19 JUNE 1964, page 20

His Excellency

The View from Steamco Point. By Charles Johnston. (Collins, 25s.) AT first sight this is rather a bad book. There is an irritating quality of superior facetiousness which......

Novels

Double or Quits The Surgeon. By Alan Thomas. (Gollancz, 21s.) Marie Beginning is a very good .novel. Alfred Grossman is inventive in a way few contem- porary English writers......