5 JANUARY 1985, Page 23

Christopher Fildes

Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (Penguin) must be the best book of the year 1136. The kings start with Brutus, and go on to Lear, Cole (old), and Arthur. Confident, uninformed, garnished with the occasional verifiable fact, it re- minds me of Mr ******'s City column.

Maurice Keen's Chivalry countermands Burke: the age of chivalry is resurrected.

There are plenty of bad books about, mostly novels by pseudonymous bankers, with themselves as heroes – exercises in wish-fulfilment which appear to have been written with a Letraset kit. But since I have not finished any of them, I cannot arrange them in order of demerit.