30 MAY 1992, page 26

Unable To Change Its Sun Spots

John Spurling THE SILENT DUCHESS by Dacia Maraini Peter Owen, f14.99, pp. 235 T he heroine of The Silent Duchess is the deaf and dumb daughter of an 18th-century Sicilian duke.......

Never Really An Officer And A Gentleman

Francis King JOHN MASTERS by John Clay Michael Joseph, f20, pp. 372 O ne of my brothers-in-law, like John Masters a regular Indian Army officer, had briefly met him in Quetta......