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Books of the Year
A further selection of the best and most overrated books of the year chosen by some of the Spectator's regular reviewers.
Christopher Booker
I have often thought some simple code should be devised so that reviewers could indicate which of the books they recom- mend they actually intend to keep, or would even have happily paid money for themselves. One of the few which passed this test for me in 1985 was Henry Hob- house's Seeds of Change, a highly original look at the extraordinary influence on the shaping of our modern world by five plants, quinine, sugar, tea, cotton and the potato. It is a book which subtly changes one's whole perspective on the history of the past 400 years. A book I paid for and greatly enjoyed was Galina, the auto- biography of the singer Galina Vishnevs- kaya, married to Rostropovich — a won- derfully spirited and moving account of how she triumphed over all the horrors and moral chaos of Soviet life between the 1930s and 1970s. A third unusual and fascinating book was Pandaemonium, an anthology compiled over many years by the film-maker Humphrey Jennings, show- ing through contemporary eyes the impact of the coming of the machine on the psychology, society and landscape of Bri- tain between 1660 and 1886. Quotations range from Pepys to Mendelssohn, Col- eridge to Sherlock Holmes. A remarkable compendium, which can be read as an entertaining bedside book or put to more serious use. Finally there is no book I am happier to own than The Bayeux Tapestry, by far the best reproduction ever published with a masterly commentary by Sir David Wilson, Director of the British Museum.
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