14 SEPTEMBER 1996, page 44

Laugh, Clown, Laugh Andro Linklater

MAKING HISTORY by Stephen Fry Hutchinson, £15.99, pp. 390 T he truism has it that comedians make us laugh to prevent themselves from weeping. And so when they fail, the......

Alas, Regardless Of Our Doom

John Cornwell THE SONG OF THE DODO by David Quammen Hutchinson, £20, pp. 702 O nce upon a time on the island of Mauritius there lived a bird known as Aepy- ornis Maximus, ten......