Washington AC DC S ome 20 of the 31 coal-mines earmarked for closure should be saved, according to an all-party Commons committee report leaked three days early. It recommended...

Mr Major must see off those who swear the hypocritic oath SIMON HEFFER h e nature of the debate about the role of the monarchy has just undergone a sig- nificant change. No...

I . was on the verge of buying the new edi- tion of the Highway Code when it suddenly dawned on me that I no longer drive. I hadn't realised it. While I have been vague- ly...

Princess Monster as a model for the New Britain AUBERON WAUGH A letter from Theodora J.M. Van Lot- turn in last week's Spectator came all the way from distant Guatemala to...

John Patten exposes the folly of drastic constitutional reform, and says Britain has no need of it THE TROUBLE with constitutional reformers in Britain is that they forget the...

Anne Applebaum finds a country at ease with itself despite not yet ratifying Maastricht Homogeneity, cultural and political, probably explains it. Just about all Danes are...

Janine di Giovanni on the Krajina, where the Balkan war escalated this week A PHOTOGRAPHER I know drove through the Krajina — the Serb-inhabited site of the new Croatian...

Michael Heath

THERE WAS a phrase in Mr Clinton's inaugural address that would have annoyed at least two lots of people (or constituencies as they now tend to be called) at once. It was:...

John Martin Robinson gives a prescription for the ideal country house IN WRITING about buying a country house, I realise that my credentials are slightly shaky as I am not a...

Isabel Wolff confronts a vision of hell when she visits the coal-face of a Nottinghamshire mine `WHAT SHOULD I wear?' I asked the British Coal official who was arranging my...

Christopher Howse on how some illustrious corpses were finally rounded up for posterity WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National...

persist.. . SUCH IS the parlousness of my personal financial situation that, three weeks ago, I did something I have never done before: I claimed my travelling expenses from...

Sombre personal reflections on being busted PAUL JOHNSON N o: I have not been caught by customs, like Taki at Heathrow, with the stuff hang- ing out of my back-pocket. I have...

Rupert gets a job in the Bank it's all part of the Hogg service CHRISTOPHER FILDES I am sure that Rupert Pennant-Rea can spell 'potato', which makes it all the odder to see...

Sir: I have been amused by the recent cor- respondence suggesting a bigotry against Catholics in England. Although Dom Antony Sutch's article (`Gunpowder, trea- son and plot',...

gives prominence to a statement by me in the Daily Telegraph. I spend many hours trying to explain things to journalists who absorb only what fits their theme, adopt my ideas as...

Sir: Contrary to Julia Langdon's assertion in her article in The Spectator of 23 January about Andrew Knight (glow Knight forked himself) that I was responsible for the idea of...

Sir: Hester McIntyre has described in your pages the 'Varsity entrance torture' (9 Jan- uary) she suffered trying to enter Oxford. The utter unsuitability of interviewing for...

Sir: Paul Johnson's call (`The seven deadly sins of journalism', 16 January) for a moral regeneration of those who produce the media is timely. But it is a pity that he does not...

USA claim to be of Irish descent and that therefore the USA could bring pressure to bear on British policy in Northern Ireland. What he excluded is the fact that the same survey...

Cold War, preserving the special rela- tionship with Britain is less important to the Americans. Isn't it also less important to us? What terrible consequences would we risk by...

Sir: Dot Wordsworth is not quite correct in claiming that both the words 'lavatory' and `toilet', derive from the name of a place where one washed one's hands (Mind your...

Sir: Colonel Fred Burnaby (Letters, 31 October 1992), my great-great-uncle, was never forward with a lady on a train and certainly never resigned from his regiment — indeed if...

Sir: Your contributor, Jack Holland, urges the British Government to exploit Ameri- ca's interest in Northern Ireland, not scorn it CA little help from our friends', 9 Jan-...

Sir: About four months ago, one of your correspondents reported the existence of a town in the state of Wyoming (USA) with the unusual name of Maggie's Nipples. Information from...

Bangkok Mad, bad and dangerous William Leith 'The thing about Bangkok,' said an expatriate French silver-merchant, 'is that people put all their effort into making you as...

See Naples and die Petronella Wyatt ave you got any plastics?' said the elderly man in Palm Beach. We were in a restaurant near the sea called Club Col- lette. 'Plastics?' I...

As English as Henley Martin Vander Weyer L ard Brabazon on the Cresta Run, the Kandahar Club at Miiren, the Prince of Wales at Kitzbahl with Fruity Metcalfe; these were the...

Herm sweet Herm Caroline Branclenburger W hile the royal family writhed so painfully in public a few weeks ago — Dianagate and Camillagate, taxation and separation — a number...

Old colonial Joys Mary Killen 0 ne of my GP's favourite pleasantries used to be, 'Nothing that a holiday in the Caribbean wouldn't cure!' I see now what he was talking about....

Executive baggage Diana Clee I n The Seven Lamps of Architecture Ruskin declared that there was little point taking the trouble to build fine artistic details into railway...

