17 DECEMBER 1983, Page 52

George Gale

The best books I have read have been Richard Cobb's French and Germans, Ger- mans and French (University Press of New England). Cobb prefers the French to the Germans and he is right, helas. John Carswell's The Exile: A Life of Ivy Litvinov (Faber) was a fine memorial to the old Bolshevik's indomitable British born wife.

The worst books have been A. J. P. Taylor's A Personal History (Hamish Hamilton) and Bernard Levin's En- thusiasms (Cape), both works of autobiography in which the authors intend, and therefore fail, to flatter their subjects.