The Guardian du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 21

THE GUARDIAN Saturday July 13 1991 ARTS 21 Max Stafford-Clark's Royal Court contract is unlikely to be Pass me the drill, Monica renewed. Nicholas de Jongh ponders the succession Courting favour Nancy Banks-Smith at the commercial company Turnstile productions, Claire Venables, Pip Broughton and two Royal Court associates, Danny Boyle and Simon Curtis applied. Some of these could be seriously considered again Simon Stokes may well be a dark horse this time round. Simon Curtis, Danny Boyle and the present deputy Royal Court director, Lindsay Posner would all probably like to step into their master's shoes and would feel they are the right size. But it may well be that the board is after the shock of the entirely new.

Where and how will such a person be discovered? Among new contenders you might find Jenny Killick, late of the Traverse, Stephen Daldry, who is successfully running the Gate, Paul Unwin, who recently left the Bristol Old Vic, Deborah Warner, whose stock is high but who has not specialised in new writing. Are these the kind of names to be carved with pride upon any shortlist? My own feeling is that the board may well try to appoint the Royal Court's first female director. She would be the first woman since Lilian Baylis ran the Old Vic in the 1920s to control one of our major theatres. To do a bit of gender boosting would be to move women closer to the deci change, but only if it was felt by the majority to be the right time for change. I personally think that after 11 years it is time for a change provided it is the right one.

And I would say that that is probably the general feeling on the council." Stafford-Clark himself says that he wrote to Mortimer in May expressing his desire to remain as director. "I also offered to withdraw my candidature if he or the council felt that to do so would be in the theatre's best interest They did not and I will, therefore, be reapplying." But he does enter a caveat for competitors. "I hope that decision will not inhibit any of my colleagues who may wish to put themselves forward." It will not Directors are never slow to offer themselves in a cause greater than themselves. Some people argue that the Court's role as the chief encourager of new writing has been ceded to various quarters of the fringe. But the post still confers great influence and prestige upon the holder.

For the Court is the one conventional, proscenium London playhouse which offers an almost uninterrupted diet of new work. Last time round the likes of Bill Bryden, the former National Theatre director, Simon Stokes, late of the Bush and now Development Director A BATTLE for succession is about to begin. It will be sharply fought. At stake is the directorship of the Royal Court Theatre, which still sails as the flagship for new writing in England. And one of the contenders will be Max Stafiford-Clark, the man who has held the directorship for 10 years and whose present contract is due to terminate next April.

He will be reapplying, but all the signs suggest that he will have a very tough struggle indeed to secure another term. Yesterday the chairman of the theatre's governing council, John Mortimer, held the first meeting of his selection subcommittee. Their task was to decide on the procedures they will take to advertise the post and interview contenders. It is expected that the post will be advertised very shortly, with shortlisting and interviewing in the autumn. Mr Mortimer will not say which of the 27-strong council, whose members include Hanif Kureishi, Joan Plowright, the controller of BBC2 Alan Yen-tob, and two former Royal Court directors, Nicholas Wright and Stuart Burge, are on this committee.

One of its members, the West End producer Robert Fox says: "We would not want to change the director just for the sake of In vodka Veritas: Irina Tychinina with Igor Nikolayev and Igor Chemevich photograph: douglas jeffery Army game finished. It was memorable for a visit to Rabbi Lionel Blue's home, which was humble and chaotic to an endearing degree. The idea is that Lloyd Grossman visits celebrities' houses and a panel guesses who they are from what they own. Without exception the houses look as if they have been embalmed and in some cases covered with hot-house lilies. But in Maison Blue books seemed to be breeding before your widening eyes.

Ties entwined and twinned, Tesco's honey cuddled up to Salisbury's nutmeg, the carpet seemed to be exuberantly growing prize-winning magnolias. Rabbi Blue said they had caught him on a tidy day. Quite often no one has heard of the celebrity, in which case David Frost says "Congratulations! You have beaten the panel!" Duncan Norvelle, a comic widely known in a limited circle for his catch phrase "Chase effortlessly beat the panel and I admired Frost's flattering footwork when they also failed with Denise Robertson, novelist and agony aunt "They haven't put a name to it but they've got it They've got They hadn't They hadn't Now I will go and watch Fred's performance in Grey-stoke: The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes (BBC 1). Fred is a parrot with whom I have a nodding acquaintance. The two minders, who arrived to take him to Manchester by train first class, asked what he ate.

