E verybody knew. And everybody pretended they didn't , It t 110 w. The melancholy revelations of the dealings between Lae oil companies and the British government do no more t...

W , hen the Russians reoccupied Czechoslovakia ten years ago I was driving across 1(a asas making for the Democratic Con, v ention in Chicago. I remember the reactuou ght should...

William Chislett Mexico City It is anyone's guess how long General Anastasio Somoza, president of Nicaragua, will last as he digs himself in for what looks like a last ditch...

Judith Acton Tenerife A large black rock a few hundred yards from Tenerife's international airport is emblazoned with a slogan which, roughly translated, reads 'Let us liberate...

Pair for equities Nicholas Davenport The talk in the City this week was that the election would be postponed until 1979 . The Old Boys, who claim Close c ontacts in...

Sir: Auberon Waugh's tirade against Solzhenitsyn in your issue of 26 August is extraordinarily perverse, even by his standards. Nowhere in his article does Mr Waugh show the...

Sir: I see Richard Ingrams has been indulging in another spot of Burton-bashing (19 August). In his piece about the Proms on BBC Television he labels me 'smug' without citing...

Sir: I am glad that Mrs Scarisbrick of LIFE (26 August) accepts my basic premise that the mode of action of the IUD (`the coil') is a matter of great importance to...

Sir: Alexander Chancellor (2 Septembe r ) writes about the 'hideous young people who 'screamed and giggled' their wa) I through ‘viennese night' in the IlnY a Albert Hall. I...

Sir: In his article 'The marriage machine' (26 August) Patrick Cosgrave has erected an edifice on very shaky foundations. The Home Office has made no recommendation about the...

Sir: Over the last twelve years, John Pitcairn Mackintosh, professor, politician and humanitarian, gave his heart and soul to his constituency and to the country. Many hun dreds...

Sin Would John McEwen (2 September) please explain how the visual arts, or indeed anything else, can be 'currently becalmed'? R. W. Hey Churchill College, Cambridge

Sir: Would you please note that the Arts Council Exhibition Great Victorian Pictures is showing at the Royal Academy until 17 September and not at the National Gallery as stated...

Robert Blake Lord Aberdeen Lucille Iremonger (Collins E9.95) Geo rge Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen is, to tnost of us, one of England's dimmer Prime M inisters. He is...

Benny Green William Morris and His World Ian Bradley (Thames and Hudson £4.50) A coherent account of William Morris's life which conforms to the Thames and Hudson . . and His...

Torpedoed Rodney Milnes Monteverdi Cycle (Edinburgh Festival) The Zurich Opera's prestigious and already well travelled productions of the three surviving Monteverdi operas...

Beleaguered John McEwen Last year the Arts Council mounted the first in a promised series of shows devoted to an annual display of contemporary British art. The inaugural...

Non-sequential Ted Whitehead The Boxer (Scala Tottenham St.) RenaIdo & Clara (Camden Plaza) Shuji Terayama is Japan's top racing correspondent and tipster, as well as being a...

Knightmotifs Raymond Keene Bagtii° The first official world chess chamPi° 11 Wilhelm Steinitz once sent a note to Wagner congratulating him on his latest production. He...