27 OCTOBER 2007, page 34

From Cleopatra To Queen Elizabeth

Jonathan Cecil IN THE FRAME by Helen Mirren Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 272, ISBN 9780297851974 © £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 1 n my childhood we used to make what were called......

A Yarn About Yarn-spinners

Simon Baker MISS HERBERT by Adam Thirlwell Cape, £20 pp. 535, ISBN 9780224081399 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 1 n 1937 Vladimir Nabokov described the perfect novel during......