5 DECEMBER 1998, page 48

Biting The Hand That Rarely Paid For Lunch

Frederic Raphael SIR VIDIA'S SHADOW by Paul Theroux Hamish Hamilton, £17.99, pp. 376 W riters' friendships are often written on water; their enmities are chiselled in stone.......

Punishingly Funny Wordplay

Benjamin Yarde-Buller ALTAR EGO by Kathy Lette Picador, E12.99, pp. 353 A ltar Ego should, one gathers from the blurb, be approached with some cau- tion; Kathy Lette's novels......