24 JULY 1982, page 22

Vale Of Tears

David Hughes Oh What a Paradise It Seems John Cheever (Cape £5.50) H ere, almost as seductive in bedside manner as Homer himself, is one of the great opening sentences. `This is......

Mr Gradgrind

Richard Shone British Landscape Painting Michael Rosen- thal (Phaidon £15). "This is primarily an iconographic study of the British landscape as depicted by British painters.......