The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 21

PERSONAL: ARTS REVIEWS 21 Law Report The court may consent for the mental patient The honest, pure and whimsical side of the iron-jawed avenger Making Clint's day THE GUARDIAN Saturday December 3 1988 the physical contacts of ordinary life are not actionable, since they are impliedly consented to by all who move in society and so expose themselves to bodily contact. Any medical treatment involving physical contact with ing about American covert operations in central America. Eastwood's cooperative manner surprised Wall and his team somewhat (as Wall has noted, a man with $125 million doesn't need the publicity), and may not have been uncon- nortorl with the narefnl marlfot. Adam Sweeting Family Division ReF Before Mr Justice Scott Baker December 2 1988 THE court granted a declaration that it was not unlawful to carry out a sterilisation operation on an adult mental patient who was incapable of consenting since the operation was in her best interests. all the surrounding circumstances, including her mother's views.

It reflected the fact that to prevent having a sexual relationship with or indeed anyone else, would restrict the little freedom she was able to have to a point where she would probably feel frustrated and where her quality of life would be impaired. In all the circumstances it seemed to his Lordship that the operation to sterilise would be in her best interests and that those performing it would not be acting unlawfully by reason of her lack of consent. His Lordship rejected the alternative argument that the court retained some residual parens patriae or inherent jurisdiction after the age of ma 1 1 4 0 the patient's body is prima facie a battery unless the patient has expressly consented to the contact. But there was a problem where a patient, due to a mental condition, was permanently unable to give meaningful consent to treatment. The Mental Health Act 1983 provided no answer.

If the doctor did nothing it might be claimed that he was being negligent; if he operated he prima facie committed battery. The law found an answer in the "general exception embracing all physical contact which is generally acceptable in the ordinary course of daily Mental patients who were unable to consent were constantly being treated for physical ailments. For example a dentist extracting a tooth, a nurse giving an injection or a surgeon repairing a hernia were not liable in battery if they were acting in good faith and in the best interests of the patient. The operation sought to be performed was one that would be a matter of purely personal and subjective choice for someone able to give consent. Due to her disability others had to ex ercise that choice on F's behalf.

The treatment of the men tally disabled had over recent years moved away from paternalism towards giving the patient greater autonomy. As a result patients were happier and more fulfilled. With the hospital authorities were constantly having to make judgments as to what was in her best interests. Because of her inablility to communicate freely, the hospital staff had to make assumptions for her. Many important decisions were made for on the advice of a multi-disciplinary team.

The decision on sterilisation was no exception. It was not taken in a medical vacuum but after careful consideration of A walking deception: Alan Bennett as Blunt PHOTOGRAPH: DOUGLAS JEFFERY The tacts is 35 years old and mentally disabled, with the verbal capacity of a 2-year-old and the general mental capacity of a 4- or 5-year-old. Since 1967 she has been a voluntary in-patient at a hospital. She has formed a sexual relationship with another mentally handicapped patient and they probably have sexual intercourse. brought proceedings through her mother as her next friend seeking a declaration that to effect F's sterilisation would not amount to an unlawful act by reason only of her lack of consent.

Alternatively she asked the court under its inherent or other jurisdiction to consent to her sterilisation. The decision Mr Justice Scott Baker said that the case raised the question of the extent to which doctors could treat adults who, due to mental incapacity, were unable to give consent. Because the law was unclear, the matter was one of general importance. had the fertility of any other 35-year-old woman, and there was a serious objection to each of the ordinary methods of contraception. The medical evidence was that it would be disastrous for to become pregnant and that it would put her progress of recent years back a very long way.

