However commercialised Christmas has become, there is surely one respect at least in which, even in the most irreligious of homes, some contact with its Christian origin...

Ali Baba and the forty martyrs AUBERON WAUGH It is seldom that a political correspondent has the opportunity to discuss theology but Christmas is surely a suitable time, and...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Mick Jagger pleaded in vain for the audi- ence to leap into the aisles. What a contrast with his riotous concert in California . . a Perhaps a pop idol is...

In and out of season GEORGE GALE The abolition of capital punishment is a humane enough reform, desirable to those who object to the taking of life and also to those who...

A present for the jet set JOHN GRAHAM Washinvon—For the man who has everything, Mr William Proxmire, United States Senator from Wisconsin, has the answer: a supersonic...

`Just send . us the money' JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE, MP Mr Wedgwood Benn, your actual Minister of Technology, models himself on President Kennedy. Taut, vigorous, classless, corn-...

will of the late Bishop of Exeter contains a remarkable instance of a 'ruling passion strong in death.' The personalty was sworn under £60,000, and it is disposed of in various...

Honours list BILL GRUNDY The Christmas season, when sweetness and light are fouling the air, is no time to pass judgment on anything, so that's exactly what I'm going to do....

J. W. M. THOMPSON The blackest cloud over this third Christmas of the Nigerian war is the collapse of the peace talks at Addis Ababa. Lord Carring- ton returned from his trip...

A coffin for Christmas SIMON RAVEN When asked to write a Christmas story for the Graphic a hundred years ago, Anthony Trollope remarked that he felt 'somewhat as an undertaker...

The Spectator Christmas quiz CHRISTOPHER BOOKER & ANTONY JAY Our quiz this year is divided into ten groups of ten questions each, many of which are in turn divided into...

JOHN HOLLOWAY Perhaps there is always more to the quiet life than to the noisy one. Cowper and 'Max', or Dorothy Osborne and Gray (Lord David Cecil's original 'two quiet...

HENRY TUBE An Introduction to Spanish-American Literature Jean Franco (cup 55s) Jorge Luis Borges' proud exclamation on first publishing his translation of an extract from...

RONALD HINGLEY The Trial of Bukharin George Katkov (Batsford 50s) As a means of educating the Soviet popula- tion, the triumphant Bolsheviks made it their policy to trample...

BRYAN ROBERTSON Painters on Painting edited by Carel Weight (Cassell lOs each) The Bauhaus Hans M. Wingler (ma £19 15s until 31 January, £25 lOs thereafter) ._ Kandinsky: The...

OLIVER WARNER Letters from North America and the Pacific 1898 Charles Philips Trevelyan (Chatto and Windus 55s). A glance at the title of this book, and the spirit droops. How...

Martin SEYMOUR-SMITH 'I G. Wells: His Turbulent Life and Times s at Dickson (Macmillan 63s) Ithough well over a score of his books (not unting school editions, selections and...

STEPHEN GARDINER The other day the West London Architec- tural Society put on an audio-visual show about the Thames. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century this river...

Pictures of Fidelman Bernard Malamud (Eyre and Spottiswoode 25s). Arthur Fidelman is a failed painter who goes to Italy and becomes, through six episodes, a failed...

Fighting cock CHARLES REID When choosing what `Christmassy' piece to put on, theatre managements do not, as a rule—a rule which applies in Opera houses as elsewhere—ask...

Groaning board PAUL GRINKE Food is rapidly becoming a topic of con- suming interest with Christmas in the offing, and the Hampstead Artists' Council has made an excellent...

Last things PENELOPE HOUSTON John and Mary (Riako, 'X') On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Odeon, Leicester Square, 'A') The Sea Gull (Cameo-Poly, 'A') Karl Miller was...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT It was the most exciting and extraordinary year in the City I have ever known. Violence erupted in the stock markets as well as in the streets. The debut of...

JOHN BULL New York—On Wall Street the prevailing mood is gloom. Share prices have been slip- ping back day after day. As I write they stand at their lowest level since October...

Sir: Surely Nicholas Davenport (13 Decem - ber) is being unduly uncritical when he takes for granted that public-sector investor necessarily entails the 'creation of useful...

From Brian I. Mapletoft, Alfred Sherman, Charles Anderson, Fritz Bopp, I. F. Taylor, I. M. C. Yates, Ralph Rochester, W. S. Howard. Youth and the seventies Sir: One...

Sir: Your Christmas number oilers us (20 December) 'The pornographer's dilemma' as its main attraction. Very contemporary, too. The youths of the 'seventies—see the sur-...

Sir: It seems to be the custom nowadays for young correspondents to the BBC and even to the SPECTATOR (13 December) to give their ages when they sign their letters. It is...

Sir: One cannot help being amused by the 'Royal Court Affair'. I hope your able cor- respondent, Mrs Hilary Spurting, realises how very privileged she is to be singled out to...

Sir: We can all certainly agree that the starvation, death and misery which exists in Biafra and parts of Nigeria is the product of the continuing civil war. This war could be...

Sir: I agree completely with the title of Edward de Bono's article 'The great space folly' (29 November), which is known to me by a report of the Siiddeutsche Zeitung, but I...

Sir: 1-!ow sad and unnecessary has been the degeneration from Mr Worsthorne's 'open letter' and Professor Ayer's subsequent com- mentary to the red and shotten herrings of...

No. 585: Vale and salve Christopher Booker's The Neophiliacs and David Bailey's Goodbye Baby and Amen recently identified some influential trend. setters of the past decade,...

. j 1 1

Three foolish men JOHN WELLS Questions may be asked in Parliament fol- lowing a Keystone Cops style chase rumpus at London's Heathrow Airport last night when three illegal...

PHILIDOR G. W. A. Eason (Hon. Men., BCE Tourney, 1968/9). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No.470 (Loyd): B-Kt5 !,threatening 2 B-K8!,...

I 1.(a) Red Grouse (b) Chichester (c) Isaiah liii.6 (d) Henry VIII (e) it is a poem of one line. 2. (a) George Hirst (b) the Oval (c) 15. (d) 13. 3. (a) The Three Musketeers...

Across 1 It's complimentary to send one's kind remembrances to a right-winger (12) 9 Barnstormer in a silk hat carries too mach weight (3-6) 10 I dial wrongly, what a story!...

Second-class mail privil eges authorised by New York, NY Post Office. Published by The Spectator Ltd.. 99 Gower Street. London. W.C.1. Tel. 01-387 3221. Printed by Merritt &...

VOLUME 223 JULY - DECEMBER 1969 iwroxioakmawornaavomorawawaii- Af tg Indiana University A MAY 25 1970 Library a .. , ,aaWAA.0.3:0:0KAAAP.AAAAAWAAr, Published by The...

ABBREVIATIONS USED t A) ART ICLE (M) ' ( A F) AFTERTHOUGHI (P) (AR) THE ARTS (PC) (C) CHESS (PS) (CO) COMPETITION (PW) (CI) CONSUMING IN 'HOST (R) (F) FINANCIAL (S) (L) LETTER...

Ackland, Rodney, 271, 752, 870 (R) Adrian, Leslie, 12, 75, 140, 205, 331, 403, 473, 544, 675, 748, 823 (C1) Alison, Kenneth. 203. 673 (PS), 874 (R) Anderson, Patrick, 17. 143,...