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From January 1984 (Issue no. 67) the price of The Literary Review will be increased to 85 pence per month. All subscriptions received by January 1st 1984 will cost the old price of £10.80.

DECEMBER 1983 No: 66

Editor: Gillian Greenwood Assistant Editor: Kathy O'Shaughnessy Poetry Editor: Carol Rumens Business and Advertising: Julian Bourne

Published monthly from: 51 Beak Street London W1R 3DH Tel : 01-437-9392/3

All subscription enquiries to: The Literary Review & Quarto Subscription Dept., 513 London Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR46 6AR Tel : 01-684-3157

Cover i l lustration by Thomas Henry Designed by Namara Features

Typeset by MC Typeset, Chatham, Kent Printed by Nene Litho, Wellingborough, Northants Distributed by COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Tel. West Drayton 44055

The Literary Review is always available in London at Quartet Bookshop, Poland Street, W1

GENERAL REVIEWS Neil Berry Gerard Benson MihirBose Gillian Greenwood Peter Hillmore Wendy Rowland Alexandra Shulman Hugo Vickers Martin Walker John Wells CHILDREN'S BOOKS

An ne Clark Amor

T J Binyon

Rachel Billington

Mary Cadogan

Emrys Jones

Philip Wailer

Kingsley Amis's 'Every Day Drinking ' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Comic Verse and Clerihews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Right-wing Revisionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Peggy Guggenheim's 'Out of this Century' . . . . . . . . . 12 'Life as a Party' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 'Savouring the Past' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Tim Heald's 'Networks' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Lady Addle Remembers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 AndrewCockbum 's The Threat' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Michael Frayn's Satire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Greek Myths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Just Wifliam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Picture Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Adventure Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Cartoon Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

'Eric the Viking' Etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

JOURNAL OF A LITERARY CONTENDER Cosmo Landesman Make or Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 AN Wilson Stars and Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

REVIEWERS REVIEWED Susan Marling PHOTOGRAPHY Francis Hodgson ART Edward Lucie-Smith INTERVIEW John Haffenden THEATRE Paul Taylor FICTION Antony Beevor Joan Haslip Philip Lloyd-Bostock Nicholas Ran kin Julian Rees Paul Theroux POETRY George Szirtes POEMS

'Aristocrats' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Bailey, Parkinson, Snowdon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Robert Medley and John Piper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . .35

Emma Tennant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Volpone and Measure for Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Loba Antunes and Lamming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Anthony Lambton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Umberto Eco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Zulfikar Ghose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Maggie Gee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 John Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Peter Reading, Anthony Hecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Alan Brownjohn, Dorothy Nimmo, Vicente Aleixandre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Notes on Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Pick of the Paperbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56