Money, money, money Julian Evans Papeete ter I left the President's office, I met Pascal on the waterfront and we drank cold Hinano beer in the Bar du Port. Pascal was...

Still writing wrongs James Buchan CULTURE AND IMPERIALISM by Edward W. Said Chatto, £20, pp. 444 0 rientalism, which added literature and learning to the roster of European...

Karan Thapar RAJIV by Sonia Gandhi Viking, Rs 1500, pp. 214, available only in India I t is difficult not to be in two minds about this book. Written by an intensely private...

Stephen Gardiner PABLO PICASSO 1881-1973, VOLUMES I & II edited by Carsten-Peter Warncke and Ingo F. Walther Benedikt Taschen, £37.95, pp. 740 P icasso's picture on the box...

Fiona Maddocks HOROWITZ: HIS LIFE AND MUSIC by Harold C. Schonberg Simon & Schuster, f20, pp. 427 I f, for reasons of youth or of being other- wise engaged, one missed...

Eric Christiansen THE STRIPPING OF THE ALTARS by Eamon Duffy Yale, £29.95, pp. 704 Sin is where Our Lady sat, Heaven turned is to hell, Satan sits where Our Lord did sway,...

Anthony Daniels THE UNNATURAL NATURE OF SCIENCE by Lewis Wolpert Faber, £14.99, pp. 224 P rofessor Wolpert is a biologist of distinction who is a passionate advocate of science...

Caroline Moorehead FREYA STARK: A BIOGRAPHY by Molly Izzard Hodder, £25, pp. 342 F reya Stark was always very clear about what she wanted, and one of the things that she was...

Liliana Brisby PRESENT FROM THE PAST by Annabel Dilke Deutsch, £13.99, pp. 240 L et me declare an interest: I belong to the small band of enthusiasts who regard this author's...

Philip Mansel THE GRAND TOURS OF KATHERINE WILMOT edited by Elizabeth Mayor Weidenfeld, £17.99, pp. 187 T he British passion for Europe, so often ignored or denied, has rarely...

Nigel Clive A CONCISE HISTORY OF GREECE by Richard Clogg CUP, f22.95, £7.95, pp. 248 P rofessor Clogg has succeeded in presenting a new version of the period covering Greece's...

by Bram Stoker This is the first in an occasional series in which contributors are invited to discuss a famous and, in their view, overrated work of literature. A Imost 100...

Conservation Solvent abuse Michael Daley accuses the National Gallery of continuing damage to its art works in the name of restoration L ate one night in 1970, an elderly man...

The Frank Lloyd Wright Gallery (V & A) The quality of space Alan Powers C an Wisdom be put in a silver rod, or Love in a golden bowl?' Can architecture capture the intangible...

Gravity and Grace: the Changing Condition of Sculpture 1965-75 (Hayward Gallery, till 14 March) Recycled waste Giles Auty T he exhibition Gravity and Grace is the latest in a...

Thunderous beauty Simon Heifer on Vaughan Williams's long- neglected piano concerto S ixty years ago this week, on 1 February 1933, Harriet Cohen gave the first perfor- mance...

King Lear (Royal Court) King Baby (Barbican, Pit) `I saw two Kings' Sheridan Morley T here was a time, during the Shaw - Barker seasons just after the turn of this century,...

The Spectator's regular critics OPERA Tristan and Isolde, New Theatre, Cardiff (0222 394844), 13 and 20 February. Welsh National Opera claim that this is 'the only Wagner...

Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe (`18', Metro) Night and the City (`15', Odeon Haymarket) Deep gloom Vanessa Letts I t has been a mournful week. Istvan Szabo's latest film, Sweet Emma,...

Play the game Martyn Harris C asting about, as we must, for the roots of our national decline, I point the finger at the explosion in management training courses, particularly...

Hollywood DC Taki T he stench of Hollywood was gone by the time I got to Washington this past Weekend, but the painfully correct and Piously sincere spirit of the phony Left...

Dear diary Nigel Nicolson T his morning, as on most mornings, I will sit down to my typewriter and type an account of yesterday. It might be six lines long or two pages, and...

Out to lunch Jeffrey Bernard What a rare exception to all that then was the Oldie of the Year lunch at Simp- sons in the Strand last week. It was a plea- sure to be seated...

THERE ARE many interesting Feasts coming up. This Sunday, it's St John Boscoe, who was born in Piedmont, devot- ed his life to poor children and raised insti- tutes and...

Revelations Raymond Keene This week I give the answers to the Christmas quiz. My congratulations to the three winners: John Nyman, J.V. Pepper and John Taylor. Each receives...

Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1763 you were given twelve words and invited to incorporate them, in any order, into a plausible piece of prose. Because, due to an error, the...

A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 15 February, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK...

The 'Doleful Duck' Frank Keating A LLAN MASSIE led the clamour which followed my dreamy presumption that opening partnerships were not what they used to be. Getting in first a...

Dear Mary.. . Q . What would happen to one's nose if one d i d not pick it? C.D., New York 10017 4 . A doctor informs me that the nostril area would become congested and...