5 DECEMBER 1981, page 26

Private Bi

Harriet Waugh Fiddle City Dan Kavanagh (Cape pp.173, £5.95) The Shining Day Frank Ross (Macmillan pp. 339, £6.95) Soldier no More Anthony Price (Victor Gollanz pp.277, £6.95)......

Generalising

Paul Ableman The View From Planet Earth Vincent Cronin (Collins pp.348, £12.50) T his book is a mess and it gets messier as it goes on. It starts chastely with a chapter of 18......

Abusage

Lewis Jones The Spoken Word: A BBC Guide Robert Burchfield (BBC pp. 40, £1.95) Paradigms Lost: Reflections on literacy and its decline John Simon (Chatto pp. 222, £9.95) W hat......