6 JANUARY 1973, page 12

Review Of Books

Nicholas Richardson on Johnson 'beat out to thin leaf' Surely the strangest thing about Johnson was that he had friends at all, let alone friends so distinguished. Superficially......

The Colonel's Mede Is Miss Renault's Persian

Auberon Waugh The Persian Boy Mary Renault (Longman £2.50) Four hundred and ten pages, with forty lines a page, well bound and stitched, properly , printed on clean, reasonably......