Bliss, by John Sugden (Omnibus Press, (pounds 9.99) in UK)This new-fangled-looking large-format paperback actually contains a surprisingly old-fashioned study of the life and work of …Sat Jan 24 1998 - 00:00
Le Divorce, by Diane Johnson (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)An American in Paris has always been a phenomenon worth noting, and Diane Johnson's novel begins promisingly with the arrival…Sat Jan 24 1998 - 00:00
The Silver Castle, by Clive James (Picador, £5.99 in UK)It's difficult to dislike Clive James, but distressingly easy to dislike his fictionSat Jan 17 1998 - 00:00
The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories About Childhood, edited by Lorrie Moore (Faber & Faber, £7.99 in UK)Herself the author of a beguiling and unsentimental novel about an American teenager, Lorrie Moore might be expected to recognise…Sat Jan 17 1998 - 00:00
Lights Out for the Terri- tory, by Iain Sinclair (Granta, £7.99 in UK)Iain Sinclair does for London what the "random" button on the CD player does for an over-familiar CD: smashes it to pieces and…Sat Jan 17 1998 - 00:00
Scratch an Actor, by Ned Sherrin (Mandarin, £6.99 in UK)Comedy in the Wodehouse tradition is what Ned Sherrin sets out to do here, and if you're in the mood, his insider snipes at theatrical…Sat Jan 17 1998 - 00:00
The Bleeding Heart, by Marilyn French (Virago, £6.99 in UK)Is it possible to take a year out and have an affair which must end twelve months later? It sounds more like Mills & Boon…Sat Jan 03 1998 - 00:00
I As If, by Blake Morrison (Granta, £7.99 in UK)It must have seemed like a good idea to somebody some-where to ask the poet Blake Morrison to write a prolonged meditation on…Sat Jan 03 1998 - 00:00
A Supreme supermacistColin who? It seems incredible that an Irish writer could be turning out thrillers as racy, pacy and downright funny as this …Sat Jan 03 1998 - 00:00
Sons & Mothers, edited by Matthew and Victoria Glendinning (Virago, £7.99 in UK)A collection of essays by mothers about their sons and vice versa could easily become a crashing bore, but this one - thanks, …Sat Dec 27 1997 - 00:00
The Faber Book of Christmas, edited by Simon Rae (Faber & Faber, £9.99 in UK)Can a literary anthology, however erudite, amusing or comforting, really help dull the pain of Christmas? This is a superb example…Sat Dec 27 1997 - 00:00
Peter Cook Remembered, by Lin Cook (Mandarin, £7.99 in UK)You might think Peter Cook's widow was indolent in putting together this memoir, for she simply asked all her husband's friends…Sat Dec 27 1997 - 00:00
Soaring descants in the livingroomMaking your own Christmas recording seems to be the thing to do this year, and there are a number of CDs currently on offer from…Fri Dec 12 1997 - 00:00
My Name Escapes Me, by Alec Guinness (Penguin, £6.99 in UK)It would be hard to overstate the charm of this wilfully eccentric little diary, with its musings on - to open it at random - …Sat Nov 29 1997 - 00:00
R.D. Laing: A Life, by Adrian Lang (HarperCollins, £9.99 in UK)The guru of psychiatric radical chic whose pioneering work on the dynamics of troubled families brought him to international …Sat Nov 29 1997 - 00:00
Orchestral manoeuvresDo we take the National Symphony Orchestra for granted? Anyone who witnessed the reaction of a packed National Concert Hall last…Sat Nov 15 1997 - 00:00
Coping with the lie of the landThe landscape of the American prairie - flat, empty, desolate, relentlessly receding space - is an unpromising place to set a…Sat Nov 08 1997 - 00:00
The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir (Vintage, £9.99 in UK)With every year that passes, the work of the French existentialists seems to slip another notch lower in the literary canon; …Sat Nov 01 1997 - 00:00
Men in Black, by John Harvey (Reaktion Books, £12.95 in UK)No, it's nothing to do with the recent stylish sci-fi comedy, though John Harvey may well include a still of Will Smith and Tommy…Sat Nov 01 1997 - 00:00
Home Rule, by Clare Boylan (Abacus, £6.99 in UK)Another poor Irish childhood story in the Angela's Ashes mould - except that this one smashes the mould to joyful smithereens…Sat Oct 25 1997 - 01:00
Savouring the East: Feasts and Stories from Istanbul to Bali, by David Burton (Faber & Faber, £9.99 in UK)A New Zealander who developed a taste for pakoras and pukis on a cheap overland homeward trek from Europe, David Burton declares…Sat Oct 25 1997 - 01:00
Jack Charlton: The Autobiography, with Peter Byrne (Corgi, £5.99 in UK)Soccer fans who may be contemplating this afternoon's low-key World Cup qualifier against Romania with a touch of wistfulness…Sat Oct 11 1997 - 01:00
For Fear of the Angels: How Sex Has Usurped Religion, by Charles Pickstone (Sceptre, £7.99 in UK)Naughty vicar in dirty book shock? Well, more or lessSat Sept 27 1997 - 01:00
Three men in darkest AfricaCongo Journey, by Redmond O'Hanlon (Penguin, 4 tapes, 5 and a half hrs, £10.99 in UK)Sat Aug 30 1997 - 01:00
Kinski Uncut, by Klaus Kinski (Bloomsbury, £7.99 in UK)If you're in any doubt that the movie world spawns, every now and then, a monster of unmitigated awfulness, check this outSat Aug 23 1997 - 01:00
