21 AUGUST 1999, page 34

Pretences And Pretensions

Brian Masters THE MYSTERIOUS MISS MARIE CORELLI, QUEEN OF VICTORIAN BESTSELLERS by Teresa Ransom Sutton, £25, pp. 247 P rompted by A. L. Rowse, in 1976 I began researching for a......

Life In The Big Bad City

Anne Chisholm THE BEDROOM OF THE MISTER'S WIFE by Philip Hensher Chatto, £10, pp. 200 I t is characteristic of this clever, cool, unsettling collection of 14 stories by The......