As money seemed to be no object his owner said he was fond of grapes. An actor's life, Monica, is uncertain and unhealthy. Fred was fed solicitously on peeled grapes throughout the filming, much like Mae West in Diamond Lil. He returned, how shall I put it one candied parrot His beak was glued with grape juice. He had tried to wipe it on his feathers.

You ism" have to be countered with EUROPE Express (Channel 4) opens up striking possibilities for a new police series. Italy, it seems, is riddled with dentists who wouldn't know a back buccal cervical if it bit them. Thousands are practising with no qualifications at all. Even the head of the Roman Dental Association discovered he had been treated by a dentist without a licence or degree. Dr Aguiari has a beard and moustache but what you could see of him went white.

However Italy's Hygiene Police, fearless in the fight against corruption, are rooting it out Their characteristic cry "Are you on the register of dental specialists?" is feared from Bologna to Milan. Look, I think this series is going to need some work. It lacks, to my mind, pizazz. Couldn't we call it something grittier like The Gnashers? Is John Thaw available? Four of the Hygiene Police's finest, one of them the melodiously named Detective Caruso, crushed into a smallish car with the toothsome Isabella Stasi. They told her that they had unmasked no less than nine dentists in one week.

day of reckoning is now which made it all the more disappointing that this time they only put the fear of God into a perfectly respectable dentist caught in mid-filling. surgeon is Some Italians simply seem to fancy a change of career. A dustman tor one. A trattic war den for another. A scrupulous minority take the trouble to buy a false degree for around 45,000.

1 was particularly taken with the degree from the North West London University signed, reassuringly, by Arch- bishop Runcie. There is a great deal ot scope here for cheerful terror, which Europe Express took with brio. The disembodied grinning dentures, the lights, the ligatures, the grappling hooks. The masks. Italian dentists seem to wear masks, probably so you won't recognise them in court The current series of Through the Keyhole (Yorks) Swansong to remember In his farewell production for the RSC, Terry Hands has found a new dimension to Chekhov The Red Michael Billington on the Maly Theatre WE continue to be pelted with pearls.

After a Venezuelan Marquez and a Romanian Dream, the London International Festival of Theatre now offers the first of two produc tions from the Maly Drama Theatre of Leningrad: Gaudea- mus at the Riverside Studios. My only qualm about this devastating critique of Soviet army life is that it sometimes delights a little too obviously in its own theatrical virtuosity. Billed as "19 Improvisa the show is based on a story by Sergei Kaledin about the Soviet Army's Construction Battalions: virtually a free labour force often composed of criminals, dropouts and misfits. Out of this the Maly's artistic supremo, Lev Dodin, working with the company's young actors and students, has created a LichffieldRadio 3 Gerald Larner John Casken JOHN Casken's reward for having so brilliantly solved the many problems in writing a Double Bass Concerto for the Northern Sinfonia a few years ago was a commission from the same orchestra for a Concerto for Cello a real solo instrument There were problems here too, of course, not least that the new work should be written in such a way that the soloist would also be able to direct the performance. Bearing in mind that the cellist would be Hem-rich Schiff, artistic director of TERRY Hands's 25 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company comes to a grand finale with a revelatory production of Chekhov's The Seagull, writes Nicholas de Jongh.

He discovers something sinister and dark in the play never clearly seen before. As a result the romantic atmospherics and displays of volatile temperament which still tend to characterise revivals of The Seagull are dispelled. Instead Hands's production, first seen at Stratford's Swan and now promoted to the larger Barbican theatre, dis covers an affinity between the Slavic Chekhov and the Nordic Ibsen and also with Henry James. In this lucid revaluation there is no great sense of the "comedy" to which Chekhov referred in the subtitle, unless of the blacker sort. A new kind of symmetry is achieved.

