd Webber should be very pleased that Ken Hill's version of the Phantom of the Opera has...

Delicatessen ('15', selected cinemas) Holiday horrors Harriet Waugh T wo films featuring cannibalism are currently on show. Neither of them fea- tures it in a fetishistic or...

A memorable coup Martyn Harris E very pro g ramme on Buddhism starts with a thundering gong and booming prayer pipes, and so it was with The Rein- carnation of Khensur...

What a wonderful year Taki I New York think it imperative to start the New Year right, and nothing starts it better than bringing down a pompous ass a peg or two, namely...

DIARY 1992 £10 Plain £11 Initialled The Spectator 1992 Diary, bound in soft red leather, will shortly be available. Laid out with a whole week to view, the diary is 5" x 3"....

Harlesden here we come Zenga Longmore o ver Christmas, I was congratulated, for the millionth time, on the marvellous way I cope with living in a tower block. The latest...

Thank God it's all over Jeffrey Bernard S oho was almost dead at Christmas. The most unlikely people went away to visit their parents. I say unlikely, because I don't believe...

• young breasts OWING TO the strange way holidays have of causing total havoc to normal working life, I am instructed to write this piece for January 1992 when we haven't even...

Two of his best Raymond Keene T wo issues ago I announced that Nigel Short was The Spectator player of the year for 1991. To mark this here are two of his most brilliant games...

12 YEAR OLD COMPETITION SCOTCH WHISKY citiVAS REGA L 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Hooker Prize II Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1708 you were asked to provide an imaginary...

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...

Potteries towns and their fictional names in Arnold Bennett's Potteries novels. 28 is the fifth town. Winners: Helen Meixner, London W6' (£20); Francis Bernard, Sea- ford,...

If Nahum Tate rewrote one Lear, why shouldn't you rewrite the other? Lear's limericks have struck many as weak be- cause of the way the last line echoes the first. So new...

High Winks Frank Keating GOOCH'S England cricketers have hardly landed in New Zealand and they are padding up for their first match. Acclimati- sation was a much more...

Q. I was in my local Catholic church on Sunday when a white .haired woman fainted or had a stroke in the bench in front of me. Luckily an Irishwoman and an aristocratic- looking...