Restaurant Roundabout. By T. A. Layton. (Duckworth. I26. 6d.) BEFORE
enjoying a light book of this kind one must lay aside the irrelevant fury inspired by remembering how many better books are lying out of print through lack of paper, how many better writers are silent through lack of time. Mr. Layton, who catered for the Georgian Ball at Osterley just before the war, has written an unusual, inconsequent book divided into three parts which can be read as separate entities. Any unity it has is derived, appro- priately enough, from the subject of food, and from the career of that first-class classical scholar, bon viveur and Librarian of the Foreign Office, Stephen Gaselee, who makes such a fascinating appearance in Ronald Storrs' Orientations. The first part is about education in Gaselee's time, in Layton's time, and 1980. This merges into a sketch of Gaselee as tutor of Prince Leopold of Battenberg, followed by his marriage, his menu-diaries and, perhaps most interesting of all, summaries of those works of Petronius and Apuleius which he edited. There is also a fascinating account of Layton's own experiences in Bordeaux, rinsing and bottling hard while apprenticed to a firm of wine-growers and shippers. The last part of the book is about the author's restaurant, the Cheddar Roast, which specialised in rare cheeses, his adventures in finding them and the difficulties of getting a licence. Those readers who care for good food will enjoy this book most.
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