We wateh a process in which two self-deceiving artists, an actress and a Yesterday's weather Letters: Julius Grant The Marmite man gaudy theatrical kaleidoscope. Sex, drink, drugs and fantasy mix with drill scenes and dubious political indoctrination in a surreal blend of Hellzapoppin and Chips With Everything. Heightened theatricality is the key to the show from the opening moment when the gawky conscripts arrive on a snow-covered, raked platform and disappear through holes in the ground. Grotesque images multiply. A young soldier makes love to a librarian on top of a grand piano which floats off into the sky.

The unit engages in a private bull-fight with fork-style bandilleras stuck in the victim's rump. Just occasionally the show falls between two stools: criticism of the corrupt battalions and delight in theatrical expressiveness. But the two purposes mate brilliantly in one scene where a junior lieutenant gives the soldiers political instruction. He divides the unit into "Jews" and "Arabs" to demonstrate how "the tricks of Zion the Northern Sinfonia, which is an uncommonly secure ensemble, that stipulation was probably not very inhibiting. The fact is, however, that whereas the Double Bass Concerto was such a fascinating display of colour, the Cello Concerto is far more concerned with its inward scenario than with taking virtuoso risks.

Based on a somewhat laconic five-line poem by the composer himself, it explores in turn the musical and emotional implications of each of the five lines, the melodic identity of which is established in a lightly accompanied cello soliloquy at the beginning. This doesn't mean that the concerto is an unrelieved process of rumination. Indeed, there is a gradual increase of tempo towards a frantic climax Nicholson country exhibition on ancestors led to more trouble when the presence of fossils from South Africa was discovered. Dr Nicholson took the view that it was unnecessary to denounce South Africa's racial policies because the exhibition itself was a condemnation of racism but under pressure from Neanderthal politicians he was forced to change his mind. The son of Irish immigrants, he served in the Merchant Marines during the second world war and then, working during the day and studying at night, he took degrees in astronomy at Fordham University in New York City.

He taught astronomy at the US Military Academy and Hunter College, helped to develop instruments used in the space programme and listed as his recreation "appearing on television weather programmes as a WI.WMthrby Thomas Dominic Nicholson born December 14, 1922; died July 9,1991 disciplined military strength. With the Arabs doing press-ups and the Jews instantly following suit, it is both absurd and a graphic demonstration of the way ann-Serniusm is built into the military system. These Construction Battalions were disbanded in 1990. But the larger point made by Gaudeamus is that behind the facade of Soviet military discipline lurks violence, anarchy, sexual chauvinism and an endemic hostility towards minorities. It is an extraordinary spectacle, alternately bizarre and comic, that reminds us how these confused conscripts escape into a world of dreams whether it be Russian romanti cism (Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin) or Western pop (the Beatles' Girl).

You come out a bit pulverised but impressed by the company's ensemble attack and Soviet theatre's capacity to act as a scourge to society's ills. Until July 16, including Sunday. at the centre of the first of the two movements. But the climax of the whole work, where the several thematic and emotional issues are resolved towards the end of the second movement, is not so much dramatic as lyrical and is expressed in a melodic line of folksong-like directness and beauty. The first British performance of Casken Cello Concerto was presented in less than the ideal acoustic setting in Lichfield Ca thedral listeners to the live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 will have received a clearer image but it could scarcely have been better executed.

Heinrich Schiff was a soloist of considerable agility and of almost verbal eloquence in the many expressive lines entrusted to the A-string. Deaths Dr Min-Chueh Chang, who has died at the age of 82, was second only to Gregory nncus as the experimental biologist who developed the Pill. In an interview in 1981, he regretted that something developed mainly for the control of the population explosion, had "rather spoiled young people. It's made them more permis sive. But as with other scien tific knowledge, people will abuse anything." Born in Taiyuan, China, Chang began work in 1951 on the effects of synthetic proges tins on reproduction, cmetly at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Massa chusetts.

He also earned out basic research into techniques that made it possible to fertilize a human egg with sperm outside the body, enabling test-tube babies to be implanted. Dr Mahlon Hoagland, president emeritus of the Worcester Foundation, once said that Chang's work "directed more people of the world than any other." Last year, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. C.P.D. Martha Pulliam, Dan Quayle's maternal grandmother, was one of his strongest backers when the US Vice-President was attacked as unsuitable for high office. On election day she told him "to keep going in the right direction, but don't do anything you shouldn't In a television debate with Senator Lloyd Bentsen, his Democratic rival, Quayle was asked how his experience had shaped his political pniiosopny.