The case turned on the common law. The fundamental principle is that every person's body is inviolate and any touching of another person, however slight, may amount to a battery. Generally consent is a defence to battery, and most of TKTir7'ITH tne release of VXY Bird, Clint Wv Eastwood has come as close as he ever will to expunging ultracri-tic Pauline Kael's accusations of "fascist Mellowed somewhat with age from the rock-fisted, iron-jawed avenger of his earliest pictures, the Clint who emerged, rather cautiously, from the Arena profile (BBC 2) was variously described as "cultured and easy-going" (trumpeter Red Rodney), "honest and pure" (Chan Parker, Charlie's widow) and "rather whimsical" (Clint himself)- "I've just outlived everyone who was being critical," he observed slyly. Surely they must have got the wrong guy? Clint, framed by a Nevada desert sky and distant rock formations which ought ideally to have been lined with Apaches and ringing with the sound of angry Winchesters, proved a thoughtful interviewee, and didn't pull a gun even when Anthony Wall asked, "Who has the final say on a Malpaso picture?" Who do you think? It seemed conceivable that Clint had seen BBC 2 coming. After all, he's politician enough to have been mayor of Carmel, the kind of smug small town which might once have provided him with an ideal setting for an orgy of heavy-calibre retribution, and Eastwood currently exercises a degree of personal control in the movie industry which makes even somebody like Coppola resemble a jobsworth.

The result was Clint telling an educated, liberal-ish audience what it wanted to hear. He spoke of "speculating about a wider diversity of He pointed out that whoever you voted for, the bureaucracy always stayed the same. He isn't, and never was, right wing, he argued (so that wasn't him in Heartbreak Ridge, then), and added that certain critics had even managed to detect feminist sympathies in the strong female characters in his pictures. He claimed that Hang 'Em High was a reflection on capital punishment. It was like catching Oliver North protest Michael Billington hails the new Bennett double bill Art off spyim Celebration Victor Pasmore Yesterday's weather Around the world (Lunch-time reportsi ing which underpinned the launch of Bird.

The movie is a watershed for the iconic actor director, making personal statements about art and America as well as being a work of serious biography. Eastwood listed it among a handful of his films in which he feels he really achieved his objectives. If his objective in talking to Arena was to speed his artistic rehabilitation among the less hawkish occupants of the one-and-nines, he probably achieved that too, along with some raised eyebrows. Birds of a different kind appeared in Food And Drink (BBC 2), where Egon Ronay urged us to hang 'em high partridge', pheasant, even the luckless chicken. I wonder what they think of capital punishment in the uncertain world of fowl.

They will doubtless have drawn succour from the news that Clint Eastwood only eats fish. Still, Food And Drink continues to be one of the most reassuring things on TV. Perhaps it's something to do with Chris Kelly's sweaters, which make such a soothing contrast to the mounting hysteria of Jill Gool-den's wine tastings. Jill didn't manage to top her famous yelp of "Absolute mangoes!" this week, but she did allege that a 1.89 bottle of Bulgarian Country Wine "smells like velvet" and has "a vanilla-ey Clearly, to be a wine-taster, you need the nostril of a retriever, the courage of a lion, and a glittering neo-psychedelic vocabulary. Judging by the mad-eyed relish with which Ms Goolden was gulping down successive vintages, an oxygen tent might have been handy too.

Food And Drink raises issues, too. This week, they had a go at drug companies who pump cows with an artificially-made hormone called Bovine Somatotropin (BST) to increase their milk-yield. Not only do we already nave a miiK surplus, but we'll all end up drinking this stuff too. Miraculously, the item hadn't been pulled by ministerial watchdogs. Around Britain Report for the 24 hours yesterday: Sunshine Rain hrs in ended 6 'Pm Max temp Weather (day) ENOLAND Birmingham .06 3 37 Drizzle 6 43 Dull 2 36 Orizzle 4 39 Rain 5 41 Rain 4 39 Dull 4 39 Sleet 4 39 Drizzle 3 37 Drizzle 6 43 Cloudy 4 39 Dull 5 41 Drizzle 6 43 Orizzle 4 39 Drizzle 4 39 Drizzle 4 39 Rain 6 43 Orizzle 3 37 Drizzle 5 41 Drizzle Bristol.

