30 JANUARY 1982, page 20

Autocracy

Michael Hurst The Romanovs W. Bruce Lincoln (Weidenfeld and Nicholson. £10.95). R omanovs, eighteen of them, were auto- crats ruling from Moscow or S t. Petersburg from 1613......

A Book In My Life

Graham Leonard T here was never a time in my childhood when books did not occupy a large place in my life. My father had a fair number, which were entirely at my disposal and 1......

Lusty Debut

Francis King I f a novel-reviewer is as incisive and abrasive as Peter Ackroyd, then it is an act of courage for him to publish a first novel himself. There will, of course, be......