Frances Partridge
Attempting to survey the year's books with an impartial eye is a depressing task. So many of them, yet so few that are memor- able from a distance, possibly because of a lack of enthusiasm for modern novels on my part. However, in the biographical field, I think the Letters of Leonard Woolf edited by Frederick Spotts (Weidenfeld, 00) has a solid, permanent quality which should confirm it as the definitive portrait of a man of unflinching honesty and moral courage; it is a book for the library shelf, to return to often.
A very different character is presented by Michael De-la-Noy in Michael Ramsey: A Portrait (Collins, £12.99). The archbishop's eccentricity emerges as trembling on the verge of insanity, but his biographer has described him so truthfullY, sympathetically and amusingly as to leave us in no doubt of his endearing nature as a man — a delicate task.
Another thoroughly enjoyable biogra- phy is Clever Hearts: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy by Hugh and Mirabel Cecil (Gollancz, £18.95). Here are two talented, charming people, locked in a marriage whose story is touching, humorous, sad and above all human, and which moves among a fascinating procession of friends. The authors have made good use of un- usually original and entertaining material. My last choice is Bedford Square: An Architectural Study by Andrew Byrne (Athlone Press, f35). True, I was drawn to the subject by nostalgic love for a part of London in which I spent my first eight years. However, I have been bowled over by the scholarly excellence of this highlY professional study, and the beauty and plans. of its countless plates, maps and
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