Page 3
Portrait of the week
The SpectatorP reparations for a war between Britain and Argentina continued at a gentle pace. The Royal Navy's battle fleet steamed to the South Atlantic. President Reagan dispatched US...
Page 4
Notebook
The SpectatorA s the modern jargon would have it, the Falklands crisis is 'an ongoing situa- tion'. So ongoing, in fact, and so liable to change, that for a daily newspaper — and, more...
Page 5
Another voice
The SpectatorGod's own kingdom A large part of my time seems to have been spent defending journalists. There is an ineradicable suspicion of them in England which I find hard to explain ex-...
Page 6
America gets the jitters
The SpectatorNicholas von Hoffman Washington A t first Americans thought the Falkland Islands affair was a repeat of the blow- up in Anguilla a few years ago which ended when a planeload...
Page 7
The Navy's hardest task
The SpectatorStephen Roskill T wice in my lifetime has Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands proved an impor- ta nt link in the chain forged to exercise our World-wide maritime control. The...
Subscribe
The SpectatorUK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 IR£17.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 IRE35.50 £37.00 £49.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...
Page 8
Libya on the defensive
The SpectatorChristopher Hitchens Tripoli I n 1956 the United States prevented Britain, France and Israel from persisting in an armed attack on Nasser's Egypt. Apart from anything else,...
Page 9
The insanity of the law
The SpectatorTom Bethell Tom Bethell Washington J ohn W. Hinckley Jr, who was seized with a smoking pistol in his hand at the scene of the shooting of President Reagan and March, bystanders...
Page 10
Thoughts from Australia
The SpectatorWilliam Deedes T hey were digging up the middle square of the huge Melbourne cricket ground while I was there. The old wicket was said to be possessed of devils. So that struck...
Page 11
The admirable Thais
The SpectatorRichard West Bangkok T he bicentenary of the Chakri dynasty, and of the founding of Bangkok, is more than just an excuse for a party, or for a bout of self-praise. The Thais...
Page 12
An overdose of civil rights
The SpectatorDavid Tidmarsh Now my knowledge of law cannot stand comparison with that of the lawyers who have been devoting themselves to the civil rights aspects of mental illness over the...
Page 13
Jolly Boateng weather
The SpectatorR oy Kerridge enjy's one of my brightest pupils,' a teacher told me recently, looking ap- provingly at an earnest negro youth. 'When he leaves school, he's sure of a good job...
One hundred years ago
The SpectatorThe great contest in the United States over the admission of Chinese im- migrants is not over yet. Both Senate and House of Representatives passed by large majorities a Bill...
Page 15
The press
The SpectatorBewildered, Cheltenham Paul Johnson I t is heartening,' wrote reader R. Pirl rt eham to the Guardian, `to fi nd the British people so united in their resolve to repel the...
Page 16
In the City
The SpectatorA new era? Tony Rudd S ince the Fleet left Portsmouth, two views have emer g ed in the City about the nature of the Falklands crisis throu g h which we are now livin g . One...
Page 17
Mr Alan Whicker
The SpectatorWe have been informed that Michael Deakin's review of Within Whicker's World (20 March) has been construed as suggesting that Alan Whicker played less than a major role in the...
erns
The SpectatorLetters Advice to travellers Sir: Further to Richard West's piece on the 1982 South American Handbook (3 April), I thought the following, taken from the same Handbook, would...
Different alliances
The SpectatorSir: Simon Courtauld jokingly suggests that the Alliance of the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party might well borrow some ideas from Bakunin's Alliance of Social...
Myopic
The SpectatorSir: Victor Buchanan's patronising, naive and factually incorrect account of life in modern Burma (3 April) places him on the first planeload of the myopic and 'Hun- like'...
Another weekly
The SpectatorSir: Richard West writes (27 March), ... for almost 70 years it has been the Spectator and the New Statesman that stood for weekly journalism'. Has he never heard of The...
Elgar's orchestration
The SpectatorSir: In his review of the Dvorak cello con- certo (3 April), Anthony Burgess makes the point that recording engineers may highlight instrumental passages, contrary to the...
Tito in Academe
The SpectatorSir: Mr. Frank Pomeranz (Letters, 3 April) was of course right in stating that no one would object to Smuts, Mountbatten or Wavell Fellowships. Of course Djilas pere was also...
Page 18
BOOKS
The SpectatorWhite House Families Alastair Forbes All the President's Kin Barbara Kellerman (Robson Books £7.95) w hen Benjamin Franklin, no stranger to a Royal Court, bequeathed to...
Page 19
Fortasse quod Londiniensis sum...
