12 JANUARY 2002, page 33

The Playing Fields Of Persia

Philip Hensher DIPLOMACY AND MURDER IN TEHRAN: ALEXANDER GRIBOYEDOV AND IMPERIAL RUSSIA'S MISSION TO THE SHAH OF PERSIA by Laurence Kelly I. B. Tauris,125, pp. 314, ISBN......

His Own Best Subject

Rupert Christiansen WORKS ON PAPER: THE CRAFT OF BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Michael Holroyd Little, Brown, £20, pp. 319, ISBN 03168567898 M ichael Holroyd's life of Lytton......