`That's funny, my Prime Minister always does what I tell him.' T he nation felt obliged to discuss the private life of the Prince of Wales after a journalist wrote a book about...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 A HEAD FOR FIGURES I n 1888, Francis Galton lined up a group of Cambridge undergraduates and mea- sured their heads. He found that a man's...

It has taken £600 million of Mr Lee Kun-hee's money to answer Norman Lamont's question BORIS JOHNSON Mark those words. Roll them about in your mind. Granted, we all know about...

ALAN WATKINS T he life of President Home is drawing peacefully to its close. The question is, who is to succeed him? The Conservative plan to slip in Mr Douglas Hurd — which...

The Prince of Wales has spurned the entire system designed to protect him CHARLES MOORE It is an impressive list (though, as some- one injured under category 7, I may be...

Alasdair Palmer relates the monumental bungling and incompetence with which the American government has handled the threat of Islamic terrorism New York /Washington NEXT...

Christian Caryl measures the weight and breadth of the German Chancellor's electoral triumph Berlin LIKE EVERYONE else in Germany, I've spent the past five months listening to...

Michael Heath

Cries for help from the Christians of the Holy Land have received scant acknowledgement from their western co-religionists, reports William Dalrymple ON MOUNT ATHOS earlier this...

to act as a reminder to those — one quarter of the adult popula- tion — who never make a will. Prompted by this, we start a new regular feature: Will of the week. Dr Beatrice...

Martin Vander Weyer explains how to gain socially and financially from the expected Labour victory at the next election LADBROKE'S odds on Labour to win the next general...

THE CLOUD is settling heavily upon the Czar. The attempt to conceal the gravity of his illness has suddenly been abandoned by the officials, and on the 16th inst. the following...

Frank Keating, in the latest in our series on the English counties, celebrates Herefordshire, having returned after many years WE ARE plonked in the middle of Here- fordshire,...

Sir Edward Ford, who was assistant private secretary to both the Queen and her father, gives an audience to Simon Courtauld `HYDE PARK CORNER,' said Sir Edward Ford. `That was...

persist.. . OF ALL the many human failings, self- righteousness is among the most com- mon and the most destructive. Thank goodness I'm entirely free of it; my anger on behalf...

NOW THAT a decent interval has passed, it is possible to comment on the difficulty that newsreaders had with the word bow after the sinking of the Esto- nia. Even the best...

THE NEW fiscal supremo, Chris Kelly, perks up. 'We've got VAT on domestic fuel coming through,' he says, 'and the cut in mortgage interest relief — you might like to announce...

`THAT'LL WOW them,' says the Chancel - lor. 'Now all I need is a theme. A budget for crossing my fingers and keeping my powder dry? A budget for getting one year nearer the...

Budgeting to keep Kenneth Clarke's powder dry the Treasury goes to the country CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he Chancellor bangs his beer-mug on the table and looks around, beaming....

THE GREAT domed head of Robert Culpin glows with pure intellect. 'Real ones, Chancellor?' he asks. 'Or cuts in the projections? As you know, the Chief Secre- tary' — Jonathan...

Sir: I thoroughly enjoyed reading the letter of Derek Partridge (15 October), Professor of Computer Science at Exeter University, not least because I am pleased to be able to...

Sir: 'You don't elect a monarch,' says Ross Clark (Monarchy is not multiple choice', 15 October). There have been several elec- tive monarchies in Europe: Poland before the...

Sir: I write with reference to an article written by Sebastian Shakespeare (Very diplomatic, I don't think', 1 October) and would like to correct several factual errors which...

Sir; I find it extraordinary that at the Con- servative Party Conference no robust state- ment was made by a member of the Gov- ernment concerning the media stories of the arms...

Sir: I assume that Dot Wordsworth (Mind your language, 15 October) has had no lit- tle boys of her own, or else she would have known that the majority are born with their...

Sir: Frank Keating's claim that rugby league is superior to rugby union is an aber- ration he is entitled to (Sport, 15 October). But when he tries to ground his opinion on the...

Sir: I would like to make two points about the article which appeared under my name in The Spectator last week (Mission unaccomplished', 15 October). First, I did not resign...

RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK El £80.00 E £41.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £91.00 0 £46.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$130 0 US$66,00 USA Airmail 0 US$175 0 US$88 Rest of Airmail 0 £111.00 0...

The House of Windsor is incorrigibly bourgeois. Deep down, they like the publicity SIMON JENKINS T he year is AD 2020. Thanks to science, Queen Elizabeth is still on the...

Genius and saint? Geoffrey Wheatcroft EVELYN WAUGH: A BIOGRAPHY by Selina Hastings Sinclair-Stevenson, f20, pp. 723 ost genuine artists would prefer that no biography be...

Simon Helfer CONFLICT OF LOYALTY by Geoffrey Howe Macmillan, f25, pp. 736 A sked on the occasion of his 80th birthday why he had never written his memoirs, Enoch Powell...

Nigel Nicolson CURZON by another major biography of George Curzon? There was the three- decker which Lord Ronaldshay published soon after Curzon's death, followed by my...

Make sure of your copy of The Spectator every week by asking your local newsagent to save or deliver it. Complete the form below and hand it to your newsagent Please...

