4 OCTOBER 1957, Page 7

THE 'REAL-LIFE' story frequently covers a deal of fiction, as

Strix has shown from time to time, but I never realised to what a range of reading the word fiction could itself be applied, until I saw the books listed under 'Recent Fiction' in the Daily Telegraph last week. I suppose that two auto- biographical volumes by Mr. G. D. Roberts, Q.C., and Mr. Menachem Begin, the leader of Irgun, might qualify, if seen with malevolent eyes (truth, they say, is stranger!), but imagine curling up in bed to read a novel called Mondrian or Bonnard or The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. I'm afraid that some Telegraph readers are in for a sad disappointment.