13 JANUARY 1967, page 21

Strong And Outspoken

The Brontë Letters. Selected and with an intro- duction by Muriel Spark. (Macmillan, 25s.) LETTERS are written conversation, exchanges between one person and another,......

The Life Hater

Trial By Battle. By David Piper. (Collins, 21s.) The Man in the Glass Booth. By Robert Shaw. (Chatto and Windus, 21s.) The Sailor from Gibraltar. By Marguerite Duras. (Calder......

Lost Leader

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL once described the late Victorian decades as 'an age of great men and small events.' It is doubtful if this description could be defended on a number of......