A dministrators were appointed to Canary Wharf, the giant development in London's Isle of Dogs. The Government denied that it would bail out the project, casting doubt on the...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 PLUCKY LITTLE DENMARK I t was a Dane, Hans Christian Andersen, who in...

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F ellow playwright Arnold Wesker recently reproached me about the 'English- ness' felt by aliens like himself who had claimed this land as their home, and referred me to Isaiah...

In such an age, I thank God I am a man CHARLES MOORE cadilly, you pass various commercial gal- leries, such as Agnew's, with framed pic- tures disposed in their windows. On...

Henry Porter exposes the working methods of the tabloids' royal correspondents, and accuses them of undermining the monarchy FOR THE first time, the royal family is seriously...

Michael Nicholson reports on the chaotic attempts to restore normality to Cambodia Phnom Penh THERE'S NOT much to joke about in Cambodia: there hasn't been for years. However,...

Robert Whelan claims that the Earth Summit is the fruit of the Green movement's break with reality IT IS NO secret that environmental lobby- ists hoped to make the United...

persist.. . I FIND the English a dispiriting lot on the whole: so few of them have aspira- tions or a desire for self-transcendence. They have no ambitions; instead, they...

On the eve of his 80th birthday, Enoch Powell talks to Simon Heifer about life and death IT IS THE height of the recent heatwave. Enoch Powell welcomes me to his house in...

A reader received this letter from the United Racing & Bloodstock Services of Hangleton in Sussex: Dear Sir, Please forgive me for writing to you without invitation. Having...

Justice ought to come before fun PAUL JOHNSON bl ether or not the state should step in to rescue a development like Canary Wharf is a matter for argument. In a democracy there...

BANKERS and developers, creditors and debtors, blaming each other, unite in trying to pass the blame to successive govern- ments. Where, they want to know, was the...

AN IRONY of the IMC's caravan-like progress around the world (last year in Osaka, next year in Stockholm) has brought them to the home town of the world's most ambitious...

ENTHUSIASM for the project has always seemed to vary with the square of the dis- tance from it. Only the other day, in one of his stream-of-consciousness interviews, David...

Banking's dinosaurs herd together, hoping to stave off extinction CHRISTOPHER FILDES T h Toronto e wise dinosaur, when he wakes up in the morning, asks himself two questions....

Sir: Your leading article of 23 May (Tull of Cantuar') is based on systematic misrepre- sentation of what the Archbishop of Can- terbury has said. You say that the Arch- bishop...

Sir: I am surprised that Noel Malcolm (Let- ters, 23 May) was unable to find an accu- rate copy of the text of the Maastricht Treaty on which to base his analysis. From the...

Sir: Mr Wheatcroft's specious and ill- informed piece on 'Bomber' Harris ('Bar- barous in the extreme', 30 May) is so full of inaccuracies that it is difficult to know where to...

Sir: Please tell 'Dear Mary' (23 May) that daddy-long-legs are the scourge of garden- ers. They lay their eggs in summer and autumn and then become leatherjackets of particular...

Sir: It would appear that the age of the Bernard brothers (Low life, 16 May) is immaterial to at least one frequenter of the infamous Coach and Horses. I copied the following...

In praise of summer pudding Petronella Wyatt TO THE English patriot, few dishes are as uplifting as summer pudding. Though not a symbol of Merry England, when barons bashed...

Bitter observations Christopher Howse THERE'S NOTHING like a nice cup of tea in hot weather. No there isn't, but it won't do at all. That splendidly irrepressible demagogue...

A quest for the best Nigella Lawson I HAVE a theory about Marks & Spencer's prepared food which, so far, has yet to be disproved. It works like this: if someone who can cook...

CURRENT LITERATURE A Lexical Concordance to the Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Compiled and arranged by F. S. Ellis. (B. Quar- itch.) — We hope, for the sake of the...

Have a break Candida Crewe ONE CANNOT write about the staple foods of the English without including the bar of chocolate. But which particular bar? I longed to see whether my...

Scholar in the kitchen Christopher Driver ELIZABETH DAVID, who died recently, belongs to everyone who has used her cookery books, travelled to the sun with her in imagination,...

0 Wasp, where was thy sting? Alastair Forbes I'VE SEEN THE BEST OF IT B y a peculiar irony, this book arrives from across the Atlantic on the morrow of the sad, early death of...

