26 OCTOBER 1974, page 30

Fiction

Long longings Peter Ackroyd Something Happened Joseph Heller (Jonathan Cape £3.25) The inordinate length of the modern American novel has been noticed before – perhaps it is......

Talking Of Books

There once was a man... Benny Green I am not at all sure I would enjoy sharing a railway carriage with a man capable of this: Thrippy pilliwinx — inkly tinsv pobblebookle......

Bookend

Bookbuyer doesn't like the Frankfurt Book Fair. And he isn't very fond of Frankfurt either. And the German economic miracle palls a bit. They all seem able to afford the prices.......