10 FEBRUARY 1973, page 12

Potato Crop

Auberon Waugh Birchwood John Banville (Secker and Warburg £2). The Famished Land Elizabeth Byrd (Macmillan £2.95). Two novels within a month about the Irish potato famine......

The Conscience Of His Country

Alastair Buchan Memoirs 1950-1963 George F. Kerman (Hutchinson £4.50) George Kennan is one of the most appealing figures of the whole generation that was in the prime of life at......