He said that his grandmother had been an inspiration in his early life. When he learned of her death (last Thursday at the age of 100) he called her the matriarch of. our tamujr ana added "She lived a long and beautiful She divorced Eugene C. Pul liam, owner of an Indiana newspaper chain, in 1941 after 22 years of marriage and became publisher of The Lebanon Reporter in the same state. She retired last December when she was 99 and was presented on her 100th birthday in March with a Sagamore of the Wabash, the state's highest civilian honour.

Apart from the Vice-President, she had nine grandchildren and 23 greatgrandchildren. W. J.W. sive role in British theatre that they still lack. breathless, stage-struck ingenue against a vulnerable, child-like depressive.

You sense disaster. "When Miss Fleetwood's comically alluring Arkadina, as infantile as her son, appears, thrusting her voice upon the evening air and gazing distractedly into imaginary mirrors, it is clear that such a flagrant egotist will ignore Konsta-tin's distress. And her affair with Roger Allam's overpas-sive but chillingly callous Trigorin seems inspired less by desire than by the need to show off a lover. By placing the interval after the third act, Hands powerfully emphasises the way time rings down its changes upon Nina and Konstantin she a cracked up wreck, he in grim alienation scrupulously arranging bis papers before suicide. Katy Behean's beautifully lovelorn Masha and Alfred Burke's moribund Sorin are visibly transformed.

Yet it is as if Arkadina and Trigorin are quite untouched by life beyond themselves or the disasters they have helped to create. A memorable swan-song indeed. Marmite, though, was Grant's personal contribution to yeast-derived chemistry. He evolved the formula just after the Depression In the middle of one of our current food scares medical unease about Britain's salty and sugary palate it is only fair to remember that the last war was really won by Marmite and sweet cocoa, not only in the forces but at boarding schools. In my own, a slice of fried bread spread as the label still advises) with Marmite sometimes constituted the sole evening now, at home, a square inch or two of buttered toast with Marmite is often the first taste that makes breakfast tolerable.

Australians swear by a poor cousin called Vegemite but then they would. For what we have always kept in cupboard for emergency, thank you Julius. Another Day Washington, July 13, 1936: I can't stand this country much longer The last straw came when Lucy and I were arrested for taking photographs of the Supreme Court building. I had planned to make a complete record of the new government buildings and the lay-out of the city had occupied the time of various departments getting "information" bought film hired a driver and then was accused of injuring a marble terrace with a tripod, though actually I was- standing in the middle of the road being run over by taxis. The departments were almost in tears when I refused to keep any further appointments I pointed out that whereas one gets a certain amusement out of doing down a Bolshevik Commissar or the Shah of Persia, the American cop lacks glamour1 as an adversary and the struggle becomes nauseating.

I flatly refused to have anything more to do with their town and shall sell my camera as soon as I can. (Robert Byron, Letters Horn, edited by Lucy Butler: John Murray, 1991) writer, caught in a shallow affair of mutual convenience, destroy the innocence and the lives of two young aspirants to the same crafts. And these two apprentices to adult life struggle to face the hard realities which their elders avoid. It may be difficult from that description to recognise the affair of the actress Arkadina with the writer Trigorin, who casually draws young Nina away from Arkadina's son. But so it proves.

Johan Engels'8 stage set, with its dusky line of tall silver birches and fallen leaves, is the only sign of the romantic. Hands's characters are caught in a sombre light Rueful, resigned and suitably Russian in look and demeanour they have, with the exception of Susan Fleetwood's Arkadina, come no more to make us laugh. Love, in its first fling between Amanda Root's touching Nina and Simon Russell Beale's Konstantin, pits a Julius Grant it could be said "0 taste and see." For after Hitler's so-called diaries will have crumbled to dust and while Grant's Books and Documents: Dating, Permanence and Preservation (1937) will be consulted daily only by British Museum specialists, the non-forensic scientist is daily commemorated by two separate symbolic comestibles that have survived half a century of revolution in the British diet: Marmite and the Mars bar. True, Grant's work on Mars was marginal, in the sense that he was involved in the wrappers only. But it would be a bold man who tampers with either Mars or its packaging: one number-crunching economist once observed that few, if any, unchanging artefacts in British society have kept pace so precisely with inflation for half a century as the Mars bar.