Buxton Leeds Manchester Newcastle Norwich Nottingham Plymouth Ross-onWye EAST COAST Scarborough Skegness Hunstanton Cromer Lowestoft; Clacton Southend Margate- Heme Bay SOUTH COAST Folkestone 4 39 Oull 5 41 Drizzle am 4 39 Cloudy 5 41 Cloudy 3 37 Dull 4 39 Cloudy 6 43 Cloudy 5 41 Dull 5 41 Cloudy 6 43 Cloudy 6 43 Bright 5 41 Cloudy 7 45 Cloudy 5 41 Bright pm 7 45 Sunny 6 43 Dull 7 45 Cloudy 6 43 Dull 9 48 Shwrs Pm 10 50 Rain 10 50 Dull 9 48 Cloudy 8 46 Cloudy Hastings- Eastbourne-Brighton Worthing- Littlehamplon-Sognor Regis- Soulhsea Shankhn 09 2.1 06 1 1 1.7 4.0 Vonlnor- Bournemouth Poole Swanage Weymouth Exmoulh Teignmouth Torquay Falmouth Leisure forecast Cllmbara and walkers in Scotland can obtain a special forecast by dialling 0898 500 followed by 442 in the East or 441 in the West. Sailora can check conditions by diallina 089B 500 followed by the code for their areata Scotland 451: Scotland 452: NE England 453. England 454; Anglia 455; Channel 456: Mid Channel 457: SW England 458 Bristol Channel 459; Wales 460: NW England 461 Clyde 462; Caledonia 463; Minch 464 Ulster 465. Manchester readings From 6pm Thursday to 6am yesterday: Min temp 3C (37F). From 6am to 6pm yesterday: Max temp 5C (47FI Total period: sunshine, ml: rainfall, nil.

Major roadworks Motorway Ml M4 M5 M25 M6 M62 M62 M63 M602I63 Junctions Delava Moderate Moderate Moderato Moderate Moderate Severe Peak times Severe Severe 11-16 4. 4a 11-13 20)M56 21-22 24-25 1-7 Isles olscilly .08 Jersey 0.7 dbiibsi oz 5 4i Hain pm jority. It had also long been settled that the court ot protection had no jurisdiction or physical control over the person of a patient. It was surprising and inherently unsatisfactory that, whereas the court had wide supervisory jurisdiction in respect of mental defectives who are minors, it had no such powers over those over 18. His Lordship urged a speedy rein-troduction of the prerogative jurisdiction.

Such powers would be invaluable particularly in cases where there might be a dispute as to what was in the best interests of the individual. The declaration was granted. His Lordship refused an ap plication by the Official Solici tor to be joined in the proceedings either as special next friend or as a defendant in order to consider the possibility of an appeal. Leave was granted to appeal against that retusai and the order was stayed for 14 days. Appearances: Jean Ritchie and Sean Overend instructed by Leighs for Robert Francis instructed by Clarks, Reading for the health authority; Allan Levy instructed by the Official Solicitor as amicus curiae.

Shlranikha Herbert barrister at 80 Tate 'You know that nude of K's by Renoir? Well, I thought I'd do the subject, but without the sloppy sentiment. I thought I'd do someone in the family way, just sitting up in a bed a smack at Renoir. I can't bear that Renoir of K's." Pasmore over tea in the Marlborough Gallery, June 3, 1988: "When I saw the art of Picasso, I could understand it immediately. For the first time painting was independent. So I jumped on the School of Paris bandwagon.

But when it came to the Objective Abstractions consisting only of brushstrokes, I could not do them. Is abstract painting possible? I am still asking that question "Pasmore continues to reflect on dialectical oppositions, not unlike those that emerged 30 years ago from the basic course at Newcastle. His dialectical habit of mind remains constant, and the fact gives one confidence in the preoccupation with theory, which has been the continuing accompaniment of his late work. As he told me in Newcastle, 'The discord, that is what is beautiful'. I asked him about The Man Between, the diploma picture at Burlington House.

