15 OCTOBER 1977, page 23

Personable

Reginald Pound The King Without a Crown Daphne Bennett (Heinemann £7.50) A notable nineteenth-century German, Alexander von Humboldt, the naturalistexplorer, did not like the......

Skimming

Richard Shone Somerset Maugham, Anthony Curtis (Weidenfeld .26.50) Anthony Curtis is not entirely to blame for having written a displeasing book. One senses a publisher's cheque......