7 JANUARY 1995

Page 4

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

F rederick West hanged himself in his cell at Winson Green prison when he should have been eating chicken soup and a pork chop; he had been charged with 12 murders, including...

Page 6

POLITICS

The Spectator

The appalling consequences of Labour policy for the likes of Blair the elder BORIS JOHNSON Looking back at that happy Blair family in Scotland in the 1960s, one has to face...

Page 7

DIARY

The Spectator

A.N. WILSON M y old tutor at Oxford, enlisted by David Cecil and others to express public support for the British and French inter- vention in Suez in 1956, happily signed a...

Page 8

ANOTHER VOICE

The Spectator

When will these babyish, petulant Eurosceptics see sense? AUBERON WAUGH J oy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons...

Page 9

THE SELLING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The Spectator

Anne Applebaum reveals that Rupert Murdoch's empire has gained exclusive rights to say what the Soviet Union did with Hitler's remains; it's just part of the fierce battle over...

Page 12

A 40 BILLION A DAY HABIT

The Spectator

Robert Haupt examines the financial consequences of the Chechen war, and argues that the West should reconsider its aid to Russia Moscow THE RESPONSE of western governments to...

Mind your language

The Spectator

SOME New Year pet hates. Mr Neville Barwick of Bath hates advisor for adviser 'which we shall have to accept because bad always drives out good'. I agree that this Gresham's...

Page 13

If symptoms

The Spectator

persist.. . THE ENTIRE nation has been plunged into deep, indeed inconsolable, mourn- ing over the untimely demise of Freder- ick West. News of his death came as a shock, to me...

Page 14

SAYING WHAT EVERYONE THINKS

The Spectator

Noreen Taylor meets the Queen's former private secretary Lord Charteris, still with a keen finger on the royal pulse AS A CUSTODIAN of royal secrets there are few to rival the...

Page 18

HENRY KING

The Spectator

Michael Heath

WE MURDERERS ARE NOT ALL BAD

The Spectator

Harold Gerrard, serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife, says that prison doctors are, on the whole, worse than the killers they treat C Wing, HMP Blundeston,...

Page 20

SEVEN TYPES OF EVASION

The Spectator

Jeremy Paxman gives an insider's account of the exasperating techniques used by politicians who don't want to answer a question FOR ALL the disdain the one affects for the...

Page 21

BANGING THE DRUM FOR HEPTONSTALL

The Spectator

Continuing our series on English counties, Paul Barker reveals the fierce rivalries in the West Riding of Yorkshire THE EXCELLENT city art gallery in Leeds is packed with the...

Page 23

AND ANOTHER THING

The Spectator

Fond memories of a playwrights' convention at Buckingham Palace PAUL JOHNSON P laywrights fascinate me. Though they spend their lives, as I do, dealing in words, they fling...

Page 24

CITY AND SUBURBAN

The Spectator

Stay on the platform and wait for the Circle Line the Tax Express is going backwards CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he party of low taxation has set us to work for the tax-gatherers...

Page 25

LETTERS Some row

The Spectator

Sir: It is good of you so freely to indulge Paul Johnson's obsession with the Guardian, and its editor Peter Preston. He has now written innumerable times on the subject both in...

Page 26

Untimely death

The Spectator

Sir: With respect to William Trevor (Books, 17/24 December) Beachcomber did not die in 1949. He died 30 years later, during the Winter of Discontent. The man who told him he...

Oh, no he wasn't

The Spectator

Sir: Was Noel Coward really a spy, as John Simpson asserts? (Noel Coward was a spy', 17 December). His evidence is not too good. According to his account Coward was recruited...

Doctor's dilemma

The Spectator

Sir: Among William Boyd's observations on Sir Frederick Treves's surgical practice (`How King Edward VII nearly wasn't', 17/24 December) was the conclusion that the King would...

Brooks's, Boodles and balls

The Spectator

Sir: Your story about exclusion of Jews from clubs in America (Taboo or not taboo, that is the question', 19 November) recalls the furore in the tabloids when a dis- tinguished...

No such taunts

The Spectator

Sir: I refer to the letter of the German Embassy's Mr Wolfgang Trautwein (Let- ters, 17/24 December) concerning the arti- cle, 'Is this what we mean by European Union?' (3...

Floreat Ambridge

The Spectator

Sir: F.R. Leavis would surely have seized upon John Bayley's article about the Archers (Books, 17/24 December) as an instance of the slack standards which pre- vail at Oxford....

Doctor in the House

The Spectator

Boverton Avenue Brockworth, Gloucestershire

Page 27

BOOKS

The Spectator

The most hated man in Ireland Geoffrey Wheatcroft CONOR: A BIOGRAPHY OF CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN by Donald Harman Aken son McGill-Queen's University Press, £20, pp.574 CONOR:...