He answered, 'I simply upset some paint on paper. It is a man stretched between two oppo-sites' anna Durbin (Madame Charles David), Holywood singing star, 67; Jim Hall, Jazz guitarist, composer, 58; Jimmy Jewel, actor, former comedian, 76; Gemma Jones, actress, 46; Richard Meade, former Olympic horseman, 50; Yvonne Min-ton, opera singer, 50; Dr A.L-.Rowse, historian, 85; Pamela Stephenson, comedienne, 38; J.C.Trewin, drama critic, 80. 13 55 London 4 39 17 63 'Los Angeles 22 72 Dr 0 32 Luxembourg Dr 5 41 18 64 Madrid 12 54 23 73 Maiorca 17 63 29 82 Malaga 7 63 14 57 Malta 18 64 6 43 Manchester 4 39 -3 27 'Mexico City 13 55 24 75 'Montreal 4 39 11 52 Moscow -12 10 Dr 3 37 Munich -1 30 28 82 Nairobi 24 75 10 50 Naples Th 15 59 9 48 'Nassau 29 84 5 41 Newcastle SI 3 37 Fg I 34 New Delhi 21 70 3 37 'Now York 7 45 23 73 Nice 12 54 25 77 Oporto 15 59 5 41 Oslo -12 10 17 63 Pans Dr 5 41 5 41 Peking 10 50 1 34 Perth 22 72 18 64 Prague Dr -2 26 Sn -4 25 Reykjavik 4 39 13 55 Rhodes 18 64 6 43 'Rio de Jan 25 77 Th 12 54 Riyadh 24 75 3 37 Rome 14 57 18 64 Salzburg 32 13 55 Seoul 46 3 37 Singapore 31 88 20 68 Stockholm -9 16 7 45 Strasbourg 5 41 17 63 Tangier 17 63 4 39 Tel Aviv 23 73 -5 23 Tenerile 22 72 21 70 Tokyo 14 57 4 39 Tunis 18 64 3 37 Valencia 17 63 14 57 'Vancouver 6 43 8 46 Venice 10 50 22 72 Vienna 32 S. 25 77 Warsaw -4 25 20 68 'Washington 9 48 22 72 Wellington 16 61 6 43 Zurich Dr 5 41 Victor Pasmore: rampant curlicues photograph: john pasmore Fascist leftism of the Thirties. But the links between art and politics (Bennett's principal theme) become even clearer when Blunt seeks to interpret two Titian paintings.

Bennett suggests that a picture cannot be "solved" as if it were a visual riddle just as Blunt cannot be cracked as if he were a code. The play, however, takes off comically in the Buck House scene where Blunt comes face to face with the Queen. Lest anyone thinks this smacks of lese majeste on the part of the Royal National, one should add that HM actually comes across as a canny operator who gives Blunt a much stickier time than the man from MI5. With serpentine skill, the Queen steers Blunt into a discussion of the palpably forged Vermeers. As Bennett's Blunt dabs his sweating palms with a handkerchief, you realise that he knows that the Palace knows that he himself is a walking deception who has been mistakenly attributed.

What is extraordinary is that in 75 minutes Bennett manages to raise, with wit and guile, a whole series of questions about art, aesthetics and treachery. His own performance" as Blunt Simon Callow as Burgess which would allow him to get on equal terms with the brass in such unfavourable circumstances as the Capriccio performance. In the two items where the platform arrangements had been properly thought out, Break Dance and Eonta, balance was more secure, even in the frontal assaults of brass on piano in the latter piece. Indeed, in both these works Rolf Hind and London Brass achieved precisely that kind of physical exhilaration and acoustic thrill which the composers were aiming for Ruders in the violently fragmented rhythmic gestures of Break Dance, Xenakis in the sustained exposure to technical extremities in Eonta. Whether the brass will be able to survive such pressure throughout a whole tour is a question which, surely, they must have asked themselves.

But, whatever happens later, they have made a brilliant, indeed heroic, start. Rolf Hind and London Brass are at the Theatre Royal, Winchester, on Sunday; the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on Wednesday; the Gardner Centre, Brighton, on Thursday; St George's, Bristol, on Friday; and the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne, on December 11. Manchester Jeremy Moore Halle Menuhin ALTHOUGH a woman at the Free Trade Hall last night was overheard bewailing the profusion of Elgar heard from the Halle she apparently advocated more Vaughan Williams for one, was very glad to hear the First Symphony again. The orchestra seemed to bene- SUPPOSE Alan Bennett's Single Spies at the Lyttel-ton will go down in history as the first play to present the Queen as a major dramatic character. But the real fascination of this double-bill lies in the way it questions our accepted notions of treachery and, in different ways, makes a sympathetic case both for Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt.

