Eric Christiansen
The best read was Henry Fielding's A Voyage to Lisbon, last reprinted in 1976, appended to the Everyman Jonathan Wild. It tells the sad truth about voluntary travel; you cannot escape death by flight, you can only anticipate hell. The attempt should on- ly be described by desperadoes as brave and humorous as the great novelist. It killed him, amusing to the last. Nowell-Smith's Selected Letters of Sydney Smith (1956) ap- peared as an OUP World's Classic paper- back in 1981 and was also a delight. To read Smith is to be reminded that some good can come out of the Church of England in general and New College in particular. At least, it was possible down to 1845. The R. S. Surtees Society's facsimile of the 1864 edition of Mr Facey Romford's Hounds was the best new book of 1982. The com- bination of prose, pictures, 405 pages and stamped binding would be hard to beat at something under 12 guineas. Enoch Powell's introduction rates Facey top of the Surtees novels. This is debatable, but any one of them will do as a pick-me-up for the downhearted.
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