17 DECEMBER 1983, Page 52

John Jolliffe

For me the most impressive new book has been Eleni by Nicholas Gage (Collins). It celebrates the triumph of self-sacrifice over self-seeking, of love over hatred, and of the urge to preserve life over the urge to take it. (It would also make an excellent opera). The Butterfly Gardener by Miriam Roths- child and Clive Farrell (Michael Joseph) has a unique feeling of poetic imagination about it and is also highly recommended.

In spite of being torn to shreds by several well-informed reviewers for its multiple factual errors and its sycophancy towards the rulers of the Soviet Union, Peter Ustinov's My Russia (Macmillan) has found its way into several best seller lists instead of the wastepaper baskets where it belongs.