Off the Rhodesian hook - Mr Robert Mugabe's victory in the Rhodesian elections is overwhelming. He has utterly overwhelmed Bishop Muzorewa; Mr Joshua Nkomo's wing of the...

Political commentary Far frae the madding crowd Ferdinand Mount Southen d The signpost on the piazza of the Victoria Circus shopping precinct has been blown or twisted to...

Notebook . 'One might be able to' e with Mr Nkomo, but there could be no compromise with Mr Mugabe.'. This was Mr Ian Smith speaking hardly more than a month ago to an audience...

Another voice Crime and punishment Auberon Waugh I was intrigued to learn last Sunday that the Foreign Office has at last released information about the fate of Jakov...

Mugabe: a moderate in the making? Xan Smiley Salisbury 'I've been here 50 years, so don't tell me I don't know the Af.' 'I believe in the cornMlon sense of the ordinary...

Kennedy staggers on Nicholas von Hoffman Washington Perhaps Edward Kennedy is the one male in the family that no one can kill. But, though loyalty for, or fascination with,...

More cloaks and daggers Peter Paterson Washington Not only the Olympic Games - or at least American participation in the Moscow Clympics - have fallen victim to the...

An urban disaster Richard West Bangkok Lovers of Thailand and its gentle, delicate girls were taken aback last week by a photograph in the Bangkok Post of the first...

The hunting of the Harijan Karan Thapar New Delhi Afterdinner on 25 February,as the inhabitants of Pipra village in Bihar prepared to turn in for the night, plans for their...

'And God gave us the rocks.. Peter Ackroyd Helsinki Each Nordic country is cold in its own way; in Oslo, it is a rural cold, the cold of surrounding landscape, an urban cold...

One law for the Scots Allan Massie Edinburgh This Government is developing a distressing habit of obstinacy, which makes things difficult for its well-wishers. You might...

The homosexual factor Sir: Richard Ingrarns's review of Auberon Waugh's book is a model of reasoned argument (23 February). But, as always, the subject of homosexuality defeats...

Irish talents Sir: It is not unusual at the present time for reviewers in English journals to treat Irish artists, living or dead, with a mixture of' condescension and...

Psycho jokes Sir: I am compiling an anthology of jokes, humour and wit about psychologists and psychology. Any contributions your readers may care to make will be gratefully...

Big bullies Sir: Mr Ingrains's review of his friend Mr Waugh's book about Mr Thorpe demonstrates why so disconcertingly few rise to defend the principle of freedom for the...

The Bedford incident Sir: In his review of The Last Edwardian at Number 10: An Impression of Harold Mac'fillan by George Hutchinson (1 March), Enoch Powell wrote that the...

Letters What is a Whig? Sir: Mr Enoch Powell classifies Harold Macmillan as a Grand Whig (I March) on the grounds that he was in favour of the Common Market; he classifies...

Poor Cornwall Sir: I would never dream of buying a British car (except possibl> a Morgan). but Tim Congdon (23 February ) has got it all wrong. In fact, Cornwall's near-total...

EgYptian manners Sir: Iread Auberon Waugh's piece about Egypt with someamazement (16 February). His description of Egyptians as 'kindly, hospitable and well-mannered' is widely...

Sex theory and practice Sir: Alexander Chancellor's memory is sound when he says that Eton's biology master 'Sexy' Morris was an invaluable source of information (Notebook, 1...

Books The day of the Danegeld Eric Christiansen The Northern World Ed. David Wilson (Thames & Hudson £15) Gods of the North Brian Branston . (Thames & Hudson £3.50)...

Intuitions and irrationalisms Alan Watkins The Seventies: Portrait of a Decade Christopher Booker (Allen Lane £7.50) English writers, at forty, either set about Prophesying...

Learned booby Paul Johnson Archbishop Grindal 1519-1583: The Struggle for a Reformed Church Patrick Collinson (Cape £13.50) The recent ceremony in the crypt of St Paul's,...

Believer A.N. Wilson An Unhusbanded Life: Charlotte Despard, Suffragette, Socialist and Sinn Feiner Andro Linklater (Hutchinson £8.95) Charlotte Despard (1844-1939) was as...

Diamond man RObert Blake Ernest Oppenheimer: A Study in Power -Edward Jessup (Rex Collings £12.95) Ernest Oppenheimer was born in- 1880 at Friedberg near Frankfurt, the son...

Ballad ist Benny Green The Bab Ballads W. S. Gilbert (Macmillan £2.95) The publishing history of the Bab Ballads has become so hopelessly muddled that it is no longer...

Ideas man Paul Ableman Life In the West Brian Aldiss (Weidenfeld Brian Aldiss is best-known as a sciencefiction writer. The present book is described in its blurb,...

Arts Mozart and Mozart Hans Keller Mozart's mature C major Quartet and his D major Quintet will be heard in the BBC Lunchtime Concert at St John's, Smith Square, London, next...

Theatre Gripping Peter Jenkins The Iceman Cometh (Cottesloe) Once in a Lifetime (Piccadilly) Thee and Me (Lyttleton) Rose (Duke of York's) Trial Run (Young Vic) At the end...

Cinema eDramatics Peter Ackroyd he Onion Field ('X' ABC, Shaftesbury ..unue) S L|WJg* Th --, o U-0Magician of Lublin ('X', Classic, Haymarket) Seph Wambaugh financed...

Art Eye-catching John McEwen The Arts Council kicks off its 1980 season at the Hayward Gallery with a couple of shows that, contrary to first glances, complement each other...

High life In the bank Taki New York The shocking thought of Professor Shockley have all the eggheads in this country in an uproar. Words like Nazi and master race are being...

Television Contemptible Rich-a - - - -U- -- - -chard Ingrains _ 110yC3ust, as I feel inclined to rename the tasteless, nay revolting, Hollywood O8"P-opera about the...

Low life Meaningful Jeffrey Bernard For more than 40 years, Professor J.J. Bernard, who celebrates his 48th birthday this year, has been one of the country's most interesting...

Postscn pt Symmetry Patrick Marnham Last week the Attorney-General, Sir Michael Havers, performed one of his mOst mysterious functions, sometimes known as 'intervening in the...