10 OCTOBER 1981, page 22

President Disaster

Gavin Stamp A Broken Wave: The Rebuilding of England 1940-1980 Lionel Esher (Allen Lane pp. 326, £12.95) 'Lionel Esher' — as he now chooses to call himself, so nicely suggesting......

Le Shopping

Douglas Johnson The Bon Marche: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store 1869-1920 Michael B. Miller (Allen & Unwin pp. 266, £12.50) There was a time when Paris was famous for......