30 JANUARY 1982, page 21

Autocracy

Michael Hurst The Romanovs W. Bruce Lincoln (Weidenfeld and Nicholson. £10.95). R omanovs, eighteen of them, were auto- crats ruling from Moscow or S t. Petersburg from 1613......

Saucy Lucy Hughes-hallett

Sauce For the Goose Peter de Vries (Gollancz £6.95) W hen Daisy Dobbin, the heroine of Peter de Vries's Sauce For the Goose, is still a teenager, her mother takes her to Grand......

In Next Week's Spectator:

A. J. Ayer writes on Anthony Quin- ton's new book; Eric Christiansen surveys the history of the Poles; P. J. Kavanagh writes on Russian poets; Humphrey Carpenter on Thurber's......