A Question of Attribution is much the weightier and more richly-textured of the two plays. It deals with Blunt in his triple role as Surveyor of the Queen's pictures, international art historian and Communist spy. But Bennett subtly links Blunt's profession and his political beliefs by suggesting that. just as attribution in no way explains the mysterious enigma of art, so the tag of "traitor" does nothing to solve the Blunt riddle. But Bennett goes further and demonstrates that.

just as the restoration of a painting reveals hidden depths, so the process of uncovering the ultimate spymaster is futile and never-ending. These, however, are only the main themes of a play that is as multi-layered as the Titian canvases that are its focus. It begins with cat-and-mouse games at the Courtauld between Chubb, an MI5 officer who is steeping himself in art history, and an evasive Blunt. While Chubb sees all art as a progress towards realism, Blunt explains that "art evolves but doesn't progress" and that a painter can only be understood in the context of his time: an ironic reflection of the fact that Blunt himself has to be seen in relation to the instinctive anti- Liverpool GeralchLarner London Brass AFTER Janacek's Capriccio anything is possible. Xenakis's Eonta might be verging on the impossible, it is true, but for purely practical reasons.

In terms ot creative individuality, not even Poul Ruders's Break Dance is more eccentric than the Capriccio. So it is a useful piece with which to start a Contemporary Music Network tour. Its one disadvantage is that, while it refreshes perceptions of colour and structure, it also sets standards. Trisagion, yet another derivative of the Greek Orthodox ritual by John Tavener (now known as the Lord's Tavener), sounds plain boring in comparison in spite of the efforts of London Brass to add variety by distributing the five instrumental parts of the original to 10 players divided into two antiphonal groups. Another thing about Janacek's Capriccio is that it is as difficult to play, in its way, as Eonta.

Maybe they will solve the balance problems later on the tpur but in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, the texture was dominated by the three trombones which, perversely, were situated nearer the audience than the piano. Rolf Hind, the young (two-armed) pianist who is accompanying London Brass on the tour, needs to be heard. As he demonstrated in two Messiaen pieces Regard de l'Esprit de Joie from the Vingt Regards and Le Courlis Cendre from the Catalogue d'Oiseaux he is a musician with a remarkable ear for colour, a lively sense of rhythm and a phenomenal keyboard technique. What he lacks at present is the sheer weight of sound is still a shade tentative but Prunella Scales scores a small triumph as the Queen, radiating sharp-witted benevolence and possessive pride as she potters about the gallery muttering, "This rosebowl was a wedding-present from Jersey." Simon Callow, who directs, also gives a shrewd performance as the MI5 officer. Mr Callow appears as Guy Burgess in Bennett's own production of An Englishman Abroad, a revised version of his early Eighties TV play.

It is still a touching, funny account of the pathos of exile, showing Coral Browne sitting in Burgess's scruffy pad listening to old Jack Buchanan records. According to Spycatcher, Blunt once observed to Peter Wright that Burgess was a great pat riot; and he here emerges as the epitome ot the displaced person pining tor London literary gossip and a new suit. Bennett's humane sympathy for Burgess comes through but, like all work transferred from television, it seems a trifle thin-textured. You miss the location-work and, most especially, John Schlesinger's unforgettable final image of an umbrella-toting Burgess jauntily crossing a Muscovite bridge to the strains of HMS Pinafore: on stage, you get the moment but not the physical context. Simon Callow makes Burgess both comic and sad and Prunella Scales captures the be-furred stylishness of Coral Browne.

But while this play now seems anecdotal, A Question of Attribution raises profound questions about the teasing unfathomability of both art and espionage and emerges as a minor masterpiece. fit from familiarity with the work and their guide through its astonishing labyrinth of themes and allusions was no less a musician than Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Sir Yehudi can claim a personal association with Elgar himself and the intervening half-century or so seems only to have deepened his feeling for the Elgarian pulse. The opening paragraph was moulded with great skill and the conductor proceeded to weld the work's alternating modes of dynamism and repose into a convincing synthesis. There were, inevitably, some technical lapses and fragile moments, and the brass might have been a little more restrained on occasion, but the playing included control as well as fire.

