12 SEPTEMBER 1998, page 41

For Strong Stomachs Only

Teresa Waugh THE GIANT, O'BRIEN by Hilary Mantel Fourth Estate, £14.99, pp. 211 H ilary Mantel's new novel is about an 18th-century Irish giant. The heart, then, may well sink......

State-of-

the-nation exercise D. J. Taylor ENGLAND, ENGLAND by Julian Barnes Jonathan Cape, £15.99, pp. 265 E ngland, England opens a short dis- tance into the third millennium, in a......