25 JANUARY 1975, page 14

Golden Wordsmith

Margaret Drabble Oliver Goldsmith, A. Lytton Sells (Allen and Unwin £6.75). Professor A. Lytton Sells has written a most engaging, informative, readable and eccentric biography......

On Espionage Bent

Alan Brien Vassal': The Autiobiography of a Spy John Vassal! (Sidgwick and Jackson £4.50) It takes a while to accept that Vassall, by Vassal!, is actually a book meant to be......

Japanese Plastic

Peter Ackroyd The Decay of the Angel Yukio Mishima (Seeker and Warburg £3.00) If the publishers are right and this is the "climax" of Mishima's work, I am very grateful to have......