Anthony Blond
A copy of Bread and Circuses by Paul Veyne (Allen Lane, £20) should be stuffed in the Xmas stockings of both Sir Alan Walters and Mr Nigel Lawson, for they would learn how well the Ancient World managed without economics or econom- ists. A system of 'good works', energetai, operated from the Roman Emperor down- wards, whereby the rich supplied the rest with the baths, roads, justice, water and, of course, the bread and the entertainment necessary for life, in return for respect and admiration. Under Tiberius, usury was officially one per cent; so it worked. This is also a beautiful looking book and an exemplar of what hardback publishing should be about. Ronald Hyam, author of Empire and Sexuality (University of Manchester, £35) must be a new star to replace A.J.P. Taylor. He is radical and funny: 'The boys who waited at table wore shirts which did not conceal what were optimistically called their private parts.'
Finally, a book of bitter, funny jokes about desperate writers and their anguished mistresses, This Literary Life, by Peter Van Straaten, (Fourth Estate, £5.99). 'So next year you'll write fewer poems, Jack. Who cares?'
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