Nasser's death is tidy if not timely. We now may look again towards the hills, away from Egypt and the valley of the Nile, and consider the tragic and ancient civil wars of the...

Back in the old routine or, Opposition Follies PETER PATERSON In spite of Harold Wilson's safely distant predictions about a woman becoming Prime Minister one of these days,...

NOTE BOOK It is too early to assess the effects of Nasser's death, except to make the obvious and ele, mentary observation that that welcome and sensible tendency, already...

Is his journey really necessary? JOHN GRAHAM A spokesman at the White House, when asked why Mr Nixon wanted to go to Ire- land, gave two astonishing reasons. One was some...

LOUIS CLAIBORNE Some two years ago in Washington . (whence I come very fresh) three British journalists (including the present editor of this paper) sat in enforced silence...

at the very end of the Arab peace talks he had worked hard to realise, President Nasser died of a heart attack. Hundreds of thousands immediately started to make the pilgrimage...

CHARLES R. STAHL In a television interview in Copenhagen on 18 September, Robert McNamara, President of the World Bank, made the sobering state- ment that the gap between the...

Junkie Doctors JOHN ROWAN WILSON Discussing the treatment of drug addicts, a British psychiatrist said recently, 'This is now a full-time job. You either do it or you don't....

Bomb disposal on motorways OLIVER STEWART There is nothing in the existing clutter of restrictive, minatory and advisory road traffic measures to check the explosive multi-...

Vote, vote, vote for Laura Norder! STELLA FitzTHOMAS HAGAN It's anathma to me, says some telly personality. Shows are put on at the Pladium. Somebody's dimonds are stolen....

Fiat justitia LESLIE ADRIAN When it comes to providing adequate legal redress for consumer complaints, justice is not done in this country; moreover, it is now manifestly seen...

Is yours as good as Grant's? GEOFFREY WAGNER It all began with 'Does she or doesn't she?' This highly successful Miss Clairol ad, inadvertently based, perhaps, on two famous...

The journalists of Amman BILL GRUNDY I can never remember whether it occurs in Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why, Christopher Hibbert's The Destruction of Lord Raglan, or...

Sir: It is difficult to credit Christopher Booker's stories about the Communion Service. But here are two others. Soon after my Kenyon grandmother's mar- riage she was shocked...

Sir: The claim (26 September) that Mr Rudi Dutschke is simply a poor unviolent young man who has epilepsy is hardly convincing. Indeed, its irrelevance is equalled only by the...

From Martin Waitzwright, John Maxwell, Francis A. Bozo:, Maurice Cowling, Lady Cole, Katharine Kenyon, David M. Courage, J. Fendall. T. C. Skellington-Lodge, Cledwyn Williams,...

Sir: Many outside his own party have hitherto admired Mr Maudling despite his serious mishandling of the economy before Labour took over in 1964. and his failure since to admit...

Sir: Has the full horror of the postcode system not yet dawned on the public? There seems to have been no outcry at this imposition of what will be a perpetually recurring...

Sir: It is true, as you say (26 September), that I am a member of the committee which pro- posed Mr Dutschke for admission as a research student to Cambridge. It is also true...

Sir: Tibor Szamuely (29 August) is quite right to complain about the 'prescriptive' society and I am sure that all he asks for is that the views of Professor Jensen should be...

Sir: I am often surprised at the complaints of high, and constantly rising, prices in the shops. Many articles whilst in the above category, would be very much more expensive...

Sir: I hope Peter J. Smith (1 August—'In the grip of the system') and other Giro specialists will not have missed the advertisement in the Sunday papers recently for the present...

Sir: I am an author. I draft in pencil, so I accumulate pencil ends too short to be used in comfort, too long to be thrown away without making me feel that I am adding to the...

Sir: M. M. Carlin (Letters, 12 September) sug- gests that Wordsworth and Archimedes had low IQS and would have been unable to escape the slave traders if born in Africa. He...

Sir: Is it not sad that Thames iv in an hour- long programme on one of our greatest states- men—and certainly one greatest foreign secre- tary in modern times—can produce many...

Sir: I really have been immeasurably depressed by your recent issue (19 September). Firstly, your leader-writer (could it have been your retiring editor?) should not have...

Sir: Progressive Thinking these days rejects not only intelligence testing but also the fact that intelligence is largely a matter of inheritance. The baleful influence of the...

Sir: If I were Dr Smith (19 September) I would forget my sojourn in America (apparently and regrettably an obligation for today's education- ist). omit the moral justification...

