Mrs Barbara Castle has a talent for being %here the action is—rather as the peren- nially quotable Mr Crossman is always to be found where the words are. When 'he was Minister...

Mr Crossman's universal queue-plan AUBERON WAUGH Your political correspondent probably has few things in common with Mr Harold Wilson, beyond a certain shared interest in...

Amber light from The Hague CRABRO That dedicated band, Fleet Street's Common Market correspondents, gathered in The Hague on Monday in a mood of invincible optimism. Taking...

Sanity through lunacy GEORGE GALE The second lunatic adventure, like the first, was the pretext for much wishful thinking that it would be desirable to put a poet on the moon...

Prague winter A CORRESPONDENT Since the anniversary of the Russian in- vasion the streets empty and the people of Prague disappear indoors regularly each Sunday afternoon....

Mr Nixon in danger MURRAY KEMPTON Washington — Mr Nixon continues to be the President who is seen at football games, worships with the Rev Dr Billy Graham, identifies his...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS `. . % Who, like Canute, thought that he could turn back the waves' (Daily Paper). Canute was King of England— And a mighty king was he. He knew that,...

The word of Mr Stewart JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE, MP The other day in the House of Commons the Foreign Secretary was asked about reports which had appeared in the Guardian to the...

J. W. M. THOMPSON The damage which the atrocity stories from Vietnam will do to the Americans' self- esteem may seem a relatively minor matter at the moment, but I have a...

Policeman's lot R. A. CLINE Why does it fall to the lot of the police • investigate allegations made against police? The short answer is that the Poli Act 1964 imposed the...

Flowers for-Mr Kruchonykh CLARENCE BROWN Clarence Brown is Professor of Russian Literature at Princeton University. In his review of Vladimir Markov's book Russian Futurism...

On animal noises & Humane Sciences MERCURIUS OXONIENSIS GOOD BROTHER LONDINIENSIS, I rejoice to learn that you have now given over reading that silly London gazette the...

Dog fight BILL GRUNDY A friend of mine remarked the other day that while it may be true that in the newspaper world dog doesn't eat dog, that doesn't stop them being...

Gazing on the Pacific DENIS BROGAN Belvedere, San Franciso Bay—I must have flown several hundred thousand miles in the United States and yet I never get used to the size of...

JOHN LARNER Francesco Guicciardini stands among the greatest of European historians, and his History of Italy (translated and edited by Sidney Alexander, Collier-Macmillan 75s)...

J. 0. URMSON Ifetaphysies and Common Sense A. J. Ayer Macmillan 58s) This is a collection of fifteen ess a ys and ad- dresses written over the past fifteen years. All have been...

ROBERT SKIDELSKY Whitehall Diary Vol II 1926-1930 Thomas Jones edited by Keith Middlemas (out , 75s) The tragedy of English politics, remarked Sir Oswald Mosley in his recent...

Uncommon sense Maurice CAPITANCHIK That Wonderful November Ercole Patti translated by Isabel Quigly (Chatto 21s) The Spaniard Bernard Clavel translated by W. G. Corp (Harrap...

MICHAEL FFOLKES Hancock Freddie Hancock and David Nathan (William Kimber 42s) The quality of identification with his au- dienge, the common touch, the exposed nerve of a...

LAURENCE MARTIN The Struggle for the Middle East: The Soviet Union and the Middle East 1958-68 Walter Laqueur (Routledge and Kegan Paul 50s) Half of this volume consists of...

WINIFRED GERIN Emily Bronze: A Critical and BiogtupIL Study John Hewish (Macmillan 50s) Mr Hewish has defined the purpose of h book at the outset; it is a critical and hi...

JOHN TERRAINE Gladstone and Kruger D. M. Schreuder (Routledge and Kegan Paul 90s) Imperial Sunset Vol I: Britain's Liberal Empire 1897-1921 Max Beloff (Methuen 65s) Bound to...

