A. N. Wilson
Everyone has been telling me for years that I ought to read Les Caves du Vatican by Andre Gide. I did so this year for the first time and thought it was a complete dud. Rereading War and Peace, on the other hand, has been my literary high-spot of the year, and I also greatly enjoyed Hide My Eyes, a Margery Allingham which for some reason I had missed. Of the newly pub- lished books I enjoyed Richard Ingrams's selections from Mrs Thrale (her anecdotes about Doctor Johnson). All the Great Cham's mots are memorable. I particularly liked this: 'Says Johnson a Woman has such power between the Ages of twenty five and forty five that She may tye a Man to a post and whip him if she will. I thought they must begin earlier & leave off sooner, but he says that it's not Girls but Women who inspire the violent & lasting passions – Cleopatra was Forty three Years old when Anthony lost the World for her.'
The best novel of the year rather echoed this theme. It was called The Two of Us by John Braine. Needless to say, it was not short-listed for the Booker Prize.
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