30 AUGUST 1968, Page 18

Shorter notices

Nelson and his World Tom Pocock (Thames and Hudson 35s). An excellent short life, good on the early influences which shaped Nelson's strange character, and well illustrated with contemporary material.

Richer than all his Tribe Nicholas Monsarrat (Cassell 30s). The British colony of Pharamaul gets its independence and goes to bloody pieces: the president goes to the United Nations and comes back with a tart from Bir- mingham supplied by the secretariat : Mr Mon- sarrat's account is rich in gruesome detail and prurient nuance. The book appears to have been written by a computer whose programme assumes a ready market for combinations of colonialism, sadism and smut.