A Cell of Good Living: The Life, Works and Opinions of Eric Gill Donald Attwater (Geoffrey Chapman 45s). A pious but in- formed biography of Eric Gill (stonecarver, typographer...

Happy returns CLEMENT CRISP Ballet Rambert celebrates the third an- niversary of its rebirth with Norman Morrice's new Blind-Sight, a ballet which shows us, once again,...

BRYAN ROBERTSON a white-washed church at Santo Dom- .() high in the hills of New Mexico, is an s pecially extravagant Spanish colonial altar- l eee. For some time its...

Rare silver HILARY SPURLING The Revenger's Tragedy (Aldwych) Comrade Jacob (Gardner Arts Centre, Brighton) '0, rare, delectable, sweet, happy, ravishing'—what words more apt...

Fishy business PENELOPE HOUSTON Duet for Cannibals (Paris-Pullman, 'X') Goodbye, Mr Chips (Empire, 'U') Susan Sontag says that if her first film, Du fi for Cannibals, looks...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The fiftieth issue of the 'Review of the Na- tional Institute of Economic and Social Research' has done us all a great service—from the Chancellor downwards:...

JOHN BULL The time has come for me to sound a wa ing about second mortgages. It is not wro ' to take out a second mortgage on yo house but it is often dangerous. And just f the...

Sir: It was interesting to see Professor Hurstfield (29 November) rehearsing anew in your columns the tired old arguments against academic reform, and when faced with such a...

Sir: Lord Egremont's enjoyable and affected article about U-usage (22 November) perpetuates the central error of the whole discussion. Not that it matters much, I agree with him...

From L. G. Usher, Bryan Magee, Lord Egremont, Colin Farthing, Bernard Towers, Peter Stein, Francis Carr, Dorothy Perkins, Roger Franklin, John Todd, J. C. Maxwell, Randolph...

Sir : George Gale may unintentionally have misled us ('Viewpoint', 29 November)—it is not quite accurate to speak of Eisenhower adumbrating the domino theory as if he simply...

Sir: Thank you for your leader of 22 November, justly condemning the lies and evasions with which Mr Michael Stewart defends his shameful policy. The Foreign Office misleads not...

Sir: In Edward de Bono's attack (29 Novem- ber) on those 'who refuse to learn the gram- mar' of technology, he denigrates everyone who is interested in sex and history. Interest...

Sir: Mr Armstrong (Letters, 22 NoNern is unconvinced by the arguments wh used to show that comprehensive results bad. May I reply very briefly? My point was not that any one of...

Sir Robert Birley's review of The Afri- rs (8 November) was admirably just lever Mr Fisher may say. The only flaw Sir Robert's assertion that 'some Church sters, some writers...

Sir: In 1939. John Gawsworth (Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong) was, together with Christopher Hassan, presented with the A. C. Benson silver medal of the Royal Society of...

Apologies for what is, no doubt, the I t of my handwriting (Letters, 29 Novem- . Textual critics among your readers will e realised that Mr Seymour-Smith 'con- ' (not...

Gangsters' Mogg J. WELLS & J. FORTUNE A powerful organisation is at work in metro- politan London, making vast profits out of an unholy alliance with the denizens of the...

No. 582: Which Santa? Set by E. 0. Parrott: Commercial Christ is with us again and Father Christm abound in toy shops all over the con How is the careful parent to make up or...

From the 'Spectator', 4 December 1869– publish to-day the last of two remarks letters, written by a stonemason, now work for Mr Cornell, the founder of the unile of that name in...

PHILIDOR L. i. Loshinsky (1st Prize, KFS Tourney, 1958)' White to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 467 (Mansfield): 13-Q2!, threat P Q. 1 ....

Across 1 Postman has lost a letter in John's island (6) 4 A loud speak-easy in one kind of society? ( 8 ) 10 One word goes to extremes in cracker jokes (7) 11 A man of...