On the slow train from Glasgow to Stranraer outside the window of the dining car visions again. This pale sun has no trouble releasing in fleeces of sheep a holy white and...

Denis Hills AFTERMATH OF WAR: EVERYONE MUST GO HOME by Sir Carol Mather Brasseys, £22.50, pp. 278 S it Carol Mather, who served on Mont- gomery's staff at three of the crucial...

Stanley Ayling CHARLES JAMES FOX by L.G. Mitchell OUP, £25, pp. 333 I n 1971 L.G.Mitchell published a book charting the break-up of the Whig party under Fox. He has now...

Anita Brookner SPIRIT WEDDINGS by Gillian Tindall Hutchinson, £13.99, pp. 215 G illian Tindall's new novel begins unpromisingly, with a jumbo jet preparing to descend on an...

Philip Glazebrook TIGER BALM: TRAVELS IN LAOS, VIETNAM AND CAMBODIA by Lucretia Stewart Chatto, £10.99, pp. 256 T his account of her trips inside Indo- China in the past two...

Isabel Colegate V irginia Woolf once wrote that if she were bringing a case against God Christina Rossetti would be one of the first witnesses she would call. This is hardly...

Evelyn Jon M uch has already been written about this lawsuit but, unless a copy of the tran- script of the trial should turn up (the origi- nal was destroyed immediately...

Christopher Bray THE MOTHER-IN-LAW JOKE by Martyn Harris Viking, £14.99, pp. 244 W hen Martyn Harris, one of our most reliably entertaining journalists, abandoned his interview...

John Whitworth BLOODY MURDER by Julian Symons Papermac, £10.99, pp .296 D iscussions about The Detective Story arc fascinating. Auden, Nabokov and Borges have all had...

Exhibitions 1 Tough lessons Giles Auty Summer Show/Alush Shima (Roy Miles Gallery, till 9 July) Anthony Bream (Cadogan Contemporary, till 13 June Barbara Rae (William...

Jusepe de Ribera (Prado, Madrid, till 25 August) Spanish master Elizabeth Mortimer T he Romantics gave Ribera, alias Spag- noletto, a name for violence: Theophile Gautier...

A touch of risk festival programmes W hat is the point of a music festival? I don't think this is a question much raised nowadays: everywhere seems to have its lit- tle summer...

Pure pop Marcus Berkmann T he semantic differences between 'rock music' and 'pop music' have often troubled many people, not least because both terms seem to go in and out of...

Ruby ('15', Odeon West End) The Mambo Kings (`15', selected cinemas) The Adjuster (`18', Metro) Rosebud ('15', Metro) The noses have it Vanessa Letts R uby and The Mambo...

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park) Starry night Christopher Edwards T his production, directed by Ian Talbot, is a fine celebration of the 60th...

Just the job for Bob Martyn Harris B ob Peck is an ideal actor for the age, and he's popping up everywhere at the moment with his placeless accent and class- less mien and...

Derby winner Taki T wenty years ago this month I was in Hue, then South Vietnam, when 40 North Vietnamese divisions crossed the DMZ and took Quang Tri. Nothing stood between...

First catch your sheep Nigel Nicolson A s I lie in bed at this time of year lis- tening to the early weather forecast, I prick my ears when it comes to the Hebrides, thinking...

BRITISH cooks encounter fish rarely and usually with unpleasant results for both parties — and any guests. National fish consumption is low by comparison with the French or...

Short sharp shock Raymond Keene I t might have been expected that Nigel Short would suffer a reaction after his famous victory against Karpov. Indeed, when Nigel travelled to...

PURE HIGHLAND MALT 1.ITCH HHIYRT COMPETITION PURE HIGHLAND MALT 1.11011.1111KY Spry Struldbrugs J aspistos I n Competition No. 1730 you were in- vited to imagine a young...

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not libellous language, you are invited to pre- sent a satirical portrait of a contemporary politician from any country. Maximum 16 lines. Entries to 'Competition No. 1733' by...

1062: All shook up by Doc A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the...

Hold the back page Frank Keating WHEN HILARY, wife of my good friend (and new editor of Wisden) Matthew Engel, gave birth to a son and heir last week, I at once took down the...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I have an equally frustrating problem as has R.W. from Nairobi with his Citroens. I live in a narrow, unlit cul-de-sac in a small village in Portugal. There...