Page 29

Moving the immovable

The Spectator

Nicolas Barker GLI OBILISCHI EGIZI: POLITICA E CULTURA NELLA ROMA BAROCCA by Giovanni Cipriani Leo S. Olschki, L45, 000, pp. 205 We have one on the Embankment, they have them...

Page 30

The muse's favourite

The Spectator

Bruce Bernard ANDRE KERTESZ: HIS LIFE AND WORK edited by Pierre Borhan BullfinchlLittle, £45, pp. 367 T me, Andre Kertesz is not only the `photographer's photographer' as...

Page 31

Doing what comes unnaturally

The Spectator

Michael Lewis SEX IN AMERICA: A DEFINITIVE SURVEY by Robert T. Michael, John H. Gagnon, Edward 0. Laumann and Gina Kolata Little Brown, £18.99, pp. 320 I f you are inclined to...

Fantasy with one foot on the ground

The Spectator

Patricia Craig THE DJINN IN THE NIGHTINGALE'S EYE by A. S. Byatt Chatto & W7ndus, &9,99, pp. 280 I t's strange to find A. S. Byatt writing fairy stories — almost as if Anita...

Page 32

Gathering and disseminating intelligence

The Spectator

Adam Sisman THREADING MY WAY by Peter Calvocoressi Duckworth, i17.99, pp. 213 T his is a gruff, old-fashioned memoir of a distinguished, if not outstanding, career: Eton,...

Page 35

ARTS

The Spectator

Museums The road for the Tate Laurence Marks contemplates a conversion for the millennium I n the Piranesi-like half-light of a December afternoon, the rusted turbines,...

Page 36

Theatre

The Spectator

Slays! (Hampstead) The Threepenny Opera (Donmar Warehouse) Elisabeth (Theater an der Wien, Vienna) 0 show me the way . . . Sheridan Morley o r those of us, and we are...

Exhibitions

The Spectator

Four Paintings by Lucian Freud (Dulwich Picture Gallery, till 22 January) Time to compare Giles Auty H ow four recent paintings by Lucian Freud came to be exhibited at...

Page 37

Cinema

The Spectator

Vanya on 42nd Street (`U', Curzon Mayfair) Deprived lives Mark Steyn T he film of the play: either you 'open it up' — show all those car chases and earth- quakes the stage...

Page 38

Gardens

The Spectator

A row is growing Ursula Buchan rom beyond the borders, which sepa- rate horticulture from the real world, can be heard the distant rumble of a row. It concerns the fate of the...

Television

The Spectator

Thaw in law Nigella Lawson A ctors always love playing barristers. What they extract from these roles is sheer essence of showing off, the necessary germ from which acting...

Page 40

High life

The Spectator

Snow princess Taki Gstaad T hirty years ago I climbed the Wassen- grat daily in the company of Irwin Shaw, who had left his beloved Klosters to be near his son Adam, back then...

Low life

The Spectator

Cooking my goose Jeffrey Bernard h e lead up to Christmas was even a lit- tle worse than the celebration itself. A few days before my goose was cooked I was given a...

Page 41

Office life

The Spectator

A tale of two cats Holly Budd T e first casualty of 1995 can be chalked up to Byron, the office cat. I don't suppose many offices still have cats; modern `Who says you can't...

Long life

The Spectator

Tricks of memory? Nigel Nicolson A Roman senator would employ a slave with an exceptional memory to remind him of the names of people encountered in the street. He was called...

Page 42

What's up, doc?

The Spectator

OFF WE GO again, a new year to broach, 1995 no less, and I hope you all have a ball. I find it extraordinary to think we are so near 2000, which seemed almost impossible to...

Page 44

CHESS

The Spectator

Conundrum Raymond Keene THE ENGLISH team's performance in Moscow at the Chess Olympiad ultimately conformed precisely to their pre-tourna- ment seeding. The Russian 'A' team,...

The Spectator

JSIWLE NW SCOTCH VINO URA COMPETITION Self- Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1862 you were invited to supply an extract from a book entitled What to Say When You Talk to...

Page 45

CROSSWORD 1191: Gee up by Doc

The Spectator

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 23 January, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

Page 47

SPECTATOR SPORT

The Spectator

A barrage of baloney Frank Keating AS I WRITE, I pray that the performances at Sydney of three north countrymen, Atherton, Crawley, and Gough, might have turned the Ashes...

YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED

The Spectator

Dear Mary.. . Q. I am a probation officer. Recently, the courts have entrusted to my care a noble- man of vast possessions. I had to cancel our first appointment as our limited...