A British Troops on East Falkland, rein- forced by Gurkha and Guards regiments to around 9,000 men with 20,000 tons of equipment, prepared for the final assault on Stanley,...

Thai `slave-girl' mystery Auberon Waugh y n the Spectator for 17 April I drew atten- tion to a most affecting article written by John Pilger which had been splashed all over...

Christopher Hitchens A bu Jihad is an Arab name meaning `father of Jihad'. Jihad means 'holy War'. As a choice of nom de guerre, then, it suggests a very serious fellow. And...

Stephen Fay I n the White House, 'pool' is a noun or a verb that has nothing to do with swimm- ing. The pool is a limited number of jour- nalists; to pool is to share with...

Peter Taylor Buenos Aires A useful barometer of popular feeling in .Buenos Aires is the string of small blue newspaper kiosks that stretches down Florida Street, the Richmond...

On Monday, the Government agreed to choose the Judges who are to try cases without a jury by a fixed vote settled by ballot, instead of leaving their nomina- tion to the...

Patrick Marnham San Jose, Costa Rica I first became aware of the police in this friendly but rain-sodden country when two uniformed men armed with sub Machine guns sauntered...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington O n the evening of 15 February 1933 a little man, with chronic ulcers and wild ideas, pulled a gun from his pocket and emptied its chambers in...

new Timothy Garton Ash A President Reagan flies into a barrage of peace protest, he may ruefully reflect how the West German stepchild of American democracy has come of age....

Corinna Adam T he Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament brings out the worst in people. Not, let me hasten to say, in its supporters — but in its opponents. What one would expect to...

Richard West T he threat of a libel action has stopped Lord Denning's latest book, What Next in the Law, so we may never know the views of Britain's wisest judge. Since the...

Tim Congdon T he last three decades have seen the most rapid growth of world output and trade ever. It has perhaps been difficult amid all the gloom-mongering to maintain a...

More war casualties Paul Johnson urely nobody', wailed the Daily Tele- 'graph, 'wants to debate the statistics of Thursday's by-election'. Yes they did, ac- tually; it's what...

A thin market Tony Rudd T he Stock Exchange had a surprise last week when the very well known firm of Can Sebag did not, in the event, merge its partnership with the larger...

Sir: I am writing a biography of the Aga Khan to be published by World's Work and I would greatly appreciate any help that your readers may be able to give me. Any original...

Si r: Quoting Shakespeare is a dangerous game, and it appears that Mr Garton Ash (5 J une) is as hazy about Portia as the i Pope. Th e celebrated 'quality of mercy' speech is...

Sir: Simon Courtauld's observation (5 June) that the complexion of Spanish news- papers can be judged by whether they refer to 'Puerto Argentina' or 'Puerto Stanley' finds its...

Sir: Judy Froshaug's letter in your issue of 29 May says a great deal more about her than Mr Waugh. Having re-read Ms Froshaug's article, it is clear that she is writing about a...

Sir : The destruction of Graham S utherland's picture by Lady Churchill, far from being an act of vandalism, set an ex- a mple we should do well to follow (29 M ay). It was...

Fishy tale Sir: In his review of Roger Berthoud's Graham Sutherland biography (29 May), Arthur Marshall recalled some items on v iew at the Surrealist Exhibition of 1936,...

Sir: Under the heading of 'Self-help' Tony Rudd writes approvingly (29 May) of the American practice of 'voluntary Chapter 11'. He sees it as a device to enable a firm that is...

Doomed to destruction Patrick Marnham A most valuable quality for any writer who draws his material from the con- temporary world is the journalistic one, of 'being on the...

John Stewart Collis The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture Fritjof Capra ( Wildwood House £9.50) I t has always seemed to me an extraord- i nary thing that...

Peter Levi Larkin at Sixty edited by Anthony Thwaite (Faber £7.95) hilip Larkin says that a poem is a comp- lete lete thing, like an egg; that suggests a family resemblance...

Brian Masters The Life and Times of Grigorii Ra Alex de Jonge (Collins £9.95) rendered her totally dependent o un savoury peasant with the staring eyes, n t hsi t s p o u t...

Christopher Booker Russian Journal Andrea Lee (Faber £8.95) ince 1917 there must have been several 10 hundred books by Western visitors describing visits to the Soviet Union —...

JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT by Louis Ferdinand Celine. Box No: 224JT. BLAKE AND TRADITION by Kathleen Raine, 2 vols. Also 'The Rise of the Technocrats' and `Heavens Below'...

Peter Quennell Hog a rth Arthur Boyd Houghton Paul (Gordon Fraser £19.50) I llustration is evidently a dead art. Very few modern English draughtsmen ha ve yet increased our...

A. N. Wilson Tony Crosland Susan Crosland (Cape £10.95) T his is one of the most gripping political biographies of recent years. Anthony Crosland was married to Susan Barnes,...

John Stewart Collis's books include The Worm Forgives the Plough and The Vision of Glory. Christopher Booker is the author of The Games War: A Moscow Journal. Barbara Trapido's...

Family history Barbara Trapido Love-Act M. E. Austen (Jonathan Cape £6.50) T ohn Crowley's Little, Big is a curious, J captivating fantasy which rambles through six...

Byrd-song and English elegance Anthony Burgess William Byrd Psalmes, Sonets and Songs (Decca Florilegium DSLO 596) Hoist The Planets (CBS 40 37249) T he great William Byrd...

Sob sisters Mark Amory A Star is Torn (Theatre Royal, Stratford East) Talley's Folly (Lyric Hammersmith) Brontosaurus (Lyric Studio) R obyn Archer has a huge talent but she...

Thinking big John McEwen I f there is a hot tip for international star- dom among younger British painters of the moment — among those, that is, born after 1950 — it is...

Goodbye sailor Peter Ackroyd Remembrance (`AA', Screen on the Hill) T his is a film about young sailors but, before the dirty mackintosh brigade start lining up outside the...

Star parts Richard Ingrams I don't know whose idea it was to televise .i. the state banquet at Windsor Castle in honour of the visiting President Reagan. Whoever it was I...

At random Jeffrey Bernard T he idea last Sunday was to have a picnic with my daughter in a boat on the la” in Regents Park• but the weather was shoo' ing off and our tube...

Before the storm Buenos Aires A twilight each day Buenos Aires turns opaque and moribund. A grey haze blurs the outlines of the city. It is the begin- ning of winter and...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were as iced a for an aghast radio commentary durillgto Wimbledon match surpassing anything date in the way of outrageous behaviour On the part of...

Raymond Keene K orchnoi's recent form has been so poor that it is no longer a surprise when he loses to a player theoretically his inferior. It is, however, a sensation when...

No. 1222: Look, no ees! to without using the letter e. Entries to 'C o--- Set by Jaspistos: You are challeng ed write a maximum of 16 lines of Po et nni ry petition No. 1222' by...

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A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 28 June. Entries to: Crossword 561, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL. Name...