The strength of this performance was all the more welcome after a less-fhan-inspiring first half. The opening Adagio of Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in minor promised well, its sombre mood explored con moto with a nicely judged harpsichord contribution and concentrated string playing. However, apart from the charming little Trio complete with impeccable horn top Cs from Angus West the work's faster movements degenerated into a mournful blandness, devoid of rhythmic impetus. Pinpointing the ingredient lacking from the succeeding performance of Saint-Saens' A minor cello concerto is a little more perplexing.

The 20-year-old soloist, Daire Fitzgerald, is another remarkable product of the Menuhin School. She possesses marvellous technique, superb intonation and a good sense of phrasing. For this work she perhaps requires greater brilliance of tone and a more pronounced sense of authority. Saint-Saens' cyclic aspirations, unlike Elgar's, seemed merely to make for woolly form. Aiaccio Algiers Amsterdam Athens Bahrain 'Barbados Barcelona Belgrade Berlin 'Bermuda Biarritz Birmingham 'B Aires Bordeaux 'Boston Bristol Brussels Budapest Cape Town Cairo Cardill Casablanca Cologne Copenhagen Corlu 'Chicago Denver Dublin Dubrovmk Edinburgh Faro Florence Frankturt Funchal Geneva Gibraltar Glasgow neismxi Hong Kong Innsbruck Inverness Istanbul Jersey Joburg Karachi Larnaca Las Palmas Locarno C.

cloudy: Or. drizzle; F. fair: Fa, rain; St. sleet; Sn, snow; thunder. (Previous day's readings) fog: H.

hail, sunny. Th. Sun and moon Today Manchester- Newcastle Nottingham- Tomorrow 4 31 pm to 7.59 am Birmingham. Bristol Glasgow London Manchester-Newcastle Nottingham 4.2b pm 10 7 3U am 4.34 Dm to 7 26 am 4.17 pm to 7.59 an 4 23 pm to 7.19 am 4.22 pm lo 7.37 am 4.11 pm 10 7.43 am 4 22 pm to 7.30 am High tides im SUN RISES 7.46 am WTS I SUNSETS 3.53 pm I I MOON SETS 13.06 pm 111 I MOON RISES 02.29 am haaj tomorrow MOON: New 9lh Tomorrow Wf SUN RISES 7.47 am fi I SUNSETS Ml I MOON SETS 13.16pm JImOONRISES MOON: New 9th LiahtinCMIB ugnuny up Today Belfast 4.32 pm 10 7.5a em Birmingham. 4.26 pm to 7.29 em Bristol 4.34 pm to 7.27 am Glasgow 4.18 pm to 7.57 am London 4.23 pm to 7.17 am 4 23 pm to 7.36 am 4.12 pm to 7.41 am 4.22 pm to 7.28 am Guernsey .01 I do not know a painter who has sustained his impetus in later life with such uninterrupted buoyancy, such debonair disregard for what is superfluous Sir Lawrence Gowing, Victor Pasmore's old friend and colleague from the great days teaching in Newcastle after the war, so productive of paintings and argument.

HERE, to celebrate the Grand Abstractionist's 80th birthday, are Sir Lawrence's recollections and some of the painter's own reflections in the catalogue for his current Marlborough Gallery exhibition. "In the 1930s I remember four painter friends, premature post-modernists as one now thinks of them, waiting for dinner at a restaurant table and passing the time by seeing who could draw such an improbable subject as a horse rolling on its back and kicking in the air; I remember also that the only attempt with the slightest merit was a precise, reflective jewel of a drawing, like a miniature Leonardo, drawn by the least linear, least realistic of these four good painters, Victor Pasmore. If Pasmore is right in regarding his work of the Thirties as being based on a traditionalism that became reactionary, only he had the conceptual command to open such an option to himself "About 1950 in the newly opened National Gallery I met Kenneth Clark, just returned from a visit to Pasmore, who was at the time largely dependent on him. Honest puzzlement shone from his eyes. He said, 'Victor is really extraordinary.

