H opes rose for a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon. Outside Beirut Israeli forces continued to close in on the 7,000 Palesti- nian irregulars who are among the in- habitants of...

This sporting life Stephen Fay T here are proper subjects for a respon- sible political column this week: the behaviour, for example, of small children in Liverpool who, by...

M r Begin said last week that he sees Beirut as Berlin and the Palestine Liberation Organisation as Hitler and his henchmen hiding in the bunker. It remains to be seen whether...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 112117.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 IRL35.50 £37.00 £49.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

Patrick Desmond M r Begin is a terrorist. This is not to accuse him of being an uncouth and insensitive thug: in private Mr Begin is courteous, softly-spoken, curiously...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington ashington is enjoying another homo- sexual affair. A young man of less than unimpeachable veracity has accused ten representatives of Congress...

Nicholas Luard Natal F or the two hours between 10 a.m. and midday the traffic of game to and from the main waterhole in the Umfolozi reserve is unbroken. Herds of zebra file...

Roy Kerridge O ne summer's evening, I went for a stroll by the shores of Lough Erne, just outside the city of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. Swifts and swallows patrolled...

Richard West Dorchester T here are two signs in my room at the Antelope Hotel. One says: 'Please note: Cold tap is hot water. Hot tap is cold water'. The other reads 'The Oak...

The Lord Mayor entertained her Ma- jesty's Ministers at the Mansion House on Wednesday. Lord Northbrook and Mr Childers, in returning thanks for the Army and Navy, alluded with...

Donald Gould It seems unlikely that the now official disapproval of the medicine men will lead to an early dissolution of The Fancy, because there are far too many people with...

The union censors Paul Johnson T he systematic support given to the health service workers by unions which have nothing to do with the dispute raises the dangers of political...

Danger in unison Tony Rudd W hen markets move in unison it can be good news and it can be bad. We have examples of both at the moment. The concerted downward trend in...

at last feels that he is able to praise the Archbishop of Canterbury. Not quite, perhaps, like someone holding a can- dle to the sun but a similar idea. It is also reassuring to...

Sir: Simon Courtauld's Notebook (7 August) referred to his difficulty in tracing the derivation of the term 'stick' instead of runner beans. I can offer no esoteric insight but...

In the name of sport Sir: Raymond Carr (31 July) manages to Miss the point in spite of tripping over it several times. He says that people who chase after foxes should boldly...

Sir: Your comments on the Falklands ser- vice in St Paul's Cathedral (Notebook, 31 July) seem to me mistaken. Why should God not be thanked for a victory? If not for that, what...

July), abused the League Against Cruel Sports and was also full of inaccuracies. A plethora of historical ghosts were brought in to defend the indefensible. Diverse characters...

The charm of Chatsworth John Martin Robinson T had wondered whether the red and green 1 Chinese silk curtains smuggled through the fair of Nizhni Novgorod still hung in the...

Marc Jordan Victorian Sculpture Benedict Read (Yale, published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art £30) ("N ne photograph in Benedict Read's V superbly...

Peter Levi Collected Poems George Seferis (Anvil Press 0.95) T hirty years ago, big publishers were grumbling that there was no money in Poetry, and less than that in...

Francis King y t is possible that, in the choice of the title 1Quotalions from Other Lives for her short collection of short-stories, Penelope Gilliatt was being deliberately...

Sara Maitland T here is a popular game, played with enthusiasm by publishers, documentary Makers and scientists. Its name is Sociobiology. The rules are not very rigorous, but...

Jo Grimond The Sporting World of R. S. Surtees John Welcome (Oxford £9.95) w hen the Anti-Blood Sport League has ensured that wild foxes have been exterminated in Southern...

Jeremy Lewis The Blyton Phenomenon Sheila Ray (An- dre Deutsch £10.95) W hat we should — and should not — allow children to read is one of those subjects on which even the...

SEASIDE GARDENING by Mrs Kellaway. Write Box No: 253 SG. DANGEROUS SKIES (1954) by Air Com- modore A. E. Clouston. Box No 253SG. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch. Good price paid...

James Hughes-Onslow John P Mackintosh on Parliament and Social Democracy Edited by David Marquand (Longman £7.95) Essays, some previously un- published, by a Labour maverick...

Through the ages John McEwen D emonstrations of traditional crafts- manship and folk culture are a specialised taste, but the Aditi: Celebration of Life exhibition at the...

Rodney Milnes Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier, The Barber of Seville (Glyndebourne) M unich and Glyndebourne are not really comparable — the one a repertory festival, the...

With a vengeance Peter Ackroyd Death Vengeance ('X', selected cinemas) his is a film about an urban vigilante, and is filled throughout with images of carnage. From the...

Gloomy victory Mark Amory Uncle Vanya (Haymarket) The Cherry Orchard (Round House) T he endless debate on how to play Chekhov receives some fuel this week In the coincidence...

Bath-time ' Richard Ingrams have been watching the BBC's Task I Force South: the Battle for the Falklands intermittently. This has been presented in an unsatisfactory way,...

Men's page Jeffrey Bernard I f any of you men out there have got anY problems you'd like to discuss with . 0 1e please feel free to write. It's high time someone got a men's...

French lessons Taki Kifissia o ne of the most agreeable recollections of my youth is the time I spent in Kifissia, the green and pleasant resort town that lies eight miles...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a reply, from any major female character in a 19th-century English novel, to the recent advertisement: 'Young gentleman, well...

No. 1231: Re-revised version Set by Jacomo."Modernists' have recently rewritten the National Anthem. You are in- vited to supply new versions of some or all of the Ten...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 31 August. Entries to: Crossword 570, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 1 2...

Title hopes Raymond Keene Torquay w hen this article appears the 1982 British Championship will be draw- ing to a close. At the moment, after the first week's play, it...

lights provide s°' eponymous examples. Winner: Miss S. M. Cooke , Macaulay Road, London SW4.