T he reign of Yuri Andropov was a time of especially poor East-West relations. This state of affairs he had inherited rather than brought about through actions of his own. His...

Eastward ho Charles Moore W hat did Mr Andropov have that Mr Brezhnev lacked? Neither was a close friend of Mrs Thatcher. Each ruled over the same repressive empire which she...

Q uite apart from other factors, the age and health of the most powerful heads of state are becoming rather worrying. Mr K.U. Chernenko, at 72, is the oldest man ever to be...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £17.25 IR517.25 £20.50 £26.50 One year: £34.50 I Rf 34.50 £41.00 £53.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to...

Bohdan Nahaylo Despite the Soviet system's well-known L lack of adequate provisions for resolv- ing a succession crisis, for the second time in 15 months there has been a...

Frank Johnson T his is the capital for which the death of the world's most important Communist traditionally poses problems of tone, eti- quette, and nuance unknown to Washing-...

Christopher Hitchens Washington T here are two voguish current terms which make American political discourse extremely irritating. They occur routinely in every press...

We regret to notice the death, on Monday morning, of Mr. T Chenery, the Editor of the Times, and one of the most learned Orientalists in England. He was not, we think, quite in...

Richard West W hen told that Ethiopia had no oil, Albert Schweitzer exclaimed to a visitor from that country: 'Wonderful. Congratulations. You might be left in peace for a...

William Deedes B ehind some of the comments, however . warm and friendly, about Harold Mac- m illan's earldom on his 90th birthday there has lurked the idea that he was...

Roy Kerridge Cruft's Dog Show separates the sheep from the goats, in my opinion. As I gazed around the crowded hall at Earl's Court, I decided I was in a Gathering of the...

Denis Sligo S oon after the last war, Sir Oswald L./Mosley bought what had once been the Bishop's Palace at Tuam, County Galway, and went to live there. At that time a number...

Clattering BBC train Paul Johnson T he BBC, that sturdy mendicant of the British cultural scene, is getting out its begging-bowl again. The last licence-fee agreement with the...

Hands off the Royal Jock Bruce-Gardyne A t the end of last month the Office of At Trading held a talk-in at the Royal Commonwealth Society to celebrate its tenth anniversary....

City', a phrase suggested wog the New Cross Building Society 'exi sts ' an operating margin of .35 per cent • ' e l' This should have read: 'exits on operating margin of .35 per...

Sir: While I do not quarrel with the heart- felt appreciation of James Knox for Some Experiences of an Irish RM (Books, 21 January) (apart from thinking he might have found a...

Scott's gems Sir: It is a pity that Gita Mehta Klass and the Crown', 11 February) should be fond of making glib generalisations about India and Paul Scott's view of it, while...

the imperialist Kipling can make Indians sound convincing and that the anti-imperialist Scott cannot' invites an attempt at explain why this should be so. Scott, like any other...

Sir: 'Russia', Colin Welch writes in an excellent article (Centrepiece, 7 January), `has still in her gift an enormous bribe — in exchange, say, for German neutrality, nothing...

Sir: Mr Alexander Chancellor (Notebook, 4 February) can dish it out but he evidently can't take it, for his much-protesting complaint about my attack on him during the House of...

Uncompromising careers Colin Welch T ike Timothy Garton Ash last week, I lanoted with astonishment Julian Havi- land's remark in the Times about Mrs That- cher's 48-hour visit...

Poor little sausage Max Hastings Donitz: The Last Fiihrer Peter Padfield (Gollancz £12.95) T he German U-boat campaign in the Second World War possessed much in common with...

Max Hastings's next book, Overlord: D - Day and the Battle for Normandy, will be published in June by Michael Joseph. Jeffrey Meyers is the author of D. H. Lawrence and the...

Francis King A Favourite of the Gods A Compass Error Sybille Bedford (Virago £3.50 & £2.95) I n its diversity, its erudition and, above all, its moral and intellectual fas...

Harriet Waugh The Paper Men William Golding (Faber & Faber £7.95) M r Golding must have written The Paper Men before he received the ac- colade of The Nobel Prize for...

Christopher Hawtree Spinsters of this Parish Sybil Oldfield (Virago £5.95) 'IQ he has the profile of a gorilla and onc e L./acted Ophelia — does that conveY anything to you?'...

The Souls Jane Abdy and Charlotte Gere (Sidgwick and Jackson £12.95) T he Victorian moral code, so far as we can judge from memoirs and letters of the time, never gained a very...

The Spectator Open to non-subscribers or to those who want to take out a gift subscription. Subscribe to The Spectator for twelve months and we will send you a signed copy of...

Bel Mooney Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism John Updike (Andre Deutsch £21) A good review is, amongst other things, ra-a little anthology,' he says, and the thought is...

Jeffrey Meyers Edmund Wilson's America George Douglas George Douglas (University of Kentucky Press £19.55) E dmund Wilson's interests ranged from i the historical and...

Gaining access Giles Gordon Tom and Viv (Royal Court) Rents (Lyric, Hammersmith) Q ince seeing the film E. T. I've been haunted by the extra-terrestrial being's first word...

On the run Peter Ackroyd The Prize of Peril (`18', selected cinemas) T his is the story of those who lose their lives for the greater glory of a 'game sho w% a young man is...

Lost romance Maureen Owen w hereas it is easy to switch from one television programme to another by remote control, no such convenient device is available to the radio...

Real people Richard Ingrams N earing the end of my long stint as the Spectator's television critic I find rather to my amazement that there are at least three programmes...

Means and ends Taki rr he crocodile tears that were shed by our 1 leaders over Yuri Andropov's demise reminded me that politicians, unlike virgins, never change. the hypocrisy...

Bedfellows Jeffrey Bernard I must be mellowing a little. I can no longer dislike doctors as I used to. Perhaps, at last, I'm too old for them to play God in a white coat to....

Lewisitis P. J. Kavanagh I n a recent interview the writer Nor n/ 1 Lewis admitted sadly that he had stoPPe reading. It came upon him suddenly , `li_ i ke be o terminal...

No. 1308: Idle thoughts Set by Jaspistos: Various eccentric ideas have been put forward as to how the unemployed could be put to work on government money for the benefit of us...

Brotherly love Raymond Keene T f two relatives are paired to face each "other in the final round of a tournament, and a high prize depends on the result, my expectation would...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a light but heartfelt valentine with all the ends of the lines rhyming. That was badly expressed — I meant rhyming the same way —...

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Prize: £10 — or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition (write 'Dictionary' under name and address) — for the first correct solution opened on 5 March. Entries to: Crossword...

Spectator Wine Club Auberon Waugh S o, in response to various hoots, whistles and groans I have at last exerted myself to find some decent, reasonably priced claret and a...

c/o Corney and Barrow Ltd 12 Helmet Row, London ECIV 3QJ. Telephone 01-930 1888 DESCRIPTION PRICE NO. OF VALUE INC. VAT CASES Château Bel-Air 1978, Bordeaux Superieur £37.49...

K onstantin Chernenko, 72, emerged as the new leader of the Soviet Union five days after the death of Yuri Andropov, who had reigned for only fifteen months unseen in public for...

DANIELE VARE: 'The Maker of Heavenly Trousers' and 'The Temple of Costly Ex- perience' (Methuen). Mrs Parsons, I Dealtry Rd, Putney, London Sw15, MONEYPENNY AND BUCKLE 'The Life...