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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorM r Kenneth Clarke replaced Mr Nor- man Lamont as Chancellor of the Exche- quer. Mr Lamont exited in dudgeon; Mr Clarke appeared on the steps of the Trea- sury in a Garrick tie...
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DIARY IAN HISLOP
The SpectatorY ou can't keep a bad man down. There are now plans to stage a musical about Robert Maxwell in the West End and the producers are looking for someone to play him. Names such as...
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ANOTHER VOICE
The SpectatorAesthetic indifference, not perversity, is the greatest scourge of our time AUBERON WAUGH A further argument which I have not yet seen deployed against British military...
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THE PRICE OF DEMENTIA
The SpectatorAlasdair Palmer on how the families of victims of Alzheimer's disease are made to suffer by the state 'I DON'T cry. I've lived through some ter- rible things — my husband and...
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If symptoms
The Spectatorpersist. . LAST WEEK, I made the cardinal error (forgivable in a young doctor, but inex- cusable in one as long in the tooth as I) of apologising to a patient. I was running a...
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THE NORMALISATION OF POLAND
The SpectatorAnne Applebaum witnesses the post-totalitarian lust for pretty clothes, beer and mortgages Warsaw A FEW YEARS ago, if asked what kind of country he wanted to live in, an...
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FROM BULLETS TO BALLOTS
The SpectatorWilliam Shawcross on the new hopes and fears in Cambodia after the election Phnom Penh SINCE THE counting of the ballots in the Cambodian elections started last Saturday,...
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Mind your language
The Spectator'IT IS a terrific challenge because we are really going into an unknown area, which in itself is going to be a very excit- ing period.' Who could have said that? Why, a press...
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IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SIR PERCY
The SpectatorTim Llewellyn on some provocative re-drawing of borders in post-war Iraq Umm Qasr, Iraq TAM DALYELL, MP, descendant of Scots warriors, dark-suited under the Iraqi sun,...
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THE JUDGMENT OF OTHERS
The SpectatorEdward Leigh describes how he was sacked for his principles in last week's government reshuffle A COUPLE of weeks ago a taxi-driver was taking me home from a radio station in...
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THE SIGN OF THE HANDBAG
The SpectatorMatthew Parris on Lady Thatcher's elevation from an 'ism' to a religion A REMARKABLE cover graced the sec- ond section of the Guardian some days ago. It was dominated by one...
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HOT AIR AND ANGELS
The SpectatorIsabel Wolff experiences a higher vibratory level at a mind, body and spirit festival 'OK, EVERYBODY, relax. Close your eyes. Now, take a deep breath. And release. Take...
One hundred years ago
The SpectatorThe Royal Geographical Society is in hot water. A section of its members recently passed a resolution that no more ladies should be admitted Fellows, and caused a discussion so...
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorIf you can't ban the arms, cut off the cannon-fodder PAUL JOHNSON h ere is widespread uneasiness that the end of the cold war is ushering in a period of petty war. With no...
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CITY AND SUBURBAN
The SpectatorSomeone to blame it's a credible role for the incredible Chancellor CHRISTOPHER FILDES N orman Lamont on his way to 11 Downing Street looked a happy man. Lunching at the Savoy...
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Sir: That whippersnapper Stephen Glover has not done his homework
The Spectatoragain. He writes: 'Bill Deedes is the only practising journalist who has worked in Fleet Street since before the war.' Not so. May I put in a word for Hugh Cudlipp (79), for...
Some mistake
The SpectatorSir: Stephen Glover's memories of Bill Deedes's editorship of the Daily Telegraph differ diametrically from mine CA defeatist survivor', 29 May). To suggest that our leader...
No jurisdiction
The SpectatorSir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 1 May) fears that the Catholic bishops may miss 'a historical opportunity to end the 450-year schism in English Catholicism'. Whatever does...
LETTERS Proto-sceptic
The SpectatorSir: The last paragraph of Richard Lamb's letter on Churchill (15 May) does not make sense. Lord Beloff does ('Would Churchill have signed Maastricht?' 8 May). Churchill...
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Non excusat
The SpectatorSir: According to Matthew Parris, Agnosco — I do not know — has ceased to be an answer we dare offer to questions of poli- tics or morality' (Politics, 24 April). I don't see...
Off her chest
The SpectatorSir: How can James Buchan in one and the same sentence speak of the barbarians' attack upon the Queen's English and of 'the Duchess of York's bosoms' (We have changed, not the...
Active service
The SpectatorSir: In the 8 May issue of your journal, you have printed (Stephen Robinson, The peacekeeping that passeth understanding') the statement that George Bush was 'a young navy pilot...
One of many
The SpectatorSir: It is my belief that Adolf Hitler, even in his wilder imaginings, never anticipated that the Fifth Column he attempted to set 11 13 in this country would ever cause so much...
Can do better
The SpectatorSir: I was touched and moved by Auberon Waugh's appeal for volunteers to help Lit- erary Review in its difficulties (Another voice, 22 May), but I felt his approach was Slightly...
True words
The SpectatorSir: I have no doubt that Oliver Franks, whom I knew fairly well, was a great and a good man, and a splendid servant of the state (Books, 22 May). But when his report mentions...
Jungle book
The SpectatorSir: Frederick Raphael in his review of Mr Capone (Books, 22 May) attributes the novel The Jungle to Frank Norris. The novel, considered a left-wing classic in its day, was...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorRoyalty and royalties John Osborne ot since the Great Lisbon Earth- quake of 1755, when 30,000 people were killed and 11,000 buildings destroyed with- in six minutes, has a...
