15 MAY 1993, page 37

Letter To A Dead Wife

David Montrose AMONG THE DEAD by Michael Tolkin Faber, £14.99, pp. 229 T he night before everything changed, Frank Gale wrote a letter to his wife.' So, portentously, begins......

The Decline And Fall Of Practically Everything

William Scammell THE WEATHER IN ICELAND by David Profumo Picador, i14.99, pp. 320 R ichard Slide, the last Duke of Lon- don, sits in Switzerland in the late Nineties Con the......