1 JULY 1978, Page 30

Books and Records Wanted

LAW'S Grocer's Manual (J. T. Law) or Xerox copy; Crime mystery fiction including A. Christie, J. Creasey, Jules Verne. S. B. Johns, 12 Forest View, Neath.

ELSE OXENHAM books. Chas Murray's 'Hamewith'. J. Gall, 49, Anderson Avenue, Aberdeen.

WHEATLEY and Links: 'Murder off Miami' (1936); 'The Malinsay Massacre' (1938); 'Herewith the Clues' (1939). B. S. Johnson and Z. Ghose: 'Statements Against Corpses' (1965). Gordon, 9, St Ann's Gardens, London NW5 4ER.

DANTE, Temple Classics edition. Trans by Gardner & Wickstead. Rev. J.O.C. Alleyne, 44 Cheriton Road, Winchester.

Hampshire. E. HALEVY The Triumph of Reform. L'Europe et Is Revolution Frangaise. Dowson, The Old Hall, Seething, Norwich. BOOKS on the Philippines/Manilla. Write titles, prices: Cid Reyes, 47 Exeter Road, London W2.

HOW WILLIAM WICKHAM HELPED SAVE THE BRITISH EMPIRE by A. Schuller. Write Spectator Box No. 833. TROLLOPE'S An Eye For An Eye; Kept In The Dark; Marion Fey; Castle Richmond; The Bartrams; The Kellys & The O'Kellys; The Landleaguers; The Macdermotts of Ballycloran. A. W. Moss, Tocknells Court, Painswick, Glos.

THE GLORY OF CLEMENTINA WING by William J. Locke; Texts & Pretexts by Alcious Huxley; The Farm Told To The Children. Mrs N. Pusey, 70 East Street, Farnham, Surrey Tel

(02513) 5433.

WANTED. Information concerning the .whereabouts of any

seventeenth century copies of 'The Compleat Gentleman' by Henry Peacham, for a new edition. Write Robyn Andrews, 6 St. James Street, London W6.

HUGH KINGSMILL: 'Progress of a Biographer' and 'The Poisoned Crown'. Smith, 88 Thanial Rd.. BiIton Grange, Hull,

Yorkshire.

SCOTT: Waverley Novels. 24 Vols. Oxford India Papered. 1912. Also Funwangler records. McHardy, 34 Earls Avenue, Fol kestone.

BOOKS by Elsie Oxenham, Elinor Brent-Dyer, Dorita Fairlie Bruce wanted. Harris, 191 Pitshanger Lane, London W5 WANTED: J. Creasey and P. G. Wodehouse and Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads. A. R. Keith. Cambridge Library,Harvard, USA Oriental Series Vols 31/32 1925. S. B. Johns, 12 Forest View, Neath. INDIAN ARMY LIST circa 1936. R. M. Ryan, Kelso, Scotland. THE RECOVERY OF BELIEF by C. E. M. Joad. Write Spectator Box No. 825.

ANY BOOKS ON RED DEER STALKING. Titles and prices to Spectator Box No. 826. THE LEAVEN OF LOVE by J. de Forest. Gollancz. Martin, 91 Dighton Road, Purley CR2 4HD. ARABIA FELD( by Bertram Thomas. Any other books on Arabia. St John Phllby, etc. Write Spectator Box No. 827.

HUNTING SKETCHES by Anthony Trollope; 'Jorrocks Country' by Uvedale Lambert; 'The England of Nimrod and Surtees, 1815-54' and 'English Country Life, 1780-1830' by E.W. Bovill. F.H. Brightman, 59, Rosendale Road, London SE 21. ANY BOOKS ON CANADA. Fiction, art, poetry, etc. Details to Bums, 15 Lilley Drive, Kingswood, Surrey. KT20 6JA. LANGUAGE, Vols. 35 to 50 and Linguistic Inquiry Vols. 1 and 2. Mauricio Carvalho, 18 Milton Street, Edinburgh EH8 8HF (031)

661 9212.

DEATH'S BRIGHT DART by V. Clinton Baddeley. Write Spec

tator Box No. 815.

THE OVERBURIAN CHARACTER (Ed. W. D. Paylor) Oxford 1936. Overbuiy, Miscellaneous Works (Ed. E. F. Rimbault) 1856. Write Spectator Box No. 816.

YOURGRAU 'Treatise on Irreversible and Statistical Thermophysics' (Macmillan, New York); 'Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory (Pitman); 'Perspective in Quantum Theory' (MIT Press). Page, 5, Turners Wood, London NW11.

MANNING COLES. Any edition reasonable condition. Titles, Prices to Spectator Box NO. 817.

HEINRICH MANN — Henri Huatre. (Trans E. Sutton, 3 vols) and others by. Write Spectator Box No, 819. THE BARBARY COAST by Asbury. Write Spectator Box No. 820.

batants.) There's the usual collection of types — the wide-eyed rookie, the battlesoftened veteran, the half-baked patriot, and so on. The major is ordered to send a detachment of advisors, accompanied by Vietnamese mercenaries and regular soldiers, to Muc Wa, an outpost in the countryside. The major argues that the arrival of Americans in a previously peaceful area will invite the attention of the Vietcong, while his superiors argue that the area has strategic potential; either way, the VC promptly put in an appearance.

This raises the problem that plagued the Americans then and throughout the war: what was the 'appearance' of the VC? Faced by a typical peasant family of about fourteen people, ranging from whiskered grand-dad to tiny tot, one soldier says: 'They don't look like Communists to me.' It's only when, after a battle, the recruits examine the bodies of some children and find them wearing cartridge belts that they begin to see what they are up against. The peasants don't know what the Americans are doing in Vietnam; and neither, unfortunately, do the Americans.

After several bloody skirmishes, the news that VC battalions are marching on the area compels the Americans to pull out; the major packs his advisors off in a helicopter, but sacrifices his own life by electing to stay behind to help the Vietnamese loyalists. The last we see of Lancaster, he is lying naked and dead on a battle ground, stripped of clothing by the VC and of dignity by a bulging belly. Quite a brave performance. The major at least has been faithful to the, Herodotian epitaph left at Muc Wa by earlier French casualties, and roughly translated as: 'Stranger, when you find us lying here, go tell the Spartans that we obeyed their orders.'