14 DECEMBER 1996, page 65

Swallowing The Pills With The Jam

Claudia Fitzherbert CHARLO 1 YONGE by Alethea Hayter Northcote House, £7.99, pp. 81 C harlotte M. Yonge, the Victorian novelist prolific even by the standards of her age, has......

Bear And Child, Soviet-style

John Bayley THE FOUNDATION PIT by Andrey Platonov Harvill, 114.99, pp. 192 F ew really good novels get written about 'important' subjects. Why should they? 'The free novel', as......