oland continued to dominate the inter- national news over Christmas, with lit- tle solid information available about condi- tions within General Jaruzelski's military...

A tight little island Ferdinand Mount A cold, thin, jarring year, especially for politicians. They talked incessantly, as modern politicians do, about the economy — or...

I wonder whether modern journalists, with their large salaries and fat expense accounts, fully appreciate their good for- tune. Over Christmas I was examining my father's first...

The way ahead Auberon Waugh N ew Year's Day, when we celebrate the circumcision of Our Lord, was originally observed by fasting and penance. It was the impossibility of...

Timothy Garton Ash ut General Jaruzelski is a patriot isn't 1.1 he?' I have more than once been asked over the Christmas brandy. It is true that Wojciech Jaruzelski is a Pole...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington S tatesman, businessmen and economists here continue to be worried about the penetration of American markets by Japanese with clever consumer...

Richard West T he death of Patrick O'Donovan of the Observer was all the more saddening because it occurred during Christmas week and the agony of the Poles, whom he loved and...

Peter Paterson N ineteen-eighty-two should be Norman Tebbit's year, the apotheosis of a working class Tory who has made it in dou- ble quick time to the Cabinet, and is now in...

We are at last fairly out of the Transvaal. The last soldier has crossed Laing's Nek, and the great meeting of Boers, at which it was feared that the Convention might be...

Jo Grimond T hose of us correctly brought up were taught to revere the City of London, its air of leisure among the upper classes and bustle among the lower, its top-hats mat-...

Allan Massie Q even years ago Scotland was in turmoil. That has long subsided and its place has been taken by a sad and snappy mood in which querulousness and dismay are...

Pomp and circumstances Paul Johnson T his column does not award accolades, and in a year when Fleet Street was dominated by the bingo war, how could there be any? All the...

Risks and rewards Tony Rudd Q tand up, those who made a fortune in Li 1981. It's a very small minority out of those who tried. The ingredients of a money-making background are...

Sir: Perhaps Mr Sudjic would tell us which wartime leader knew more about and cared more about architecture than did Adolf Hitler (Letters, 5 December). It was this fact that...

Jobs Express Sir: Leaving on one side his generally knocking tone, which is his affair, Patrick Marnham makes two main charges against the TUC and the organisers of the Jobs...

1939 I was intrigued to find that conversation on the mess deck was almost confined to the use of one adjective which sometimes also did service as a verb. In the interim period...

The traffic in the distance Philip Larkin The beginning of a new occasional series in been important to them. which contributors talk of a book which has "he train was five...

A. N. Wilson Dear Animated Bust: Letters to Lady Juliet Duff, France 1915-1918 Maurice Baring (Michael Russell pp. 165, £7.50) 4 had met Belloc once before ... but all I he...

Michael Wharton Hannibal Ernle Bradford (Macmillan pp. 223, £7.95) B it is impossible to imagine what the, history of the world would have been if there had been no Roman...

Paul Ableman The Mind's I 'composed and arranged by' Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Den- nett (The Harvester Press pp. 501, £9.95) T he ghost, it seems, is back in the...

Francis King A Flag for Sunrise Robert Stone (Seeker & Warburg pp. 404, £6.95) A lthough it is a decade since the war in Vietnam was doused in mutual recrimination and...

Lewis Jones T wish I were a 13-year-old girl; if I were I I should not be sickened by Sylvia Towns- end Warner (or, even better, a 13-year-old boy; then I should not feel...

Christopher Hawtree E dith Sitwell ended her bad-tempered autobiography with a macabre image: 'Then all will be over, bar the shouting and the worms.' Much shouting has indeed...

Vaughan Williams as symphonist Anthony Burgess Vaughan Williams Symphonies (RCA GL 43576-83) T t is no disgrace for a nation not to have 'produced symphonies. The symphony,...

Chianti John McEwen The most chic gallery in town the -- place to go if you want to find out the latest movers in the international art market — is Anthony d'Offay's large...

The last taboo Duncan FaHowell Lady Chatterley's Lover ('X', Leicester Square Theatre) W rotham Park was built in the middle of the 18th century by Admiral Byng in a pocket of...

UK tire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £12.00 £13.00 £14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.00 £26.00 £29.00 £37.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to...

Round-up Mark Amory p erhaps pantomime, like the Jesuits, has to catch you young in order to make you its own for ever. He who has seen Widow Twanky plain at a tender age...

No problems Rodney Mines T he only problem about Thea Musgrave's new opera, which has received one or two rather grudging notices, is that it is almost too accomplished:...

Christmas fare Richard Ingrams I the new Director General of the BBC wants to know what is wrong with his organisation he could do worse than ex- amine the special...

Lone Christmas Jeffrey Bernard 'Turkeys, I suppose, spend the major part 1 of their lives being lulled into a false sense of security and well being. Their final demand, so to...

For the record Taki L ast year I was stuck in New York for New Year so, naturally, I was in a bad mood, and it showed in my first column of 1981 when I listed the people I...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for descriptions from an imaginary mail- order catalogue of at least five totally useless Christmas gifts. I vividly recall the...

No. 1199: Unhappy lot Set by Jaspistos:` A policeman's lot is not a happy one,' remarked W. S. Gilbert, but what about parking meter attendants? You are invited to compose a...

Seven of the unclued lights are castles in book titles (B+ Rooks). Winner: B. J. Cook, 66 Holywell Avenue, Folkestone, Kent, 1 8 9 s ti -- E A 10 S , 2 E SA 16 A N E 2l E C...

Foursome Raymond Keene During the summer months English organisers have developed three tour- naments based on the Swiss system, with the possibilities for FM, IM, and in some...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 18 January. Entries to: Crossword 538, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. The...