T he Irish Republican Army announced an 'unequivocal' ceasefire in response to recommendations by Mr Gerry Adams, the president of its political face, Sinn Fein, but the word...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 CENTRE FOR FUTURE TORYISM I t is already being said, in both hope and fear, that...

The peace process is worthwhile, despite Mr Adams's schizophrenia BRUCE ANDERSON Ten days later, we learn that Mr Adams of Sinn Fein has spoken to Mr Adams of the IRA, who has...

ANDREW ROBERTS T he most original, stimulating and impressive man I have ever met is no more. When I lunched with Jimmy Goldsmith on 1 May, his conversation and anecdotes ranged...

How to stop heterosexuality ruining people's lives MATTHEW PARRIS F ew who follow the correspondence columns of the Times can have failed to chuckle at recent letters from...

Sarah Whitebloom reveals a surprising new category of suspected illegal entrant to Britain ST AUGUSTINE was fortunate to have made his epic voyage from Rome to con- vert England...

Or smoke or drink ale. Digby Anderson reports on the embourgeoisement of the British working class WE ARE assured that Spanish fishermen called Pedro do it — 'always'. In...

Frederick Forsyth says the Church of England is in no position to cast stones at the Prince of Wales `LET HIM who is without sin cast the first stone,' said the man from...

`DARLING, have you seen the car keys?' shouted my husband from downstairs. When he says darling in that tone of voice I know he's annoyed with himself but is clutching at the...

New York IT IS not much remembered now that Jimmy Goldsmith went into exile twice in his life. He went to America in the early 1980s, where he felt truly liberated by this `last...

WHERE has English courtesy gone? To India, that's where. I have noticed many times that Indian doctors who come to this country have an old- fashioned English courtliness about...

Michael Heath

THE LAST glimpse that the British public had of the late Sir James Goldsmith was of him giving David Mellor, the loser of the election at Putney, a slow handclap. As Jimmy...

VERY POSSIBLY Kate Hatch, who modelled Versace, says what the fashion world really suspects ON HEARING that Versace had been shot in the head and killed, I turned instantly to...

READER OFFER PERSONAL HEADED NOTEPAPER & CORRESPONDENCE CARDS Mahe a personal statement with everything you write. Each set of Correspondence Cards contains: ► • 60...

`When he tells a lie, it's perjury. When I tell a lie, it's funny' PAUL JOHNSON W hat is the Rusbridger affair about? It is about humbug: it is about journalists accusing...

HE LIKED to do that. One of his Eton contemporaries tells of a last meeting between Goldsmith and his much-tried housemaster: 'Well, goodbye, sir. I know we haven't always hit...

HOPES that Hong Kong's last governor might find a cosy place on the board of the richest bank in Hong Kong or out of it can now be written off. He would not be con- sidered for...

IN BUSINESS, getting on with the chair- man's secretary is a good idea. Getting off with her is not. Running off with her is fatal. This is one reason why United Utili- ties is...

I AM always suspicious of secretive billion- aires. Sometimes the secret is that the money isn't there, or isn't theirs, or, as in Robert Maxwell's case, both. So perhaps Sir...

What Gordon Brown needs is a soothing holiday beside a Dulwich birdbath CHRISTOPHER FILDES K nneth Clarke was a Chancellor who knew how to go on holiday. He and Mrs Clarke...

RELATIONS between Chancellor and Gov- ernor are tense. Their honeymoon began when Mr Brown gave the Bank of England powers to set interest rates, and ended when he took away its...

Sir: Something must be done! Fildes's friend the Discount Broker must be con- sulted. It is a scandal! Yes, a scandal of national importance. Where is Solomon Binding when we...

Sir: I was gripped by Jeffrey Bernard's observation (Low life, 5 July) that when the police called on him about the possibility of his having witnessed a murder the only thing...

Sir: The National Trust for Scotland believes in the principle of governments making laws, not trusts. Its English equiva- lent has taken it upon itself to ban the cen-...

(19 July) commenting on Joanna Ritchie's less than generous remarks about your excellent restaurant critic, David Fingleton, whose column has happily changed my life. I spent...

Sir: This government's decision to negoti- ate with Sinn Fein/IRA over Northern Ire- land without the precondition of decom- missioning IRA arms is analogous to the American...

Sir: I find David Fingleton a bit of a pompous prig. Unlike your correspondent Joanna Ritchie (Letters, 12 July), however, I would not be without his excellent restau- rant...

Sir: Paul Johnson (`The new barons ruling Britain', 5 July) raises the prospect (or even the requirement) of this government cut- ting the press editor barons down to size in...

the von Schlieffen correspon- dence in the letter from Robert Tombs (5 July); the very kind letter from Alice von Schlieffen in person (28 June); and now the suggestion from...

I am not quite sure which is more ridiculous, the rantings of Miss(?) von Schlieffen about the military brilliance of her supposed ancestor or your willingness to offer space in...

Sir: Why is the Royal Opera House always on the defensive? Just because the tabloids accuse it of being elitist does not mean it is. On one recent Saturday I saw four ballets...

Sir: Glyndebourne's long intervals are indeed a hindrance not only to the enjoy- ment of The Makropulos Case (Arts, 19 July) but of all opera. As the majority of Glyndebourne...

Sir: Recalling last week's front-page photo- graph in the Times of the lavatory now seri- ously included as an exhibit in this year's Institute of Contemporary Arts show in...

Sir: Great Cumberland Place must be one of the most cosmopolitan stretches in our splendidly international capital city. At one end, next door to us at the Industrial Soci- ety...

