There's nothing I can do for you. I suggest you fly to Bosnia and we'll try to get John Major interested in you. M r John Major, the Prime Minister, proposed a revival of his...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 THE FACTS OF LIFE N ot so long ago, the British press and the British establishment were filled with contempt for the Anglican church. The...

RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £77.00 0 £39.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £88.00 0 £44.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$125 0 US$63.00 USA Airmail 0 US$175 0 US$88 Rest of Airmail 0 £111.00 0...

Hunt the future leader: a harmless little party game SIMON HEFFER A t least two of the politicians to have held the office of Employment Secretary in the last ten years would,...

VICKI WOODS T wo weeks buried in la France profonde among fields full of sunflowers has left me fat and sleepy and almost cured of my addiction. I can take or leave most of the...

When harassment is better seen as an issue of privacy AUBER ON WAUGH P erhaps it is because she has a face of sweetness and serenity, almost a rare, elfin beauty, as revealed...

Alasdair Palmer reports on the refusal of social workers to allow a blameless man to live with and care for his children Dr Kellogg's list, with its comically solemn reliance...

I SUPPOSE we all give ourselves away by our choice of vocabulary and, as it were, 'emotional register'. Thus it was that, when I listened to the wireless extracts of Lady...

persist.. . I AM unsure where patients get their medical misinformation from, but it must in part be from each other. One can scarcely travel half a mile on a bus or a train...

Charles Glass explains why the Libyans have never had it so good Tripoli THE MALTESE shipping clerk, handing me a ticket for the Tripoli ferry, asked, `Well, do you think they...

Niall Ferguson argues that Germany in bearing the cost of European union is still paying reparations THE 1 ERMATH of the ERM's col- lapse recalls Humpty Dumpty. All M. Delors'...

Simon Courtauld reports on an upsurge of anti-British feeling in usually placid Gibraltar Gibraltar IN 1980, when I was last here, staff at the Gibraltar Chronicle called a...

Is the life of the Independent moving aggressively to its close? PAUL JOHNSON T he tortuous logic, or lack of it, which middle-class progressives bring to the scrutiny of...

Unhorsing Treasury knights and Bank grandees Nicholas Davenport, City radical CHRISTOPHER FILDES N icholas Davenport liked to call him- self a City radical. The stress, Roy...

Sir: Naim Sullivan writes that my use of the phrase 'minorities like women' is incorrect because 'women comprise exactly half the population' (Letters, 7 August). This is...

Sir: In the course of suggesting that all our post-war ills stem from Attlee's Labour government and the Beveridge reforms, Simon Heffer has some nice things to say about us...

Sir: I used to think that Sir Alfred Sherman was just a figuie of fun when he dabbled in Balkan affairs. There are indeed some touches of the familiar comic figure in his last...

Supplying a needed poet James Buchan THE ERN MALLEY AFFAIR by Michael Heyward Faber, f15.99, pp. 284 L iterary hoaxes succeed because people want them to. Eighteenth-century...

Christopher Howse THE SPECTATOR BOOK OF EPIGRAMS edited by Dhiren Bhagat Pan, f5.99, pp. 266 I n our impatient age it is time for the epigram to make a comeback, but as Sir...

Albert Read HARASSMENT by Patrick Skene Catling Bloomsbury, £13.99, pp. 280 T he sensationally good-looking Michael Saques is a young man set adrift in a woman's world. All the...

Peregrine Hodson T he rot probably set in with Homer. The Odyssey has faults that still plague the genre of travel writing: a threadbare plot of departure, tribulation and...

They have come back. The next lot is in, Landing at the port. Soon they will be here, Some a little bit drunk, some a lot drunk, With their money, their condoms, their loud pink...

Harriet Waugh STRANGE GODS by John Cornwell Simon & Schuster, f14.99, pp. 262 J ohn Cornwell is probably best known for A Thief in the Night and Earth to Earth, but he is also...

John Grigg IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE ODIOUS by A. W. Brian Simpson Clarendon, £35, pp. 464 A t the beginning of the second world war emergency legislation was passed, empowering...

Evelyn Joll COUTTS LINDSAY 1824-1913 by Virginia Surtees Michael Russell, £15.95, pp. 213 C outts Lindsay, we learn from this most admirable biography, was born with many...

Heritage Unravelling a taste for monarchs Palace 5 .00 a.m. I arrive at Buckingham Palace to find a small queue. 5.30 a.m. The queue is tidied up by the police. We are asked...

Ticklish predicament Peter Phillips I t is a commonplace, as we all know, to hear that the BBC is lowering its standards. So far as I can make out this process is gradual and...

Fingers crossed Rupert Christiansen I nevitably, last year's Edinburgh Festival was a dodgy, patchy, skin-of-its-teeth busi- ness. The programme assembled by Brian McMaster in...

Balthus (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, till 29 August) Potent pubescents Giles Auty I t seems odd to me that I have not had an earlier chance to write about the impor- tant...

Prague Festival Ballet (Palace of Culture, Prague) Repetitive exposure Sophie Constanti T he beauty of Prague, a breathtaking panorama when viewed from the terraces of the...

Here (Donmar Warehouse) Time of my life (Vaudeville) Extra time Sheridan Morley A t the Donmar Warehouse, Michael Frayn's Here is essentially about time and space: it has all...

Guess the f-word Taki Gstaad L ady Thatcher, her daughter and Sir Denis have arrived without fanfare in Gstaad, staying in John Latsis's digs. The same John Latsis in whose...

Time to show off Nigel Nicolson Since then I have probably spent more hours watching television and listening to radio than I have spent reading books. While I am slightly...

Devil take the hind-1 L.40 174 Linit. THE HEARTS and taste-buds of all game- lovers will be tingling with anticipation this week, for it is glorious grouse time again. I do...

c>01: 0 ©40 SPAIN'S FINES! CAVA SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA Memory Lane Raymond Keene GARRY KASPAROV often states that the most important skill for top-class chess is a powerful...

COMPETITION Country matters Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1791 you were invited to follow in Max Beerbohm's foot- steps and express a hearty dislike of some traditional...

GRAHAM'S PORT J W. & J. GRAHAM PORT CROSSWORD A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 31 August,...

You are invited to retell the plot of any well-known work of literature in the metre of Hiawatha (maximum 16 lines). Entries to 'Competition No. 1794' by 26 August.

9, 15, 22, 27, 33, 38, with RING- MASTER round the centre. Dictionary prizes are sent out by the 'Post-a-Book' service.

Getting the message Frank Keating THE SINGLE shot rang out around elevenses on Monday morning. It came from the neat study of a bijou town house in a trim West London suburb....

Q. I have taken a lodge in Scotland for two weeks and am having 20 or so people to stay. Given that the forecast for sporting activities is unfavourable, what can I do to...