8 AUGUST 1981, page 21

Hand-picked

Fitzroy Maclean The Story of the Lovat Scouts 1900-1980 Michael Leslie Melville (The Saint Andrew Press pp. 132,£6.75) The story is told of an old lady in Skye who remarked......

Reign Of Terror

John Jolhffe The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police George Leggett (Clarendon Press pp. 514, £22.50) Between its formation by Lenin in December 1917 and the transfer of its major......

Settling In

Paul Ableman On The Yankee Station William Boyd (Hamish Hamilton pp. 184, £7.95). Here is a collection of short stories which • are, with one exception, formidably accomplished.......