of the week A fter British troops, advancing to within a few miles of Port Stanley from the west and north, took Conway and Goose Green, as well as two small settlements in the...

rr he British task force, dispatched as an 1 instrument of pressure for a peace, has become a mighty and unstoppable instru- ment of war. It will not stop now until the last...

UK Fire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 111/17.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 1R£35.50 £37.00 £49.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

`Thou art Blue Peter . • • Auberon Waugh I had thou g ht to write about Lord Denn- ing this week but he will have to wait. Th e debate which he has started is about whether,...

come to the Roy Kerridge Liverpool `G od save the Pope! Ah, God save the Pope!' screamed the landlady of a dingy pub near Liverpool's Chinatown. `Don't you mean "God bless...

Peter Ackroyd Canterbury T hepilgrims arrived in Canterbury, carrying their fold-up chairs in plastic Sainsbury bags; strange rumours on the train from London: 'You can't get...

A llan Massie Edinburgh jt was Andrew, the heavenly patron of 1 your beloved Scotland, who introduced Peter to Jesus. Today marks another significant moment in the history of...

Timothy Garton Ash W hatever happened to the Conservative th Party at prayer? There it was, stan- din g in the Anglican cathedrals of Canter- '? urY and Liverpool, applauding...

Patrick Desmond T he disembarked elements of the task force have indeed moved fast (Spectator, 29 May); faster than anyone at home or in Argentina can have believed possible....

Simon Courtauld Madrid R eading here of the Argentine air attacks on the task force in the Estrecho San Carlos and on the Isla Soledad of Las Malvinas, I am reminded of the...

Christopher Hitchens S hortly after the Camp David agreement on Palestinian 'autonomy', Prime Minister Menahem Begin made an extraor- dinary speech in the Knesset in which he...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington n 17 June it will be ten years to V the day since Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt and their merry band of Cuban-American fanatics were caught by a...

Richard West W hen the House of Lords, on 7 June 1832, gave sullen assent to the Great Reform Bill, the country was crazed with joy — and relief that bloodshed had been avoided....

Media massacre ahead? Paul Johnson T he signs are that the battle over the Falklands will be followed by a l?attle over the British media when the men from the task force get...

Small is beautiful To Rudd T he City is full of personalities but none- theless few of them are remembered once retired. There are exceptions, like Montagu Norman. Another...

A great feat has been accomplished by `the Bell Coleman Mechanical Refrigera- tion Company,' in bringing over the car- cases of 5,000 sheep, at a temperature of 20° below zero,...

Sir: Surely no one in his senses ever doubted that the size of the budget deficit and the amount of money about are important economic variables (Tim Congdon, 29 May). What they...

Sir: Arthur Marshall, in his review of Roger Berthoud's book about Graham Sutherland (29 May), has made some strictures about my parents, Winston and Clementine Chur- chill,...

Sir: May I add my comments to those of Michael Scott (Letters, 22 May)? When the Fiji units in Malaya were disbanded, a number of Fijis took up the option to con - tinue to...

Sir: Peter Ackroyd suggests (15 May) that both Roy Jenkins and Edward Heath are guilty of hyprocrisy for rejecting capital punishment on moral grounds while they remain...

America's sacrifice Sir: I cannot agree with Christopher Hit- chens's conclusion that the alliance between Great Britain and the USA is a one-way street in which Great Britain...

Sir: Pushkin's The Queen of Spades does not, as your opera reviewer asserts, treat of mental breakdown (22 May) What it does is suggest ,strongly that where people (like the...

Cashing in on the Pope Paul Johnson Pope John Paul II Norman St John Stevas (Faber £4.95) • I ntroducing John Paul II Peter Hebble- thwaite (Fount Paperbacks £1.50) Love and...

When Robert Graves got involved with a wildly unsuitable woman his problems were not solved — though he, later, did get married to a much more suitable woman. But he was...

T. S. Matthews D obert Graves is a blowsy charwoman .n..of a book — down on its knees scrubb- ing away at acres of floor-space, polishing the parquet of its hero's office till...

Allan Massie The Strangers All are Gone Anthony Powell (Heinemann £9.50) A nthony Powell has always tended to puzzle even while he delights. Wodehouse once said: 'It's...

Harold Acton `I Todd qui est bien!' as the Spectator's V bilingual reviewer might exclaim, quoting that famous Parisian hostess Madame Geoffrin. The subject of Italy will never...

Paul Johnson is the author of Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration. T. S. Matthews, poet and journalist, is a former editor of Time. His many books include Under the...

Terence de Vere White A Moving Target William Golding (Faber £8.95) T he title of this collection of occasional Pieces is taken from a lecture given by Z i lliarn Golding to...

ANGELA THIRKELL. Novels by Mrs Thirkell in hardback or paperback. Titles and cost to Lady Gaddum, 10 Dogget Lane, Fulbourn, Cambridge CBI 5BT. PAUL TILLICH. Any of the books of...

Eric Christiansen A few years ago, Robin Hood appeared to have settled down into a comfort- able and well-earned retirement as a found- ing father of British Socialism. Like...

Past masters David Williams li istorical novel' is a chameleon phrase. Now it looks like this. Now it looks like that. What have The Talisman and War and Peace got in common?...

Harriet Waugh Providence Anita Brookner (Jonathan Cape £6.95) A nita Brookner's second novel, Pro- vidence, is a beautiful study of a clever, pretty, rather unhappy woman who...

Missing the point Rodney Milnes Katya Kabanova (Welsh National Opera) I have been trying hard — well, fairly hard to work out why I should have stomped out of Prokofiev's...

Tightened screws Peter Ackroyd Britannia Hospital ('AA', selected cinemas) T indsay Anderson's latest film begins L./with a shot of Big Ben, just before the credits appear on...

Shifting scenes John McEwen he particular distinction of Teddy Mill- ington-Drake as a topographical artist is the degree to which he has evolved a style that is equally...

Gems and jewels Mark Amory Queen Christina (Tricycle) The Jeweller's Shop (Westminster) The Pirates of Penzance (Drury Lane) q ueen Christina of Sweden, daughter of Gustav...

Swan season Jann Parry W ill marriage solve Siegfried's drinking problem? That seems to be the key question in Act I of Festival Ballet's new Production of Swan Lake (also at...

Critical Richard Ingrams T have never been able to understand why 1 certain BBC programmes cannot be shown every week throughout the year. Spectator readers would think the...

Memorable Taki Southampton, Long Island I magine a series of quiet, tiny, tranquil villages by the sea, a country refuge for New York City's rich, distinguished by vast frame...

Festschrift Jeffrey Bernard T he business of being 50 last week pass e d surprisingly nicely and wasn't w e traumatic horror I'd expected. And what a strange mixture were the...

No. 1221: Woodnotes wild Set by Jaspistos: This is the time of year when those who contribute Nature Notes to newspapers wax lyrical. You are invited to parody such a columnist...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a rhymed poem leadenly prosaic in tone and content. 'Spade! with which Wilkinson hath tilled his lands' was surely the most leaden...

The unclued lights are the names o the Beatles. They began in to Cavern (Liverpool) and made a entitled Help. Winner: John M. Brown, 60 The Lawns, Rolleston-on-Dove, Staffs.

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 21 June. Entries to: Crossword 560, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. The unc...

Taking chances Raymond Keene A year ago I wrote about Kasparov's willingness to hazard that fighting defence, the King's Indian, in order to get decisions against strong...