29 APRIL 1989, page 34

To Place Beside The Throne

Steven Runciman THE OXFORD BOOK OF ROYAL ANECDOTES edited by Elizabeth Longford OUP, £16, pp.546 W hat is an anecdote? In her introduc - tion to this entertaining anthology — if......

The Best Address

This, said the poet, is the Muses' bower, The best address, as Milton thought, of any: That was before the poets were so many; The sweetness of the Muses has gone sour.......

Could Do Better But Not Worse

Anne Chisholm RULING PASSIONS by Susan Crosland Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £10.95, pp. 376 I t is not as easy as you might think to write a good bad book. Susan Crosland, well-known......