Recent paperbacks

James Hughes-Onslow

The Light Garden of the Angel King: Journeys in Afghanistan Peter Levi (Penguin £2.95). Many of the villages described 15 years ago have now been napalmed by the Russians. So this affec- tionate and scholarly book is a memorial to the all too brief period of Afghan democracy.

Dancing Girls Margaret Attwood (Virago £3.25). The first volume of 14 short stories from the Canadian poet, novelist and critic. Attwood looks at the fury and dismay of patients when their psychiatrist dies, and a 'sensitive' boy looks after cripples in his vacation, to name two.

The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes Compiled by Richard Lancelyn Green (Penguin £2.50). The background to Conan Doyle's stories, with the longest introduction you've ever seen — 140 pages.

Journal of a Somerset Rector 1803-1834 Edited by Howard and Peter Coombs with an essay by Virginia Woolf (OUP £3.95). Poverty, illness, drunkenness and immorality in the parish of

Camerton. it would need a very rosy pen and a very kindly eye to make a smiling picture of life in the village of Camerton a century ago' writes VW.

In Character John Mortimer (Penguin £1.75). The QC cross-examines the Master of the Rolls,

among 29 interviews with Runcie, Hume, Benn, Gielgud, Jagger, Hockney and others. He does it gently and with an eye for humorous, sometimes bizarre, detail (how Harold Wilson spoiled Enoch's view of the Emperor Diocletian, for in- stance).

The Long Weekend Book Edited by Nicholas Coleridge (S C & M £4.95). How to survive from Friday to Monday, with a special section by Charles Moore on how to get out of going to church — say you are R C, he says. Great Coun- try House Disasters by Hugh Vickers and Caroline McCullough (Macmillan £1.95) may also help you to avoid the worst gaffes.

Perseus in the Wind Freya Stark (Century £4.95). The constellation Perseus represents to Stark 'things beyond our grasp yet visible to all, dear to our hearts and far from our understanding'. Thoughts on love, death, beauty, style, sorrow, old age and all that.

William Morris: News from Nowhere and Selected Writings and Designs Edited by Asa Briggs (Penguin £2.50). Not only the leading designer of Victorian times but also poet, corn- mitted Socialist and writer. An introduction rather than an anthology, says Briggs. He died of 'simply being William Morris and having done more work than most men'.

Along the Edge of the Forest: An Iron Curtain Journey Anthony Bailey (Faber £4.95). Bailey sees the physical structure of Soviet power as represented by the wall, or fence, as evidence of what we don't want spreading into Western Europe. And he's gone all along it from Travemiinde to Trieste.

Tony Crosland Susan Crosland (Coronet £3.50). The biography (by his wife) of the man who might have been leader of the SDP if he had liv- ed. This is the story of Harold, Jim, Roy, Denis, George and Jimmy (as Mr Benn was known to his intimate friends) when Labour was the natural party of government.

The Noel Coward Diaries Edited by Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley (Papermac £7.95). A stupendous piece of name-dropping (just look at the index) ranging from show biz to royalty. '1 do love the Queen' writes Coward after one jolly evening. 'On Friday night I dined with all, or rather, most of the Kennedys' he writes in September 1963.

Whimpering in the Rhododendrons Arthur Mar- shall (Fontana £1.50). It takes a schoolmaster to recall prep schools with nostalgia and this is what Arthur Marshall was before he took to comic writing.

Nothing to Spare: Recollections of Australian Pioneer Women Jan Carter (Penguin £2.50). With an average age of 89, some of these women can remember convicts. One gave birth to most of her 17 children alone in tents, another studied at Cambridge.

'Live and Letters' series:

Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1930-64 Edited by Stanley Olson (Penguin £4.95). Con- densed from three volumes with some new material, the prolific Nicolson menage is of in- terest not least for the set they mixed with. The Pastons: Letters of a Family in the Wars of the Roses Edited by Richard Barber (Penguin £3.50). An historic view, kept over several generations, of a family of Norfolk gentry, with a helpful nar- rative framework. The Daughters of Karl Marx: Family Correspondence 1866-1898 Commentary by Olga Meier (Penguin £4.95). Marx's mother once said 'If only Karl had made Capital instead of just writing about it.' Despite this, his daughters grew up in an aura of intellectual cer- tainty. Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Jour- nals Edited by Peter Gunn (Penguin £4.95). Just appreciation requires a knowledge of his prose. 'Byron never wrote a dull word' says Gunn.