Do you know, he is scrawling spirals all over his pictures. Really, he is the most eccentric man. Great, rampant curlicues like nothing on From an account of work in the basic course at Newcastle: "Discussion was often stormy, and Richard Hamilton played a full and tempestuous part. Generations of Newcastle students were well educated by the roaring that echoed through the building "Victor drew out the colour circle, or part of it: blue, blue-violet, violet (deepening toward the centre to mauve), red-violet, violet-red, red (deepening to In-dia Red and lightening beyond Birthdays Today: Leslie Ames, 83, Trevor Bailey, 65, former England cricketers; Charles Craig, opera singer, 68; C.M.H. (Mike) Gibson, former Irish rugby international, 46; Jean-Luc Godard, film director.

58; Geoffrey Kirk, former regius professor of Greek, Cambridge, 67; Tanya Moi-seiwitsch, designer for the theatre. 74; Paul Nicholas, ac WEST COAST Newquay 8 46 Cloudy Minehead 0 1 6 43 Cloudy weslon-s-Mare 5 41 Bright Southport 4 39 Oull Blackpool 4 39 Dull Morecambe 4 39 Dull Douglas 5 41 Cloudy WALES Annl-u7v 5 41 Dull $rnV aU SCOTLAND Aberdeen .02 4 39 Showers Edinburgh 3 37 Dull Eskdalemuir 1 34 Snow Glasgow 4 39 Cloudy Klnloss 0.2 4 39 Cloudy Lerwick .02 4 39 Hail Louche, 02 5 41 Showers Prestwlck 3 37 Cloudy Slornoway 5 41 Had am Tiree 5 41 Rain am wick 06 5 41 Hail I mabvubmu IRELAND the circumference to pink), orange-red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, green-yellow (lightened into olive, I think). Victor's description became graphic and delightful: 'The discord, that's what's beautiful. The discord is what comes between the contrast and the harmony. You get saturation by doubling up.

Say the theme is Indian Red. To put it across you have to double it up, to reinforce it. You can't put the same red so you put one off Victor's pen drew an abrupt chord, diving obliquely from dark red out into the border of the circlee beyond violet). You put one away, the crimson pink with with Indian Red. It's all done by the flowers.

look at the marvellous discord between the mustard yellow centre of a flower and the pink petals. The joke is, nature makes mistakes, it's no good paying too much attention to From Gowing's diary, November 26, 1957: "Victor, feeling sociable and looking about for something or someone that would occupy him, climbed up to my studio to talk. Henry Moore's remarks in a Sunday paper led to one of his passing cataracts of theory, the kind of cascade that I do not easily attend to. Then he mentioned the nude of Wendy his wife which K. Clark had given to the tor, singer, 43; John "Ozzie" Osbourne, rock musician, 40; Mel Smith, comedian, 36; Andy Williams, singer, 58.

Tomorrow: Marchioness of Anglesey, DBE, chairman, Broadcasting Complaints Commission, 64; Jeff Bridges, 39, James Cossins, 55, Horst Buchholz, 65, actors; Freddie Cannon, rock singer, 48; Ronnie Corbett, comedian, 58; De- I Today London Bridge-Dover Liverpool Avonmouth Hull Greenock. I aith 0833 5.5 2119 5.7 0600 5.5 1850 5.2 0624 7.1 1845 7.4 0147 9.5 1415 10.0 0042 5.8 1342 5.5 0809 2.8 1932 3.0 0958 4.4 2216 4.5 0719 3.3 1927 3.5 0943 5.6 2223 5.9 0704 5.5 1949 5.3 0726 7.4 1944 7.7 0253 9.9 1513 10.4 0155 5.9 1451 5 7 MOB 2.9 2041 3.0 1054 4 5 2312 4.6 0806 3.4 2017 3.0 Dun Laoghalra Tomorrow London Bridge- Liverpool Avonmoulh- uover- Hull Qreenock- Leilh- OunLaoghaire- London readlnas From 6pm Thursday to 6am yesterday: Min lemp 3C (37F). From 6am to 6pm yesterday: Max temp 5C" (4 IF). Total period: sunshine, nil; rainfall, rain..