The SpectatorMichael Wharton T he late Dr John Morris is probably best known to general readers for his Age of Arthur (1973), a splendid book which gives the gist of what is known about the...
NEXT WEEK Arthur Marshall on the hazards of speaking French.
The SpectatorJohn Grigg on Rab Butler. Francis King on Robert Nye. Anthony Blond on April Ashley. Terence de Vere White on Burne- Jones.
Page 20
Flash Alf
The SpectatorPeter Quennell Mortimer Wheeler: Adventurer to Archaeology Jacquetta Hawkes (Weidenfeld & Nicolson £10.95) I n the fi rst sentence of her new book ivlis s . Jacquetta Hawkes...
Homer illumined
The SpectatorPeter Levi 1 -1 olin Macloed died young, by suicide, a few days before last Christmas. He was the classical tutor at Christ Church, and a mature scholar. Indeed he was the...
THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS Peter Levi, poet and novelist, is the
The Spectatortranslator of Pausanias. Peter Quennell's many books include biographies of Ruskin, Pope and Byron. Harriet Waugh's most recent novel is Mother's Footsteps.
Page 21
The things that are Caesar's
The SpectatorA. N. Wilson D ichard K. Fenn is aptly named, though IN.he could be called Swamp or Bog or simply Mud with equal appropriateness. Wading through his prose is not a great...
Page 22
Triviality
The SpectatorKay Dick M r Bowers has embarked on an ambit- ious project: a series of novels about the Russian Revolutions, of which Th„ e , Spark is the fi rst. A gestation period of 4 b...
Green-eyed
The SpectatorHarriet Waugh Before She Met Me Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape £6.50) J ealousy is undignified: an unhappy mixture of violence and petulance. It is unpretty and rarely helps...
Page 23
Dreaming
The SpectatorDuncan Fallowell The Great Perspectivists Gavin Stamp (Trefoil Books £11.95, £5.95) nne of the most romantic characteristics V of Great Britain is the way in which treasures...
Page 24
ARTS
The SpectatorGenius and dottiness Rodney Mines I Puritani (WNO, Dominion Theatre) T he Welsh National Opera's new pro- duction of Puritani is absolutely in- furiating. It is quite plainly...
Page 25
Art
The SpectatorBrought to light John McEwen I the arts — as no doubt in most other 'activities — one is continually being told by candidates for 'Great Bores of Today', that the situation...
Cinema
The SpectatorAn ancient theme Peter Ackroyd The Boat (`A', selected cinemas) T his German film, extolling the heroism of a U-boat crew during the second world war, has had an...
Page 26
Theatre
The SpectatorFood for thought Mark Amory Meetings (Hampstead) Song and Dance (Palace) • Boogie (May Fair) News Revue (Fortune) Beyond the Footlights (Lyric) I n a light-hearted even...
Television
The SpectatorOld chestnuts Richard Ingrams -gras ped, some reason I have never quit e .11: grasped, TV over the Easter Holiday period is worse than at any other time at" ing the year. My...
Page 27
High life
The SpectatorWar games Taki New York M y good friend Luis Basualdo is an Bnglish Argentinian who dresses like . an country squire but looks as English as an MGM castle. Luis used to be...
Low life
The SpectatorPoles apart Jeffrey Bernard F or a moment I thought I was going mad. There I was, sitting quietly in the Coach =and Horses minding my own business and having my 11 a.m....
Page 28
Competition entries
The SpectatorTo enable competitors to economise on postage, entries for one or more weeks of the competition and crossword may be posted together under one cover addressed 'Competition...
Co mp eti t ion
The SpectatorNo. 1214: Purple on grey Set by Jaspistos: I'm not quite sure whether I know exactly what 'purple prose' is. Please show me by writing some very purple prose (maximum 150...
No. 1211: The winners
The SpectatorJaspistos reports: Competitors were asked to incorporate the ten words mentioned below, in the order given, into a plausible piece of prose. For your amusement, the...
Page 29
Solution to 550: It's not cricket!
The SpectatorB U 19 P S L N ER ;13 s MOM MIMI 111 o El It.4 IMF IME EMMEN” WEEEMENIEUJEC c l i EuEl A K N r CM C E itiMIENCIn E C Initlia Cr Er IC 611CCIM EirINIIPM LIO O S E © RI urfpwww...
Crossword 553
The SpectatorA Prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution oPened on 4 May. Entries to: Crossword 553, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. a r 4 IBM 7...
Ches s
The SpectatorThree of the best Raymond Keene I n spite of an earthquake which rocked the playing hall during the last round, causing a sudden evacuation of Grandmasters, the great...
Note: Competitors are warned that in the solution to Crossword
The Spectator551 one of the unclued lights (a name) has been misspelt.