Books Wanted

GIOVANNI DI PAOLO by John Pope Hennessy (Chatto & Windus). THE HERMITAGE World of Art (Thames & Hudson) Box 681.

LIFE & TIMES OF THOMAS CORYATE by Michael Strachan (OUP). P. A. Horton, 12 Herga Court, Watford WO1 3PA.

CLASSIC MYTH AND LEGEND by A. R. Hope Moncrieff. MYTHS OF BABYLON AND ASSYRIA by Donald Mackenzie. THE LORDS OF THE ISLES by Isobel Grant (MacLehose. London) Box 681.

DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. Recent moderate. Box 680.

VOLUME TWO: JUNIUS (letters of). Published 1812. William Lock, 11 Castle House, Caine, Wiltshire.

SOUTH WIND by Norman Douglas and TRIVIA by Logan Smith. Craig, 'Gossway', Kinlington, Oxford.

DANTE 'THE DIVINE COMEDY' with original Blake drawings. Printed by Heritage Press New York. Box 679. DOCKERS by David Wilson, Fontana Press. Jones 01-445 5006. 17 Oaklergh Park North, London N20. THE PENGUIN BOOK OF LATIN VERSE. Alex H. Paterson. 21 Hillpark Au , Edinburgh EH4 7AT.

POO POO AND THE DRAGONS by C. S. Forester. LIGHT OVER LUNDY and RAVEN AMONG THE ROOKS by S. P. B. Mais. Hancock. 263 Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh. BRENSHAM TRILOGY by John Moore Box 673. RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT, Marcia MacDonald. 27 Green St.. London W.1. 499 8760 or 734 8080. ENCOUNTER MAG. 11954; Feb). (1955; Apr, Jul, Sep, Nov), (1963: Feb). (1964 Jun, Sep), (1966; Apr, May, Jul, Sep). J. Bergseng/Overlararev 68/22367 LUND/SWEDEN. LIFE OF GEORGE BUTTERWORTH. (Privately printed) THE FIGURE IN THE MIST by Elizabeth Cokhead; JANE THE TORTOISE by Constance Hogarth ; Dr Ruth Gipps. Allfarthings, Hemitage Road, Kenley

FABIAN BIOGRAPHICAL PAMPHLET, "The Webbs" by Margaret Cole. Box 676 HISTORY OF FRENCH COLONIAL POLICY 1870-1925. S. H Roberts. Coles. 103 Alcester Road South, Birmingham 14. THIRTEEN SERMONS by The Rev, John Owen D.D. London 1756. SPEECHES DELIVERED UPON THE CASE OF E.B. Hartopp & G. Mostyn to the Title of Baron Vaux of Harrowden". London 1836. C. Hartop. 32 Kingswood Cl, Eaton Norwich, NR4 6JF. Norfolk.

"LYRICS" by Oscar Hammerstein II published by Simon & Schuster, C1948-1951. D. M. Barker, 12 Green Lane. Northwood, Middlesex. Tel : 25343 MY JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD by Northcliffe, GAILY. GAILY by Harold Brecht, D. C. Flintham, Western Mail. Cardiff .

THE LONG TRAIL: British soldiers' songs of WW1. by John Brophy and Eric Partridge. Rev. ed. Andre Deutsch, 1965. Beele. 85 Tiverton Road, Loughborough, Leics. OFF TO PHILADELPHIA IN THE MORNING by Jack Jones. Wanted urgently. Richard Booth, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford. PRE-WAR ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL books, annuals, handbooks and pre-1952 programmes bought by collector. 37 Hemdean Road, Caversham. Reading.

BOOKS BY OR ABOUT, Bierce, Boswell, Bulgakov, R. F. Burton, Chesterton, Gogol, Dr Johnson, Melville, Saroyan, Stout, Swift Twain, Wells, Edmund Wilson. Any editions, Box 674.

CRUISE OF THE ANNIE MARBLE, C. S. Forester, Farnham Common 3919.

THE FLIGHT FROM REASON by Arnold Lunn, J. P Chamcellor, 69 Kew Green, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AH. GREAT WAR GAMES FOR YOUNG AND OLD. Booklet by Britain's and any pre-war lead soldier and toy catalogues. Johnson, 22 The Hamlet. Champion Hill, SE5. 274 1123, ANY VOLUME OF THE SCOTTISH ROYAL Commission on Ancient Monuments. P. Clarke, 58 Sheffield Tce, W8. W. S. BLUNT 1840-1922 WANTED any books by or relating to. J. Fleming, 36 Harrington Gardens, London SW7. POETIC EXPERIENCE by Thomas Gilby, Buxton, 102 Park Place, Gravesend, Kent.

