17 DECEMBER 1983, Page 52

Harold Acton

The best was Mary Berenson: A Self Portrait from her Letters and Diaries by Barbara Strachey and Jayne Samuels (Gollancz), The Italian World edited by John Julius Norwich (Thames and Hudson) and William Weaver's translation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (Seeker) which struck me as a notable achievement — a chef d'oeuvre with reser- vations.

The worst was A Half of Two Lives by Alison Waley (Weidenfeld & Nicolson.)