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In the small shop
The SpectatorIn the small shop, where apples shrink, Potatoes sprout, the lettuce is green leather, Past tins, they draw me, bright enough to drink, Red Pools in the brown crumpled bag. No...
Why the French Left hung together
The SpectatorM.R.D. Foot Past Imperfect by Tony Judt University of California Press, £20.00, pp.358 T here seems to be something volcanic in the history of modern France. Since the great...
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Wielding his clubs
The SpectatorP. N. Furbank THE USE OF MEMORY by Tom Burns Sheed & Ward, £19.95, pp. 202 I t is the practice now for obituaries to come signed, and to that degree to be a little more...
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There is a tide in the affairs of men and
The Spectatorhe missed it Anne Applebaum HOPE DIES LAST by Alexander Dubcek liarperCollins, .£20, pp. 354 here is no such thing, they used to say in Eastern Europe, as a communist who is...
The Poet
The SpectatorAnxious, unsociable, uninteresting (Despite what others tell me), I confess Of all I've known there's only the one thing Vindicates me, and that is to express Something I'd...
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The slaying of a hypothesis by an ugly fact
The SpectatorAnthony Howard FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT by Christopher Hitchens Verso, £19.95, pp. 353 O f all contemporary transatlantic com- mentators Christopher Hitchens tends to provoke...
Glasgow belongs to him
The SpectatorGeorge McKay Brown THE LIGHTS BELOW by Carl MacDougall Secicer & Warburg, £7.99, pp. 243 A lecturer used to wonder, during our English Literature class, why a great, tumultuous...
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Setting the wild echoes flying
The SpectatorJohn Whitworth THE WORM AND THE STAR by John Fuller Chatto, £9.99, pp. 246 D ylan Thomas Is an unlikely source of prosaic wisdom, but he did once wonder what a poet ought to get...
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The Island Again
The SpectatorThe season slid from Winter to the next, snowdrop and crocus to hawthorn blossom, the hum of bees, then pansy, rose, chrysanthemum. The whole happy gamut hardly vexed by touches...
When the mocking had to stop
The SpectatorWilliam Dalrymple A RIVER SUTRA by Gita Mehta Heinemann, £9.99, pp. 275 h e Hampstead novel this is not. In Gita Mehta's slim new volume we meet a cast the likes of which has...
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ARTS
The SpectatorExhibitions 1 Tradition and Revolution in French Art 1700-1880 (National Gallery, till 11 July) Lessons from Elizabeth Mortimer I t seems unexpectedly auspicious that the...
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Exhibitions 2
The Spectator225th Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy, till 15 August) A multi-sided face Giles Auty T he event which is one of the more dif- ficult to write about in the annual calendar is...
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Russian theatre
The SpectatorCreative confusion Claudia Woolgar found Russia's present turmoil reflected in its theatres C onfusing variety appears to be the new order in the theatres of Russia, reflect-...
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Cinema
The SpectatorMadame Bovary (PG', selected cinemas) Cop and a Half (PG', selected cinemas) Wrung-out dishcloth Vanessa Letts I n Claude Chabrol's dishcloth version of Madame Bovary the...
Theatre
The SpectatorShakespeare For My Father (Helen Hayes Theater, New York) Relative Values (Chichester) Daddy dearest Sheridan Morley A the rump end of an undistinguished Broadway season, of...
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Pop music
The SpectatorIs there anyone listening? Marcus Berkmann I t's not just the audience that has given up on mainstream pop music — it's the musicians too. When the charts are domi- nated by...
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Television
The SpectatorFather figures Martyn Harris T he star of Barlow, Regan, Pyall and Fancy (BBC 2, Monday, 8.50 p.m.) was Andy Beaumont, a superintendent in the Thames Valley police. Amiable...
High life
The SpectatorIt shouldn't happen to a vet Taki I would have given anything to be in Washington DC last Sunday when the draft-dodger addressed the brave men who had answered their country's...
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Low life
The SpectatorGrandstand view Jeffrey Bernard I daren't have a bath these days for fear of slipping when I get in or out, so I have to get help, otherwise it is a strip wash in front of the...
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Long life
The SpectatorAnother language Nigel Nicolson s I waited in the lobby of my hotel last week, the manager was having a tele- phone row with a distant customer, suppli- er or rival hotelier —...
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LA04,Jm OC.)04‘jok.
The SpectatorImperative cooking: beware the travellers 01 I HAD breakfast recently in an English hotel. It was all right — to start with. Visualise the plate. It was oval, as the current...
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COMPETITION
The SpectatorChesterbelloc Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1781 you were invited to write a 20-line ballade with the title 'Nostalgia'. Purists were quick to point out that a ballade by...
Peter the Great
The SpectatorRaymond Keene TRADITIONALLY Russia has been the main provider of chess champions. In 1972 Bobby Fischer made a brief incursion on behalf of the US, while Nigel Short is now...
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CROSSWORD
The Spectator1112: Drinkads by Doc A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 21 June, with two runners-up prizes of...
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SPECTATOR SPORT
The SpectatorA whiff of nostalgia Frank Keating I WAS overcome by a potent whiff of nos- talgia this week. It was almost a hankie job, as a sudden reverie dumped me back to a carefree,...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary. . . Q. I live in London but spend at least one weekend a month with my parents-in-law in the country. Each visit I make is preceded by a request from my...