17 DECEMBER 1983, Page 53

Anthony Starr

The best books I have read this year are Beyond the Pale by Nicholas Mosley (Secker & Warburg) Franz Liszt (Volume I) by Alan Walker (Faber) and Montaigne and Melancholy by M. A. Screech (Duck- worth).

The worst book I have read is Freud and Cocaine by E. M. Thornton, published by Blond and Briggs. The next worst is People of the Lie by M. Scott Peake (Simon & Schuster).