_ Oleg Gordievsky SPYMASTER: MY 32 YEARS IN INTELLIGENCE AND ESPIONAGE AGAINST THE WEST by Oleg Kalugin Smith Gryphon, £15.99, pp. 262 I have known Oleg Kalugin for almost 20...

Anthony Howard ALL'S FAIR: LOVE, WAR AND RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT by Mary Matalin and James Carville, with Peter Knobler Hutchinson, £19.99, pp. 493 L et me own up. At first I...

Albert Read THE LATIN LOVER by Frederic Raphael Orion, £14.99, pp. 214 II•mmu mr T he Latin Lover, I had assumed (and hoped), referred to torrid goings-on in the remains of an...

DIARY 1995 £ 12 Plain £ 13 Initialled The Spectator 1995 Diary, bound in soft black leather, is now available. Laid out with a whole week to view, Monday to Sunday, the diary...

Helen Osborne MURDERERS AND OTHER FRIENDS by John Mortimer Viking, f17, pp. 260 T here can't be a literary gent alive who owes as much to his father as John Mortimer. After...

Basil Davidson UNDER MY SKIN by Doris Lessing HarperCollins, £20, pp. 419 D oes anyone remember Southern Rhodesia? An echo of Cecil Rhodes and the Cape-to-Cairo `project' must...

Ned Pakenham THE PLAYBOY BOOK: THE COMPLETE PICTORIAL HISTORY by Gretchen Edgren and Murray Fisher General Publishing Group USA, $45, pp. 368 I should say, at the beginning of...

Art Owners and donors Richard Shone looks at the relationship between private collectors and public galleries I wonder if you heard on Radio Four's Midweek (12 October) the...

Drawing for art's sake Martin Gayford O ne morning earlier this year, I dropped into the Royal Academy Schools, where there was a life class in progress. The model — named...

Art in the 18th century: The Glory of Venice (Royal Academy, till 14 December) Frothy fare Giles Auty T here is a widely held view that while the 16th, 17th and 19th...

Total pandemonium Rupert Christiansen I Vs like a terrible hangover: I woke up this morning groaning and now sit down to write in a sweat, not quite sure where I was last...

The age of the stone Alistair McAlpine O n 31 October Sotheby's in New York will have an unusually good sale of Tribal Art. These days sales of tribal art tend to be sales of...

Pulp Fiction (`18', selected cinemas) Passing motions Mark Steyn P ulp is a lurid style of American serial fiction so-called because of the cheap qual- ity of paper used....

Doctor Knock (Orange Tree, Richmond) What a Performance (Queens) Moscow Stations (Garrick) Knock at the door Sheridan Morley T ime and again over these last 20 years it has...

Inner or outer beauty? Nigella Lawson D ocumentary-makers, a noble breed, for all that they are prone to a certain lead- en sanctimoniousness, cherish the notion of...

Personnel motives Holly Budd I t is a truth universally acknowledged that an executive appointed to a newly cre- ated post must be in need of a deputy. The difficulty is in...

Dempster, your time's up Taki T he British press at the moment is in the midst of one its recurrent snits about the debasing influence of gossip. I used to defend it, gossip...

Acting my mother Nigel Nicolson New York We had dined together the night before, and were there by invitation, to watch a rehearsal of Vita and Virginia, a play corn - piled...

All my units gone Jeffrey Bernard I have not had a drink for three weeks now, which to many of you probably sounds to be a mere jiffy, but it is long enough to have some...

A COLUMNIST in Nice-Matin recently attacked the tendency for restaurant menus to become, shall we say, discursive. One can guess what some of his colleagues could get up to with...

c/o Longford Wines Longford Farmhouse, Spithurst, Barcombe, Lewes, E. Sussex BNS 5ED. Telephone & fax: Barcombe (0273) 401497 Price No. Value White I. Coteaux du Giennois...

Grumblers should trust me Auberon Waugh A funny little offer this time, all French but no claret and nothing, indeed, from Bordeaux. I have a terrible feeling that as the...

i SIS. it Sii,i iCOICE A MAI URA ISLE Of i URA „%t, 4 .11 SLJTCH ILNISKI COMPETITION Bestial art Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1852 you were invited to supply an extract...

SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA CHESS ,ipipcxEtniu SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA Sicilian spice Raymond Keene THE SICILIAN DEFENCE fills very much the slot in modem chess that the romantic...

• U 2 N IC 3 T 1INAME Mil A N i r RAMS B 1_111 0 FIREENE 1 ,7 1i0EAVMARK RT S U R L T] A ► PIA S E 0 FIF N RTOIN11.17 E AMERC Olt F R E S ' H The unclued lights and those...

PORT CROSSWORD C 1 GRAHAM ' S PORT 1182: 13D by Ascot A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 7...

You are invited to incorporate, in any order, the following 18 (a full round) words into an entertaining piece of prose (maxi- mum 150 words), using them in a non- golfing...

Sweltering Down Under Frank Keating AS I WAVED off England's cricketers from Heathrow on Tuesday, while winter closes in here, it was odd to think that, by the time you are...

Dear Mary.. . What with holidays and other distractions, I have only just read the 2 July issue of The Spectator in which you publish a query from J.G.F. of Totnes (a childless...