Camilla for us, Diana for the world PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE M ost certainly Camilla Parker Bowles would never be Hollywood's idea of a princess, even when dressed up to the nines...

Never a very good writer Philip Hensher ULYSSES U lysses is 75 years old . this year. It's not a bad opportunity to consider the curious fact that it has passed into the canon...

Robin Denniston NUMBER ONE, MILLBANK: THE FINANCIAL DOWNFALL OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND by Terry Lovell HarperCollins, £15.99, pp. 256 A year or so ago the editor of the Spec-...

Juliet Townsend EDWARDIAN FICTION: AN OXFORD COMPANION by Sandra Kemp, Charlotte Mitchell and David Trotter Publisher, .80.00, pp. 402 I t has always been a rich field for the...

David Caute FRITZ LANG: THE NATURE OF THE BEAST by Patrick McGilligan Faber, £20.00, pp. 548 I n 1994 (Patrick McGilligan reports) the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin...

Ian Sansom JACK LONDON: A LIFE by Alex Kershaw HarperCollins, £20.00, pp. 335 L ondon makes good copy. Just as `swinging' London is periodically rediscov- ered by journalists...

Francis King THE LAMENT OF THE LINNET by Anna Maria Ortese Harvill, f15.99, pp. 325 D escribed by her publishers as 'the doyenne of Italian writers', the author of this rich,...

Samuel Brittan GREAT MYTHS OF BUSINESS by William Davis Kogan Page, £18.99, pp. 219 W hat is a business myth? Looking down William Davis's table of contents, it is one of an...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 Year 6 months UK £93 £47 Europe £104 £52 USA (2nd class) $151 $76 USA (1st class) $175 $88 Rest of World (2nd) £107 £54 Rest of...

Richard Lamb THE MYTH OF RESCUE. WHY THE DEMOCRACIES COULD NOT HAVE SAVED MORE JEWS FROM THE NAZIS by William D. Rubinstein Routledge, £18.99, pp. 267 C ould the Allies have...

I t is the 1840s, that most surprising and significant of decades, and we are on a road somewhere in central Italy, between Florence and Rome. Nowadays, in the manner of Italian...

A brush with political correctness Giles Auty believes a new book on Australian art will have a pernicious effect T he publication of any new history of Australian art is...

Almeida experiments Robin Holloway A meida Opera has persisted down the years in that very unBritish thing, experi- mental music-theatre. But there is some- thing British in...

Printmaking in Paris: Picasso and his contemporaries (British Museum, till 14 September) Prints, Paris, Picasso plus . • • Peter Black Picasso's 'Portrait of Jacqueline...

Divorce Me Darling (Chichester) Chimps (Hampstead) A dazzling delight Sheridan Morley F or those of us who still believe in the heritage as well as the sheer survival of the...

Keyboard eccentric Martin Gayford T he first time I saw the late Dick Well- stood, he appeared to have fallen asleep behind the piano. At any rate, he was rest- ing there,...

Smaller than life Mark Steyn S omewhere between stage and screen, the penises seem to have shrunk. Three years ago, when Terrence McNally's gays- in-the-country romp Love!...

Duty called James Delingpole S ecret History — Spying For Love (Chan- nel 4, Monday) had been looming over me for ages. Because The Speccer's own Anne McElvoy was one of the...

Culture corner Michael Vestey A though I've dipped into it occasion- ally, I had not until last Friday night lis- tened to the full two hours of Radio Two's weekly arts...

£ 13 Plain £14 Initialled 1 I following initials: Card No: Expiry Date: Name: (BLOCK CAPITALS) Address: Signature: The Spectator Address Book, bound in soft `pillarbox'...

Time for enjoyment Robin Oakley F reddie was alarmed his stick insect might have died and had to be assured it was merely dormant. Jack had helped him- self to enough...

I don't give a damn Taki Private Eye no longer has any influence, and is read only by the kind of people who think Robocop is art. Never mind. The damage has been done....

The sweet and the sour Jeffrey Bernard I have got so ill recently that I can no longer prepare and cook the simplest of meals. It is not the end of the world because there is...

Weekend break Leanda de Lisle I 've been promising myself a weekend in Prague or Vienna for the past three years, but the thought of having to drive down to Gatwick or...

Interlocking Andrew Robson WHILE only about one per cent of the 3 million bridge players in this country are members of the English Bridge Union, the `EBU' are making positive...

been neglecting them for mammon and opening church fetes for the last three weekends, not to mention filming all over the place and forgetting to write one piece when lost in...

IN-THE-STRAND CHESS 4 .; SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND Crown prince Raymond Keene ARON NIMZOWITSCH, the great chess player and thinker of the 1920s and '30s, had the words 'crown...

J AI s C L I MALI SCOTCH LISKI COMPETITION Cocoa for Kingsley Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1992 you were invited to write a poem supplying the dream missing in Wendy Cope's...

Do the Brits know how to sell things British to foreigners? I have seen advertis- ing copy that made me doubtful. You are invited to supply some egregiously infelici- tous copy...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 11 August, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK...

Circuits: GOLF COURSE, with a sequence of its elements from radial 4. The unclued 7, 13 and 34 were golf clubs. First prize: P.D.H. Riddell, London SE23. Runners-up: Keith S....

Captains courageous Simon Barnes IT was with an odd sense of regret that I learned that Graham Gooch will be retir- ing. He started his last first-class cricket match this...

Q. I am a professional artist. At this time of year I naturally like to paint land- scapes. As a consequence I am something of a sitting target for walkers who seem to think I...