Christopher Howse
A great treat was Discovering Aquinas by Aidan Nichols (Darton, Longman & Todd, £12.95). Aquinas, perhaps the cleverest man who ever lived, has not been well served by some of his admirers, making him sound like a Gaullist schoolmaster. But his fellow Dominican, Aidan Nichols, is particularly interesting on Aquinas's account of how people participate in the inner life of the Trinity. The 13th-century theologian gave his work the strong sinews of a rigorous metaphyics, but we learn that his biblical interpretation and patristic knowledge are of no mere historical curiosity.
One Hundred Photographs: A Collection by Bruce Bernard (Phaidon, £29.95) is a sort of posthumous gift from Bruce Bernard, reproducing the collection he made for James Moores, on show for a limited time at the V & A. As with earlier selections, the dominant quality is humanity. This is strongly evident from the anonymous `Waterloo Veteran with his Wife' (1850s) to examples by living photographers such as Ken Griffiths and Toby Glanville.
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