Philip Ziegler
With The Private Patient (Faber, £18.99) P. D. James has written a book which, for masterly evocation of place and understanding of human nature, is as good as anything she has ever done. It therefore ranks among the masterpieces of British crime writing and, but for the snobbishness of genre categorisation, would be an obvious candidate for a major literary prize. There are ominous hints that this might be Dalgleish’s last case. May it not be so.
Andrew Roberts’ Masters and Commanders (Allen Lane, £25) is an enthralling analysis of the relationship between Churchill, Roosevelt, Marshall and Alanbrooke. Frequently at loggerheads, shifting in their alliances with each other, occasionally reduced to fury by the the others’ obstinacy or intransigence, these men knew that the future of the free world depended on their working together. Roberts tells the story of their doing so with consummate mastery of his sources and all the vigour and enthusiasm which makes his writing such a joy to read.
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