19 SEPTEMBER 1987, page 44

Contriving The Natural

Norbert Lynton THE PRIVATE DEGAS by Richard Thomson Herbert Press, £12.95 D egas is counted an Impressionist and did exhibit with them in the 1870s and 1880s. Yet his priorities......

A Very

strange stranger Robin Hanbury-Tenison BEHIND THE WALL: A JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA by Colin Thubron Heinemann, 110.95 C olin Thubron is a distinguished mem- ber of an honourable......

The Pleasures Of The Suburbs

Anita Brookner TRUST ME by John Updike Andre Deutsch, f9.95 T here is a deceptive and impressive leisureliness to the higher reaches of American journalism, as if all the time......