25 NOVEMBER 1989, page 39

Christmas Books I

Books of the Year A selection of the best and most overrated books of the year, chosen by some of the Spectator's regular reviewers Hugh Trevor-Roper HOW agreeable, when so many......

John Osborne

BERLIOZ has always headed the brief list of my favourite Frenchmen, and his boisterous autobiography is something I return to constantly. Reckless, headlong romantic,......

Raymond Carr

AFTER reviewing Alvaro Pombo's The Resemblance (Chatto & Windus, £12.95), an ingenious exercise in the traditional Spanish literary device of banging on about the shortcomings,......