ited villains, fresh heroes and knowing heroines, their unblinking eye for the crude ways of polite society and their robust circumlocutory humour. Today: Ray Bright, Australian cricketer, 37; Dr Derek Brewer, Emeritus Professor of English, Cambridge, 68; Harrison Ford, actor, 49; David Lambie, MP, 66; Roger McGuinn, singer, 49; Erno Ru-bik, cubist inventor, 47; Patrick Stewart, actor, 51; Chris Serle, broadcaster, 48; David Storey, novelist, 58; Sir Garfield Todd, former Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, 83; Simone Veil, Euro heroine, 64. Tomorrow: Polly Bergen, actress, 61; Ingmar Bergman, film director, 73; Gerald Ford, former US President, 78; Leon Garfield, novelist, 70; Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine, Gulf commander, 59; Sue Lawley, broadcaster, 45; Bruce Oldfield, dress designer, 41; Lord Rees-Mogg, journalist, 63; Baroness Stedman, Social Democrats Leader in the Lords, 75; Robert Stephens, actor, 60; Geoffrey Wilkinson, FRS, inorganic chemist, 70. remember the poet who on honey dew hath fed? Very similar. You could have hung Fred up by his feet and caught flies with him.

He fell on his bird seed like home cooking and has lost all interest in acting. And then I want to see Ath letics (TTV) where, TV Times Backley will clash head on with the Finn, Seppo I think they run at each other from a great distance until with a terrible crack they collide. It is a kind of conkers. Around Britain Report for the 24 hours ended 6 pm yesterday: Sun- Temp shine Rain Weather hrs In (day) .01 12 19 Sunny .46 10 20 Sunny .02 11 22 Shwrs pm 11 21 Bright 11 22 Sunny am 12 23 Sunny 14 21 Sunny 13 21 Cloudy 13 20 Bright Scarboroual Cleethoroes 7.1 Hunstanton 7.4 Cromer 9.7 Lowestoft 10.0 Clacton 9.4 Margata Heme Bay SOUTH COAST 88 Folkestone. Hasting! Guernsey.

WEST COAST St. wes .01 14 17 Cloudy 14 18 Cloudy 14 18 Bright am 13 20 Bright .11 12 20 Showers .25 12 19 Showers .26 12 19 Rain am .26 11 18 Rain am .15 10 15 Cloudy .04 12 17 Rain am .01 13 19 Rain .03 12 21 Bright pm 12 20 Bright pm .13 13 17 Cloudy .11 11 .07 8 .06 11 .13 10 .38 9 .28 9 .13 9 .87 12 .15 10 .17 10 .11 8 .23 10. .09 10 17 Shwrs pm 15 Showers 18 Shwrs pm 18 Shwrs pm 14 Showers 18 Rain am 17 Shwra pm 14 Thndr am 18 Sunny pm 17 Showers 16 Showers 17 Rain am 18 Showera NORTHERN IRELAND Belfast 5.3 .14 9 18 Showers Reading noiavanaoio. Major roadworks South M40 fkMkinghamaMr! J1- 2 (A40A355), restrictions. Contraflow1 J4-5 IHIah WVcombeStokenchurch).

M2S Hort- fordsNr J23-24 (S MImmsPotters Bar) conlrollow. Anticlockwise entry slip road J24 closed. M8S KentSumyi contraflow 5-6 (SevenoaksGodstone). US Kanti lane closures J2-4. Midlandslast AnoKa M4B Worwk- ahtrai single lane traffic westbound.

Restric tions junction aw. Walaa and Went M4 Avora contraflow Severn Bridge. MS akxMterNret con-trallow J11-12 (GloucesterCheltenham). M4 Glamorgan! lana restrictions J39-41. Also eastbound entry and exit slips J40 closed.

