2 DECEMBER 1989, page 42

A Character Dead At

every , word John Gross ABSENT FRIENDS by Geoffrey Wheatcroft Hamish Hamilton, £15.95, pp.29I T wenty-two men and women, with only two things in common. One big thing: they have......

The Edward Lear Poem

He kept his wife in a box he did And she never complained though the neighbours did Because of the size of the box and the way He tried to behave in a neighbourly way But smiled......

The Roots Of A Metaphysician

Noel Malcolm SCHOPENHAUER AND THE WILD YEARS OF PHILOSOPHY by Rtidiger Safranski, translated by Ewald Osers Weidenfeld, £35, pp.385 P rofessor Ernest Gellner once told me......