T here was not much news at home, partly because most members of the Cabi- net had gone abroad on holiday, but there was a Tuna War with Spain, which is to say, a dispute...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 THE MYTH OF SOROS T he world's money markets are strange- ly quiet...

They seek him here, they seek him there, that damned elusive Mr Blair BORIS JOHNSON I t is hard to find an adequate metaphor for the present Tory sense of frustration. You...

JAMES I have been rereading The Small House at Allington, one of my favourite Trollope novels, and contemplating what a horrid life poor Mrs Dale would have had with her...

Mr Mugabe rules a country where the teachings of Betty Friedan have not penetrated CHARLES MOORE I Harare cannot have it that property that is family property should be...

We are living in a golden season, says Martin Vander Weyer, who argues that British pundits have yet to catch up with the good news THE PRESENT Government, an unprece- dented...

James Bowman explains why passions are running so high in America's puritanical crusade against tobacco Washington HUNTING WITCHES — unless you are after a fun weekend of...

AF 1ER I wrote recently about the appallingness of the new liturgy (The Lord be with you'; 'Much obliged, I'm sure'), a priest from County Meath kindly wrote to me about...

Christina Lamb spends the day touring Lima with the President of Peru, who tells her the secret of his remarkable success Lima `CAN YOU hear me, children?' asks the Japanese...

John Simpson gives an insider's account of how television news is made — why it ignores some wars and drenches us with others ONCE UPON a time the British watched the news on...

Jeremy Paxman locks horns with Macmillan's biographer over a matter of parish politics THE VILLAGE of Turville in Bucking- hamshire speaks so powerfully to an image of rural...

I HAVE BEEN reading a book by a pro- fessor of philosophy, a liberal in the American sense, in which the satirical old rogue maintains that there is no such thing as...

start of yet another football season, as it crowds out the rightful seasonal sports AS TEMPERATURES reach the nineties, and fat people start visibly to melt, it's odd to think...

Rule for bargains: 'Do other men, for they would do you' PAUL JOHNSON All the same, market democracy could be made to work much better if we were not so lazy. We do not take...

Sir: The article by Christopher Lockwood about Luxembourg (`The mouse that roars', 23 July) contains so many errors, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. To begin with,...

Sir: How astonishingly arrogant of Mr Wal- ston (The end of the affair', 30 July) to state so sneeringly that he is different from other little boys who have grown into mid-...

Sir: In 'An atheist's vision of life' (6 August), Richard Dawkins suggests that `Science could give a good account of itself in the religious education classroom.' Of course it...

Sir: Paul Johnson's defence of the need for proper rewards to British commanders (And another thing,6 August) is commend- able. As he rightly suggests, these should be equated...

Sir: Mr George Caldwell (Letters, 30 July) asks 'Why did Germany start the war in the first place?' All the books I have read on the subject indicate that Britain declared war...

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Beating the system Richard West ALAN PATON: A BIOGRAPHY by Peter F. Alexander OUP, £25, pp. 510 A lan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country, published in 1948, the year that...

Hugh Cecil ARMAGEDDON REVISITED: A WORLD WAR I JOURNAL by Amos N. Wilder Yale, £17.95, pp. 168 T his is no run-of-the-mill war memoir, but the work of a remarkable man, Amos...

Charlotte Moore THE PARTISAN by Benjamin Cheever Hamish Hamilton, £15.99, pp. 261 B enjamin Cheever's endearing second novel examines familiar subjects — loyalty, rivalry, the...

Noel Malcolm he pornography of violence' is a phrase with a certain currency, but I won- der if enough attention has been paid to the pornography of stupidity. There is a kind...

Alan Campbell ADMIRAL SATAN: THE LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS OF SUFFREN by Roderick Cavaliero I.B. Tauris, £29.95, pp. 312 P erre-Andre de Suffren, Knight Grand Cross and Bailli of the...

Andrew Barrow MAJOR MAJOR: MEMORIES OF AN OLDER BROTHER by Terry Major-Ball Duckworth, £12.95, pp. 167 T his rather wonderful little book might have been written if the...

Adam Zamoyski TRANS-ATLANTYK by Witold Gombrowicz, translated by Carolyn French and Nina Karsov Yale, f15.95, pp. 122 ombrowicz occupies an odd position in 20th-century...

Simon Heller EMERIC PRESSBURGER: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A SCREENWRITER by Kevin Macdonald Faber, £20, pp. 467 S ir Alexander Korda — like Emeric Pressburger, a Hungarian exile...

Then I'd rush home at night and look for mail From Europe, via the Red Cross, maybe, To say my parents had been traced, though frail And ill but still alive . . . a dream for me...

Edinburgh Festival Serious stuff in Scotland Rupert Christiansen finds Edinburgh's splendid Festival Theatre opening with some very serious drama indeed T he great good news...

L.S. Lowry R.A.: a selection of masterpieces (Crane K•+lman, till 31 August) Inarticulate poetry Giles Auty o ne of the heartening features of London's network of private...

Whole musical education Martin Gayford A lot of people tend to think of jazz as an extrovert, not to say raucous, musical form. But, although there are plenty of per-...

Famously out of tune Peter Phillips I 've become rather attached to the spe- cial display of Proms memorabilia which one may see at the moment on the walls of the Albert Hall...

Dangerous Corner (Chichester) Broken Glass (National, Lyttelton) Lady Windermere's Fan (Albery) Miller's crossing Sheridan Morley A fter the 'radical re-evaluation' (or...

Neither clever nor funny Nigella Lawson I t's amazing, isn't it, how a few well- placed lire can bring a smile to people's faces,' said Keith Floyd at the end of this week's...

Zero Patience (18', selected cinemas) Silly buggers Mark Steyn S ociety,' says John Greyson, writer/director of Zero Patience, 'has never been comfy with buttholes,...

My Bardot days Taki Gstaad L ast week, starting as Atticus in the Sunday Times, I wrote, 'I've been writing the High Life column in The Spectator for 18 years, and hope to...

A Vintage Subscription Offer Give a Spectator gift subscription to a valued friend or relative, and we will give you a gift in return - a bottle of Modt & Chandon 1986 Vintage...

A call for celebration Nigel Nicolson A age lengthens, one's public activi- ties decline, particularly membership of committees. I shed them, or they shed me, like autumn...

More sex, please Jeffrey Bernard A certain amount of loneliness is beginning to creep into my life — very dif- ferent from being alone, which I like and it has prompted me to...

HAPPY FEAST day to my colleague Clare Asquith for 11 August. St Clare got togeth- er with St Francis of Assisi and started the order of Poor Clares and obtained from the Pope...

SPAIN'S FNIESf CAVA • sews FIER MA Confused? Raymond Keene THE SITUATION regarding the World Chess Championship demands clarifica- tion. It is well known, after Nigel Short...

COMPETITION I 51 , GLI 11.17 S(01(H1Nrsii URA is,i V 41.1' SCOICH AURA ISLE. OF Lake's lunch Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1842 you were invited to describe, as one of...

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In my kitchen is a plate with an old- fashioned pious 'kitchen prayer' inscribed upon it. You are invited to replace it with a modern equivalent, either in verse (maxi- mum 16...

(GRAHAM'S PORT W. & J. GRAHAM'S PORT CROSSWORD A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 30 August,...

Back-page innocents Frank Keating THIS weekend has all hands to the pomp as David Coleman noisily splutters and the fireworks splatter to signal the end of the European...

Dear Mary. . . Over the years I have suffered more than a fair share of trouble from neighbours, but I believe I have now found the complete solution. When my neighbours...