Librani 'T'en people were killed, 33 injured, by an 1 explosion of methane gas at a water sta- tion near Lancaster. The London stock market saw its biggest fall for ten years,...

The silent minority y outh, personable manner, pretty wife, sense of humour, smart suits, videos with pop stars, vasectomy — Mr Neil Kin- nock has been working hard to convince...

I t is unfortunate that Continental Illinois, the eighth largest bank in the United States , was not allowed to go under. t uilowing the $4.5 billion whip-round by the other...

W hoever becomes Poet Laureate should s urely be someone who can versify When the occasion demands. He need not be the greatest poet of the age (past l-aureates seldom have...

I f anything of England's green and pleasant land is to be saved from the on- ward march of the developers, we need, the most fervent libertarian would probably agree, to have...

UK 6 months: LI5.25 One year: £3450 Surface mail Air mail £20.50 £26.50 £41.00 /53.00 Eire £17.2.5 E34.50 Name .............. Address. ..... .. ............. .................

Tomalin inter turdos Auberon Waugh O n Sunday Mrs Claire Tomalin, Liter- ary Editor of the Sunday Times, joined the thrushes' chorus of contributors to that newspaper's arts...

I have always found the nickname of nignog applied to blacks a friendly one, or at the worst no more derisory than frog, Par nmY, paddy and so on. School was the Place, and...

Andrew Brown Stockholm/Helsinki T he Aminoff story had something for everyone who hates Sweden. Many of the details were unclear, but the meaning and the significance of the...

Charles Glass Jezzine, South Lebanon T here was a time when the drive from Sidon to Beirut, if negotiated by a reckless Lebanese taxi-driver, took just over half an hour. But,...

Richard West T hecameramen of the world, who gave such publicity to the Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, to Torvill and Dean and the rest, have so far ignored the happenings which...

George Walden 'R eality,' Jules Romains once observed, `is always on the right.' Mrs Thatcher has never doubted it. Choleric French drivers, who now wind down the window to...

Gerda Cohen S orry chaps, but I really did like Birmingham. Heaven knows why. Maybe it's the time of year, quickening, or the contrast with dingy arrogant Oxford where I caught...

i Anatomy of an epistle aul Johnson T he story is told that, on one , i occasion when Randolph Churchill was holding forth in characteristic fashion — t w a-s a weekend...

Doomsday talk Jock Bruce-Gardyne I s it time to wave goodbye to the great bull market of the Eighties? As they packed their bags for the Whitsun weekend after an unnerving...

The strong opposition which the Representation of the People Bill en- counters is due much less to any dread of the people than to the mortification of two classes which...

Sir: Regarding that geriatric warmonger Ronald Wilson Reagan ('Culchies and radicals', 19 May), the reason why his great-grand-father left Ballyporeen was his impregnation of a...

Sir: 'Do you realise that in France they have however-many-it-is more public holidays than we do?' hears Alan Watkins at dinner parties and in saloon bars (Diary, 12 May)....

Sir: I must add a further class of Co nservative to those listed by Neville Beale ( Letters, 28 April) who oppose the abolition 13 , f the GLC and the metropolitan counties. 't...

Sir: It might be unconscious, but there is in Simon Blow's amusing article on Newmarket ('Newmarket's old brigade', 12 May) a slight whiff of anti-Arab patronage. That the Arabs...

Sir: Please inform your distinguished Centrepiece writer Colin Welch (26 May) that it was not Bingo Little who rediscovered his mislaid fiancee at the Empire Exhibition but...

Sir: I am sorry that I unthinkingly disturbed Mr Worsthorne's prenominal pre-eminence (Diary, 26 May). I once sat between two other Peregrines at school and have been quite...

role of TV critic, 'really must brush up his English Sight reading', may I suggest that he himself could well brush up his grasp of English Syntax. Indeed, after reading — for...

Stern rebukes Sir: I know I am not the first person to Point out that part of the Spectator's appeal Ls the clarity brevity and wit that are , characteristic of most of the...

Sir: I feel compelled to correct the totally erroneous account of the events at Oradour given in Francis King's review of The Pork Butcher by David Hughes (Books, 5 May). I...

Normandy's horror Colin Welch I n vain 25 years later I searched with my son for the brickworks and the nearby wood in which, in June 1944, I was introduced to my new platoon....

Cyrus or Chaplin? Gavin Young The Pride and the Fall: Iran 1974-1979 Anthony Parsons (Jonathan Cape £8.95) W hat can we do?', the Shah murmured in a distressed way as we...

Eric Christiansen Chivalry Maurice Keen (Yale University Press 12.95) urke thought that the age of chivalry came to an end in 1789, or thereabouts. Others, that it was killed...

A lexander Haig first attracted attention in this country in 1973 when, with a distinguished military record behind him, he was summoned by a beleaguered Richard Nixon to become...

We announce a Grand Scottish Poetry Competition. Messrs John Walker and Sons Ltd, the noted distillers, have with great generosity offered to donate the prizes. It will...

Simon Courtauld Andalucia Nicholas Luard (Century £9.95) b uring the early 1920s, Gerald Brenan vi • lived for four years in the mountain llage of Yegen in the AlMiarra...

Harriet Waugh Stanley and the Women Kingsley Amis (Hutchinson £8.95) A fter a decade of novels about down- trodden women striving for identity in a society that relegates them...

THE SPLENDID FAIRING by Constance Holme. M. Sharman, 135 Vaughan Rd, Stotfold, Hitchin, Herts. EDWARD CARPENTER: books by or about Carpenter (1844-1929). Later editions...

George Clive Introduced by David Cecil The Man and his Writings Desmond MacCarthy: (Constable £9.95) T here are five collections of Desmond MacCarthy's writings, and rione of...

Andrew Robinson The Haunted Mind Hallam Tennyson (Andre Deutsch £12.95) "This intriguing, courageous auto- ". biography was conceived under threat. Towards its end, one reads...

Step by step Giles Gordon Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (Old Vic) Golden Boy (National: Lyttelton) Forty Years on and Oh, Kay! (Chichester) B red' tplates are buckled on in John...

Freak show Peter Ackroyd Where the Buffalo Roam (' 18 ', Classic Chelsea and ICA cinema) T he credits describe it as 'a movie based on the twisted legend of Dr Hunter S....

Paradox and protest Giles Auty A rule of paradox applies in art wherebY conscious striving for effect all to ° easily produces the exact reverse of the de- sired result. Thus...

War cry Taki If this wer New York e a more just world, people like J ane Fonda would not have been allowed ir? Perfect their sun tans on Memorial Day. alas, it is not, thus...

Party spirit Jeffrey Bernard T he past few days have been a bit of a thrash and it's got to stop. Starting tomorrow it's all going to be different. But my birthday party and...

Altogether nearly P.J. Kavanagh Excus e me, is this the I--:/The man was angled forward,weigPublich on front foot like M. Hulot. ?: `No,' said the large barmaid, 'this is...

No. 1323:Short ballade Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to write a ballade of 20 lines (two stanzas of eight lines followed by an 'envoi' of four lines), with a maximum of...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a dialo g ue, in verse or prose, between Rea g an as Petruchio and Thatcher as Kate. It was fun for me to g o back to The Tam- ing...

Anti-blockade recently in this column, hi g hli g hts a key q uestion i n modern opening theory. After 1 d4 NM 2 c4 e6 many White players have been turnin g away from 3 Nc3,...

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Prize: £10— or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition (ring the word 'Dictionary' under name and address) — for the first correct solution opened on 18 June. Entries to:...