14 OCTOBER 1995, page 40

Experience

Every day I pass a farm. From the train the hens are white The grass is green The tractor the colour of fire The blue of a worker's overalls A shade deeper Than the sky.......

Books

He has not lived in vain Bevis Hillier PALIMPSEST: A MEMOIR by Gore. Vidal Deutsch, £20, pp. 435 E ven when Peter Cook was alive, Gore Vidal was the person I most enjoyed seeing......