I n the first naval action since Suez 120 I Royal Marines landed on the island of South Georgia and recaptured it from Argentinian forces; 156 Argentinian ser- vicemen were...

. . . three weeks later Ferdinand Mount A victory speaks for itself, too. Military success tends to prompt immediate re- consideration of the diplomatic negotiating position....

T he weekly column by my friend Mr Ferdinand Mount will continue to ap- pear on the opposite page for the next three weeks. After that he will clear out his locker, brush his...

UK Ere Surface mail Air nail 6 months: f12.00 £13.00 £14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.00 £26.00 129.00 £37.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

Lessons of South-East Asia Auberon Waugh Bangkok R eaders of the Spectator have been known to suggest rather rudely that they hear all too much about Thailand. It is not,...

Christopher Hitchens T he British case in the quarrel over the Falkland Islands rests on the moral and legal authority of the United Nations Security Council. The United States...

Timothy Garton Ash Munich T o most British readers West German politics are, I suspect, rather boring. The news from the ruling Social Democrats' Party conference would not...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington A l losing streaks must come to an end some day. Accordingly, Mr Reagan got some good news at last. The March in- flation figures showed that,...

James Fenton T he fleet, wrote Mr John Witherow to The Times from on board HMS Invin- cible, 26 April, had gone into battle forma- tion for the first time. 'It now presents an...

Euan Cameron T he year of 1950 for a schoolboy in Argentina was a special one, for it marked the one hundredth anniversary of the death of the liberator and national hero, Jose...

Society has been greatly interested this week in the marriage of Prince Leopold to Princess Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont. The ceremony came off on Thursday at Windsor, and was...

Melvin J. Lasky T he day I left Cairo, during the last days before Israel's evacuation of Sinai, I spent the morning in the publishing house of Al-A hram, the influential...

Two nations Tony Rudd w hile the markets in the City are behaving remarkably well consider- ing the pressures of the Falkland Islands crisis, great chunks of British commerce...

No sex, please... Paul Johnson T he joke in Fleet Street may be 'What on earth do we put in the paper when the Falklands crisis is over?', but look what they're driven to put...

Heroes of Thailand Sir: As a one-time resident of Thailand , husband of a Thai and general Thai-phile 1 much enjoyed Richard West's vignette on Thailand's 200 years of Chakri...

Sir: Auberon Waugh's article in the Spec- tator (17 April) about John Pilger's pur- chase of a child in Thailand glosses over an international problem of enormous seriousness:...

Sir: The wholly admirable reactions of the British public to the Argentinian insolence remind me of a reported conversation bet- ween a British general and one of his Ger- man...

Sir: It is to be hoped that French False Friends, admirably reviewed by Arthur Marshall (24 April), warns ladies against the pitfall of asking in France for a brassiere. This...

Sir: It is often assumed that there is a con- tinuum between the philosophy of Nietz- sche and the 'philosophy' of Hitler, and A. L. Rowse embraces this assumption when he...

Sir: I was reading Anthony Blond's article in last week's issue 'On being a British Jew' with interest and enjoyment until I came to the misstatement of fact about the Oxford E...

Sir: I was at the meeting organised by Black Insight which Roy Kerridge writes about in his article 'Jolly Boateng weather' (17 April). It seems to be curious that when the...

The pattern John Bull Richard Ingrams William Cobbett: The poor man's friend George Spater (CUP £30) `ri" he only time I ever saw him he seemed 1 to me a very pleasant man'...

Eric Christiansen Society and the Holy in late Antiquity Peter Brown (Faber £10.50) T he defence of the holy is still an emotional business, but does it arouse as much fury as...

Anthony Thwaite The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, Volume II, 1913-16 Edited by George J. Zytaruk and James T. Boulton (Cambridge University Press f20) w riting to an American...

Sara Maitland The Man Who Had No Idea Thomas Disch (Gollancz SF £7.95) For Richer for Poorer Edward Stewart (Goliana £7.95) The Rash Act Ford Madox Ford, with an T his is the...

Alan Bell E dward Garnett's name is constantly found in the indices and footnotes of early 20th-century English literary history as a formative critical influence, but he has...

NAPOLEON by Emil Ludwig. A. Shepherd, 41 Mermaid St, Rye, Sussex. GUY DE MAUPASSANT and 'An Indiscreet Guide to Soho', both by Stanley Jackson. Write: L. O'Callaghan, 46...

David Williams London Lines: The places and faces of London in poetry and song Selected by Kenneth Baker, with photographs by David Lister (Methuen £6.95) A nthologising by...

Peter Levi T he reputation of Camus suffered for many years in France from the childish `I am lefter than thou' rivalry of Sartre and his associates. Camus was derided as a...

Still on the road Rodney Milnes R ecession or no, somehow they still hap- pen, and with no discernible falling off in either quality or quantity of pro- grammes. The...

t)own to basics John McEwen M ichael Salaman will doubtless be well known to many people as a teacher ( Camberwell, the Royal Academy Schools, Chelsea) and a contributor to...

Capital charge Mark Amory The Prince of Homburg (Cottesloe) Rents (Lyric Studio Hammersmith) Bumps and Knots (Lyric Hammersmith) A one on a bench sits a young man, his face as...

The tell-tale heart Peter Ackroyd Passione d'Amore (`AA', Minema) T his is a story of love, as its title sug- gests. But it is a bizarre and deformed love, filled with shadows...

Living doll Richard Ingrams I don't know what she does to the enemy but, by God, she terrifies me. One can't be sure whether the late Duke of Wellington would have felt...

Questionable Jeffrey Bernard T wo weeks ago The Times carried another of those silly, melodramat ic features on the subject of alcoholism. I t was written by Ms Caroline...

Overcast Taki New York T am back again, although I was not 1 aware of ever having been away. It seems I failed to make clear to my sainted editor my fanatical purity of...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a fable, in prose or verse, in which the protagonist follows the advice of a proverb and comes to a sticky end. Goody-goody...

No. 1216 Brief lives Set by Charles Seaton: You are invited to write a short biography, not necessarily serious, of any famous (but not contem- porary) figure in not more than...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 17 May. Entries to: Crossword 555, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 1 2...

Great race Raymond Keene P ortisch's early lead in the Phillips and Drew Kings has faded after defeats by Mestel and Timman, and it currently seems that top honours will be...

compAsS in the title (from Cowper) — a re computer languages. (1A T's Ode to Memory; 38A place name; 8 D Ally(l).) Winner: E. C. Hunt, 21 Park Lane' Norwich.