P.J. Kavanagh
Apart from a belated discovery of the interest of Roy Fuller's last poems (Consolations, Seeker, £5.95, and Available for Dreams, CollinsHarvill, £11), which do not properly belong to this publishing year at all, although they belong to mine, a book I greatly enjoyed was Michael Frayn's A Landing on the Sun (Viking, £14.99). It is very precisely worked out but manages to seem inevitable at the same time, so the comedy is under control, and below it there swims an interesting question, about happiness. David Lodge's Paradise News (Seeker, £13.99) was also fun, unfairly treated by reviewers, it seemed to me. He risks an overtly religious theme, and maybe this annoyed some. Every single character in it is good.
Redemption is always possible, we are told, but Memoirs by Kingsley Amis (Hutchinson, £16.99) made me grieve for one of my heroes, that he had allowed him- self spiritually to get into such bad condition. Maybe it is something they put in the Garrick Club food.
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