North MSS CNaaMrai contraflow J14-16 (HapsfordDunklrk). MS CbaaMrat restrictions J20 (Lymm). MS Otr Manchester) contraflow J27-28. J23-2S (St HelensWlrjan). MSS Manehoaton restrictions airport link.

MS1i contraflow J5 (Westhoughton), restrictions J14. Road Information eomoilad and supplied by AA Roadwatch. ENGLAND Aspatria 10.0 .13 11 17 Rain Birmingham 2.8 .05 11 19 Shwrs pm Bristol 2.3 .12 13 19 Rain Buxton 5.6 .07 11 18 Bright Leeds 7.6 13 2t Bright London. 0.6 15 20 Cloudy Manchester 9.0 .08 12 19 Shwrs am Newcastle .04 12 19 Shwrs am Norwich 11.3 12 22 Sunny Nottingham 2.4 .08 11 19 Showera Plymouth 2.5 .35 14 15 Drizzle Ross-on-wye 3.4 13 19 Cloudy EAST COAST Tvnemouth 9.1 ins 13 10 simnvnm Brighton 13 18 Bright pm Worthing 3.4 14 18 Bright pm Llttlehampton 2.6 13 IB Bright pm Bognor Regis 2.3 .01 14 17 Cloudy Hayllng Island 2.6 .06 14 19 Cloudy Southsea 4.1 .02 14 18 Cloudy Rydo 4.2 .04 13 19 Bright Shanklln 3.2 .05 13 17 Cloudy Venlnor 0.6 .06 12 16 Cloudy Bournemouth .02 13 17 Cloudy Poole 0.3 13 18 Cloudy 2.0 .02 13 17 Cloudy Weymouth 1.1 13 17 Dull Exmouth 3.3 .02 13 17 Drizzle pm Telgnmoulh 4.7 14 18 Cloudy Torquay 3.4 .04 13 19 Drizzle Salcombo 2.5 .09 14 18 Drizzle pm Falmouth 2.2 .03 14 16 Drizzle Penzance 2.8 .02 15 17 Drizzle Isles olScllly 2.7 .03 14 16 Drizzle am Jersey 4.5 13 21 Sunny am tasipournn iu.u 14 la sunny pm I la 71 Knnm nm 7.5 12 21 Brloht Newquay 2.8 Saunlon Sands 4.9 7.9 Weston-s-mare 3.9 Southport 3.6 Blackpool 4.9 Morecambe 6.1 Douglas 3.5 WALES Anglosey 7.7 Cardiff 4.1 Colwyn Bay 6.0 Prestatyn Tenby 3.9 SCOTLAND Aberdeen 4.4 Avlemora 3.1 Dunbar 8.1 Edinburgh 6.9 Eskdalemulr 3.5 Glasgow 8.2 Klnloss 4.9 Lerwlclt 11 Leuchars 8.6 Prestwlck 3.8 Stornoway 8.7 Tiroes 7.6 Wick 3.9 Around the world (Lunch-time reports) London 19 'Los Angeles 21 Luxembourg 24 Afaccio Algiers Amsterdam Athens 23 82 29 84 20 68 33 91 33 91 30 86 26 79 33 91 34 93 31 88 21 70 19 66 28 82 23 73 28 82 19 66 20 68 33 91 9 48 35 95 16 61 17 63 26 79 30 86 24 75 20 68 33 91 33 91 26 79 17 63 32 90 17 63 34 93 33 91 29 84 21 70 31 88 25 77 16 61 24 75 29 84 31 68 15 59 30 86 19 66 18 64 33 91 24 .75 28 82 30 86 Maona Majorca Malaga Malta Manchester Melbourne Bahrain 'Barbados Barcelona Belgrade Berlin Bermuda -Miami Biarritz Birmingham 'Montreal Moscow Munich Nairobi Naples 'Nassau New Delhi Newcastle New York Nice Oporto Oslo Paris Peking Perth (Aus) Prague Reykjavik' Rhodes 'Rio de Jan Riyadh Rome Salzburg Seoul Singapore Stockholm Strasbourg Sydney Tangier Tet Aviv oomoay Bordeaux Boston Bristol Brussels Budapest Aires Cairo Cape Town Cardiff Casablanca Chicaao Cologne Copenhagen Corfu 'Dallas Denver Dublin Dubrovntk Edinburgh Faro Florence Frankfurt Funchal Dr 31 23 Geneva Gibraltar Glasgow Helsinki Hong Kong Innsbruck Inverness Istanbul 28 26 Tenerife Tokyo Tunis Valencia Vancouver Jersey Jo'burg Larnaca Las Palmas Lisbon Locarno Venice Vienna Warsaw 'Waahinoton 30 Wellington 8 Zurich 30 cloudv: Dr. fair; Fg, fog; hail; I rain; SI, steot; Sn, snow; sunny; in, tnunaer.

