Slapstick

Benny Green

B!smarck Alan Palmer (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £6.95) Post-Victorian Britain, 1902-51 L. C. B. Seaman (University Paperbacks £4.50)

It has always seemed to me a great pity that

subject as hilarious as political biography Is so often monopolised by writers without Much sense of humour, although I suppose that without a broad streak of solemnity in his nature, a man would hardly be inclined to embark on the scummy waters of a statesMan's life in the first place. What the poor bi°graPher has to do is to impose on the

The Bourbon Kings of France Desmond Seward

'Enormously entertaining. . . an excellent tead . . . a cross between a package tour of the Bourbon dynasty and a Guide Michelin to the favourites, mistresses and ministers of the French monarchy' — John Brewer, Spectator. Illustrated, £6

Voltaire John E. N. Hearsey

'What emerges is the fact that. Voltaire was warm-hearted, compassionate, profoundly moral. Mr Hearsey renders full justice to this side of a complex character, as he does to the principal events of his career and his personal life' — Eric Partridge, Guardian. £6

Lord Leverhulme W. P. Jolly

The extraordinary success story of the great liberal industrialist and creator of Port Sunlight. Illustrated, L5-50

The great lock-out of 1926 Gerard Noel

Published next Monday — 5o years later to the very day on which a million British miners were lockedOut over the country's worst ever industrial dispute. Illustrated, L5.25

Foreign affairs

Stories by Sean O'Faolain 'An acknowledged master of the short story, and Foreign affairs shows no falling off from his high standard. Jokes are, as usual, marvellous .. . Mr O'Faolain's unflagging inventiveness must be saluted' — Paul Bailey, Observer.

£2.95

Constable