Paul Johnson
For sheer readability, nothing in 1988 surpassed the latest Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume VI, 1850-1852, edited by Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson and Nina Burgis (Oxford, £80). The touch of the Master is felt on every page, and is enhanced by a superb editorial apparatus. The price is horrifying, is it not? Nonethe- less, I was so impressed by this volume, and have derived so much pleasure from it, that I am saving up to buy the five earlier ones. I also got a great deal of enjoyment from Atkinson Grimshaw by Alexander Robertson (Phaidon, £25), given to me as a 60th birthday present by Christine, the beautiful wife of Professor Norman Stone. I had always admired Grimshaw but had foolishly supposed he painted only town- scapes. This sumptuous volume reveals him as a great painter of landscapes, as well as much else.
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