Prisoners in the Maze are once more smearing excrement over their cell walls. IyIurder and arson and bombing remain commonplace in Ulster. Throughout Ireland, north and south,...

Yes, but not in the North Ferdinand Mount Is that what they really think? Or are they whistling to keep their courage up? Certainly, the first thing to be borne in mind in...

Were it not for my failing memory, I would be in the ideal position to furnish you, dear readers, with deep and penetrating insights into the character of Rupert Murdoch as a...

Democracy resumes her reign Auberon Waugh Mercifully enough, there are few moments in the life of a private citizen when he has to make important decisions affecting the...

Sam White Paris A particularly lethal form of ridicule is being directed at the moment at Giscard d'Estaing as he prepares to stand for a second term in the French presidential...

Henry Fairlie Washington What a pity that the appearance is not the reality. Washington is dedicated to the proposition that countries need to be governed, yet one strolls...

Bohdan Nahaylo 'The Reagan Administration has opened with a verbal barrage against the Soviet Union' The Times leader column reported last Saturday. The new President, it...

Geoffrey Robertson ,There are 120,000 policemen in England and Wales, organised within 43 separate police authorities. What should happen, when an irresistible force meets an...

Richard West Belfast This time in Belfast I ventured back to the pub where 18 months ago I endured a long harangue from men of the British Irish Communist Party, a...

Sir — I cannot agree with your correspondent, Mr Stephen, that the landing arrangements in the Isle of Man are 'as satisfactory in every respect as possible,' and must adhere to...

Worm turning at the BBC? Paul Johnson As one who has long urged that BBC executives exert their authority over anarchic subordinates, I was naturally delighted that the supine...

The House of Fraser saga Tony Rudd • The Lonrho/House of Fraser saga contains Practically every dramatic ingredient necessary to hold an audience's attention, which is just as...

Sir: I fear that Auberon Waugh's gently argued case in favour of the continued use of the new 'wonder' drug Tagamet, despite the slight potential cancer risk (17 January), will...

Sir: Mr Grimond finds it extraordinary that we should get giants (of our own money?) from the EEC whilst the squalor of southern Italy persists (24 January). I wonder why? It is...

Sir: Your reviewer of Sir Steven Runciman's The First Crusade (10 January) provokes a response to his final line. We do mind 'what the Spaniards have'. In history and...

Sir: The 3 January issue has just reached these shores, and 'Unforgiving' is what all readers should be towards Taki and the Spectator for failing to employ researchers. Ernest...

Sir: Readers who buy the Spectator to cherish the cover are the sort of people who fry egg shells for breakfast. David Blow 2 St Andrews Mansions, Dorset Street, London W1

Sir: Mr Patrick Marnham (Postscript', 24 January) attacks the Israeli religious establishment for doing things 'deeply offensive to Israeli Jews as well as to the world's...

I'm sorry if Quintin Riley was not a polar bore as I suggested in my letter of 17 January. But! have listened to the ugly bark of the BBC World Service myself. The dominant...

Life, love, language and lies Richard Cobb Black and White Shiva Naipaul (Hamish Hamilton £850) The lies fall like a steady rain'. The author is referring to the propaganda...

Eric Christiansen Henry VI Bertram Wolffe (Eyre Methuen £19.95) 'Born to succeed to a dual monarchy incapable - of realisation, Henry bore on his shoulders a responsibility...

Stephen Brook The Unlit Lamp Radclyffe Hall (Virago £2.95) The Vet's Daughter Barbara Comyns (Virago £2.50) Radclyffe Hall is best known for The Well of Loneliness, a Lesbian...

John McEwen The Shock of the New Robert Hughes (BBC £15.50) After Kenneth Clark's hugely successful television series on 'Civilisation' it was obviously only going to be a...

Francis King The High Consiatory Francis Stuart (Martin Brian & O'Keeffe £6.95) Francis Stuart was born of Northern Irish ancestry in Australia in 1902. After an adventurous...

The master builder Gavin Stamp 'Bofill is the greatest architect in the world', once claimed Giscard d'Estaing an opinion which may not commend Ricardo Bofill to Spectator...

Long faces John Mc Ewen Art from Africa can be seen at the Commonwealth Institute (till 5 April) and is Predictably of more ethnolo g ical, sociological interest than anythin g...

The old realism Peter Ackroyd Loulou ('X', selected cinemas) 'Shove off, Domini q ue, you're a dra g .' Gerard Depardieu washes his face, and the water swirls around the dirty...

Virginia (Haymarket) Making a play about a writer is no easy task. What most writers do most of the time is write and that does not lend itself obviously to theatre. If they are...

Deadly Richard Ingram I switched on the telly on Monday night to find yet another Doctor in white coat talking about 'terminal care'. I was reminded of one of the speakers on...

Maltreatment Taki New York It's been six weeks since I came to the Big Apple and I think for once I've just about had it. My reasons for coming were twofold; the birth of my...

Habits Jeffrey Bernard With the exception of the delightful viaar's daughter a few years ago and the obligatory performances in the sch'ool choir even longer ago, I haven't...

Why me? Patrick fvlarnharn Recently I have found myself dreaming about Margaret Thatcher; quite frequently. It requires a certain recklessness to admit to this. When the...