The Feminists Go Swimming, by Michael Collins (Phoenix, 5.99 in UK)A philandering husband turns murderous in the leafy lanes around Portlaoise; an inarticulate farmer kicks his wife in the back…Sat Aug 23 1997 - 01:00
The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II, by Ben Pimlott (HarperCollins, £9.99 in UK)It's only fair, after all the acres of trees that have been felled to accommodate the deeds and misdeeds of the current generation…Sat Aug 23 1997 - 01:00
In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works by John Lennon (Pimlico, £8 in UK)John Lennon's acerbic wit was always a bit sour for my taste, and these sets of scribblings are full of weird and wearisome word…Sat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
Zeitgeist, by Todd Wiggins (Indigo, £5.99 in UK)A schizophrenic priest with a Kalashnikov, a black cyberpunk terrorist and a bisexual Welsh philosopher in a millennial road …Sat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
News of the World Football Annual 1997-8 (IP, £4.99 in UK)Soccer-stat heaven, whether you want to know who scored for Manchester City in the 1904 FA Cup Final against Bolton Wanderers…Sat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
Babel Tower, by A.S. Byatt (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)It took courage, surely, for A.SSat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
In The Best Possible Taste, by David Lister (Bloomsbury, £7.99 in UK)It's hard to imagine a biography of Kenny Everett being po-faced, but this workmanlike study comes as near as dammit - apart, …Sat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
Going for Broke: Nick Leeson and the Collapse of Barings Bank, by Judith Rawnsley (HarperCollins, £6.99 in UK)A hugely instructive, exhaustively detailed and delightfully gossipy look behind the scenes of the drama which ensued when futures…Sat Aug 16 1997 - 01:00
Korngold: "Die Tote Stadt" (Naxos)Hailed as a Wunderkind by Mahler at the age of 10, scorned as a scribbler of film music in his old age, poor old Korngold has…Fri Aug 15 1997 - 01:00
Travels with Virginia Woolf, edited by Jan Morris (Pimlico, £10.00 in UK)An anthology of travel writing by Virginia Woolf, who never wrote a travel book in her life, and who in her fiction treated descriptive…Sat Aug 02 1997 - 01:00
Mr Nice, by Howard Marks (Minerva, £5.99 in UK)"He was Britain's most wanted man. He has just spent seven years in America's toughest penitentiarySat Aug 02 1997 - 01:00
A trove to treasureThe Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800, by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (Yale University Press, no price given)Sat Aug 02 1997 - 01:00
The Magical Realm - An Irish Childhood, by Kathleen Coyle (Wolfhound, £8.99)"The Irish memoir" is rapidly developing into an extremely cool genre - and some day, no doubt, academics will dissect it and…Sat Aug 02 1997 - 01:00
What's in KISS?Lip-Smackin' good: there's just no other way to describe this year's Kerry International Summer School of Living Irish Authors…Sat Jul 26 1997 - 01:00
Mindhunter, by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker (Mandarin, Pounds 6.99 in UK)According to the blurb, John Douglas is "a man who has looked evil in the eye and made a vocation of understanding it" and that…Sat Jul 05 1997 - 01:00
The Big Wind, by Beatrice Coogan (Arrow, Pounds 6.99 in UK)Romantic Ireland may be dead and gone, hut a good deal of it is preserved in Beatrice Coogan's mammoth novelSat Jul 05 1997 - 01:00
Vice Versa, by Marjorie Garber (Penguin, Pounds 12 99 in UK)Bisexuality is seldom treated as anything other than a joke, hut Marjorie Garber has made so thorough a study it that by the …Sat Jul 05 1997 - 01:00
Opera: the Rough Guide, by Matthew Boyden (Rough Guides, Pounds 16.99 in UK)One expects a somewhat anarchic view of the world from the Rough Guides, so it came as something of a surprise to find that this…Sat Jul 05 1997 - 01:00
Congo Journey, by Redmond O'Hanlon (Penguin, £6.99 in UK)Once again Redmond O'Hanlon has boldly gone where few would dare to tread; and in this epic trudge through the swamp forests …Sat Jun 28 1997 - 01:00
How To Succeed as a Parent: 10 Survival Tips for Busy Mums and Dads, by Steve Chalke (Hodder & Stoughton, £5.99 in UK)Child-care books used to be written with the express aim of getting you through that first nightmare six weeks without dropping…Sat Jun 28 1997 - 01:00
Irish Potato Cookbook, by Eveleen Coyle; Ancient Irish Monuments, by Peter Harbison (Gill & Macmillan, £3.99 each)These attractive little books are presumably aimed at the visitor market - others in the series include Louis Bell's Popular …Sat Jun 28 1997 - 01:00
The Kiln, by William McIlvanney (Sceptre, £6.99 in UK)A writer recalls the formative summer of his teenage years: it has the potential to be a pain in the neck, and the obsessively…Sat Jun 21 1997 - 01:00
Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons (Penguin, £5.99 in UK)Stella Gibbons's 1932 satire of English country life might not, on the face of it, seem to have much to offer a contemporary …Sat Jun 21 1997 - 01:00