Sir: African villagers in Angola have no cause to thank our addlepated clerics. Some might even wonder why they support enemies of the state with violence from the atheist...

Sir: You say in your admirable leading article (much the best public comment so far) on the 10AV jamboree (5 September) that the participants themselves were not decadent even...

Knight in she's clothing SIMON RAVEN First, the set-up. These Memoirs of the Chevalier d'Eon' are in truth nothing of the kind; they are a biography of the Chevalier written...

DAVID WILLIAMS Holborn: An Historical Portrait of a London Borough John Lehmann (Macmillan 65s) It now costs a shilling to ride from Green Park to Piccadilly Circus. So this...

Martin SEYMOUR-SMITH The Public Poetry of Robert Lowell Patrick Cosgrove (Gollancz 52s) When asked recently to comment on his poetry Robert Lowell replied: '. . . This question...

Maurice CAPITANCHIK Tussy is Me Michael Hastings (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 40s) On many a library shelf, a brash book on G. Marx (Groucho the clown) peeps out from amongst the...

PAT BARR The Dragon Wakes Christopher Hibbert (Longman 65s) That China today—well over a hundred years after its reluctant 'Opening' to the West—is still the enigmatic...

RONALD HINGLEY Against Stalin and Hitler, 1941-1945 Wil- fried StnIr-Strikfeldt translated with a foreword by David Footman (Macmillan 60s) This is a particularly important...

J. B. DONNE The African Dream Brian Gardner (Cassell 50s) For a decade or more, the professional historian specialising in Africa has been turning his attention away from the...

Only connect BARRY COLE Two Sisters Gore Vidal (Heinemann 30s) The Carnal Island Roy Fuller (Deutsch The Assassination of Mozart David Wens (Hodder and Stoughton 42s) In a...

Midnight: no beast, no forest. I a.m.: a small shape, Back turned, in a light sleep. 2: looks longingly, Stretches cold beside me. Suckers and coils ready. 3: is...

Facts of fiction PENELOPE HOUSTON The Penthouse Conspirators Chapman Pincher (Michael Joseph 35s) The Defector Charles CoRingwood (Hart4 Davis 30s) The Diamond Dress Owen John...

by Charles Harris Between the Gate du Nord and the Canal St Martin the unsurprised traveller comes across yet another female statue, an impres- sive monument even by Paris...

Half Nelson KENNETH HURREN If only because any discussion of the private aberrations of public figures is apt to stimu- late indecent interest, Terence Rattigan's new play, A...

The leveller PATRICK SKENE CATLING Once in Encounter (once was quite enough) there was a short story called, I think, 'The Pukey.' I'm not sure of the spelling; the word is...

Good intentions TOM HUTCHINSON To stand up and applaud the pinkly aston- ished presence of Harold Lloyd at the open- ing night of 'Cinema City' at the Round House, Chalk...

Mild celebrations GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE As the new musical year tweaks its strings into gear we may well breathe a sigh of relief: the Beethoven bicentenary has not been too bad....

Peak problems ELWYN JONES Let's be glad and grateful for the impressive musical standard of Covent Garden's Ring: for the tremendous presence and power of Martin Talvela as...

Dark dangers BRYAN ROBERTSON The Kinetics show planned and presented by Theo Crosby for the Arts Council at the Hayward Gallery should have been an his- toric event since...

Maude of the Council for the Protection of Rural England Although technological developments vary in the amount of damage they do to the landscape, when one looks at them in...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Central bankers are no longer the ignorant stupid asses whom Keynes used to castigate; they are now highly sophisticated technicians capable of arguing the...

JOHN BULL Instead of gluing one's eyes to the slow- motion disintegration of Investors Overseas Services, [advise readers with a taste for the scandalous to study the crash of...

No 624: Cuntempry Yinglish Competitors are invited to submit a pas- sage of up to 120 words in the new Received Standard English deplored by Stella Fitz- Thomas Hagan in her...

PHILIDOR S. Leites (1st Prize, Shakhmaty v. SSSR, 1946). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 509 (Niemeijer-8/7p/Iplp3p/...

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER Casting an eye again over Emmett Hughes's illuminating memoir of the Eisenhower years, Ordeal of Power, I was struck by the similarities which may be adduced...

From the 'Spectator,' I October 1870—M. Darouf, the first balloon-postman of Paris. gives a very amusing account of his expedition. No sooner was his balloon, with its three...

DAEDALUS A prize of three guineas will be awarded w the sender of the first correct solution opened on 12 October. Address solutions: Crossword 1449, 'The Spectator,' 99 Gower...