10 OCTOBER 1992, page 31

Po-faced In Polynesia

Hilary Corke THE HAPPY ISLES OF OCEANIA by Paul Theroux Hamish Hamilton, £16.99, pp. 545 TRANSIT OF VENUS by Julian Evans Secker & Warburg, £16.99, pp. 277 I do not think I......

A Downed Butterfly

Yet here it is: This is meant and is no accident. (How speak of 'design-by- accident' and not stultify English?) One can allow being whacked by a windshield in mid-hover and......

Books

To the faults a little bland Hilary Mantel THE ART OF FICTION by David Lodge Secker & Warburg, £14.99, pp. 240, Penguin, £5.99 D avid Lodge's new work is a kind of readers'......