WHO'S WHO 1972 or later. Macgueen-Pope's Nights of Gladness, Ladies First. Box 671.

BROTHER OF DAPHNE, COURTS OF IDLENESS, ANTHONY LYVEDEN, AND FIVE WERE FOOLISH, PERIOD STUFF, LOWER THAN VERMIN, by Dornford Yates. Leach, 49 Belsize Court, Lyndhurst Gardens. London NW3.

THE FRONTIERSMAN'S POCKET BOOK. Published by John Murray c.1904. Box 673.

FAMOUS CASES OF DR THORNDYKE; other R. Austin Freeman. Write W. 0. Rubenstein, 4 Charlton Road, Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex BIRKENHEAD, Books on or by F. E. Smith, 1st Earl, wanted by J. Campbell, 14 Drummond Place, Edinburgh 3.

TROTTIE TRUE Caryl Brahns & S J. Simon, Michael Joseph. About 1947/48, P. Baird, 12 Park St., London W.1. KAMET CONQUERED by F. S. Smyth, SHE FELL AMONG THIEVES, B-BERRY AND I LOOK BACK, HOUSE THAT BERRY BUILT by Dornford Yates. Wheeler, 296 Benfleet Road, Benfleet, Essex

in these egalitarian times it is hard to see a flourishing future for conspiracies which tend to frown on women and continue to insist on the right to decide whose company they will keep. Fifty years ago the Athenaeum decided to elect certain distinguished men, at the rate of nine per annum. After the last war the number was steadily reduced, until between the years 1963-68 only two men were canvassed. Whether this indicates a still rising degree of exclusivity on the part of the distinguished gentlemen who are on the books, or a creeping malaise among those who are not, no indication is given, but judging from the lists, it would seem that if an invitation to come into the fold is your life's ambition, then you would be well advised either to win a decisive battle (Alexander, Montgomery, Alanbrooke), act the great Shakespearean roles (Guinness, Richardson), or make a lot of music (Menuhin, Britten, Bliss).

I have the feeling that when people publish a history of the Athenaeum, they are counting on a substantial sale among members and the devil take the rest of us, a theory which might explain the prohibitive price of the book. But it is inevitable that the history will fall occasionally into unauthorised hands, like mine for instance, and that having fallen into them will be judged, not on its merits, but by the extent to which it adheres to the outsider's misconceptions about life in Clubland. I grieve therefore, that the future of billiards at the Athenaeum seems uncertain. I deeply regret this, especially when 1 read that in 1959 somebody found a cue in the Athenaeum billiard room inscribed 'William Makepeace Thackeray's Billiards Cue 1851-1863'. I regret even more deeply the news that Herbert Spencer 'always denied the authorship of the story told to the effect that he once said to a junior opponent who beat him that "proficiency in billiards was proof of a misspent life".' I am shattered by that revelation, and only partly mollified by the additional news that if Spencer didn't say it, then he appears not to have said it at several other clubs too, for we read that 'In the history of the Savile Club he is said to have made the same remark there to Robert Louis Stevenson'.

As to the effect of the Athenaeum on my love life, those familiar with the building will know that its facade sports a copy of the frieze from the Parthenon, in which a long line of people in bedsheets sit or stand around. One night in the 'fifties, while escorting to her lodgings a young lady who kept asking me why every time I took her home we always seemed to go via St James's Park, we were approached by a demented old man who insisted that every time there was a full moon he came along to the Athenaeum in the small hours to listen to the conversation among the figures in the frieze, and occasionally even to join in himself. The young lady and I were so intrigued by this information that we ran for our lives, and it was only later that she asked me what the building was. I said I thought it was some kind of museum, but I see I was wrong. It is something more than that, and if proof were needed, it may be found in the two photographs of the club's North and South Libraries. A pair of calf-bound elysiums, two paper paradises from whose balcony-racks it seems Professor Higgins might emerge at any moment to deliver a treatise on diphthongs. Any establishment which has a North library and a South library is a friend of mine.