(Previous day a readings) Sun and moon Today SUN RISES. 0458 2114 0709 2204 SUNSETS- MOON RISES. MOON SETS. MOON: First qtr 16th 0459 2113 0837 2223 MOON SETS MOON: Firs! qtr 18th Ughting-up Today Belfast. 2154 to 0505 2128 to 0501 2123 to 0509 2155 to 0450 2114 to 0459 2133 to 0457 2134 to 0448 2127 to 0456 Birmingham- bhsiol.

Glasgow- Lonoon- Manchester Newcastle! Nottingham TOflKMTOW Belfast 2153 to 0507 212S io 0502 2123 (0 0510 2154 to 0452 2113 to 0500 2132 to 0458 2138 to 0447 2128 to 0457 Birmingham Glasgow- Bristol Lonoon- Manchester- Newcastle- Nottingham- High tides Today London Bridge 0332 Dover 0029 Liverpool 0044 Avonmoutti 0912 Hull 0800 Greenock 0152 Leith 0410 Dun Laoghalro 0047 7.2 1S54 7.0 6.6 1300 6.7 9.7 1312 9.6 13.4 2129 13.7 7.6 2037 7.6 3.7 1436 3.4 5.7 1642 5.8 4.3 1321 4X1 Dr Julius Grant revolutionising the British diet Leonard Caplan QC writes: IN THE world of forensic scientists, of which he could be considered the doyen, Julius Grant (obituary, July 9) was widely admired for his skill in an astonishing variety of scientific disciplines. He commanded the deep respect of courts and lawyers for the fairness and thoroughness he demonstrated, in many parts of the world, as an expert witness. In the Medical-Legal Society, of which I was one of his successors as president, his contributions were outstanding for their penetration and wit. But by all who were fortunate enough to know him he will be remembered not least for his warm friendliness and twinkling good humour, which won their devoted affection. Christopher Driver writes: Of Birthdays LEON GARFIELD (above) is 70 tomorrow, writes Stephanie Nettell For 27 years he has enriched children's reading with his exuberant plots, appetite for life and relish for words a dashing, 19th century elegance satisfyingly mirrored in his own smiling drawl, side-whiskers and expansive tie.

The winner of every children's literary award going, (and inaugural winner of the Guardian's in 1967), his adventures in country houses, seaports and back alleys echo and meet the challenges of Fielding and Dickens in their uninhib- Obituary: Thomas THE American Museum of Natural History in New York City is one of the largest in the world its 19 buildings cover 23 acres and house the remains of 10 million insects, 200,000 mammals and roughly five million other exhibits, of which only about 10 per cent can be displayed at a time. When Dr Thomas Nicholson became director in 1969, he doubled its research staff, more than trebled its annual endowment fund and modernised its exhibitions. In 20 years he retired two years ago the annual attendance increased by a million to 3.1 million. His policy, as he put it, was that "scholarship, education and exhibition in our programme are Two bitter public disputes occurred during his tenure. In 1976 there was an outcry about laboratory experiments on live cats to analyse their sexual behaviour (the kitty's Kinsey).

A citizens' protest campaign led to pickets outside the museum and eventually the experiments were stopped. In 1984, a nine- 7.4 1639 7.2 6.6 1348 6.8 9.9 1400 9.6 13.5 2214 13.7 7.8 2122 7.5 3.8 1621 3.5 6.8 1729 5.7 4.3 1410 4.0 London Bridge. Dover Liverpool Avonmoutti Hull 0421 0121 0132 0950 0842 0237 0457 0137 Greei Leith. Dun Uoghalra. Weather Forecast, page 24.