18 DECEMBER 1982, Page 45

Peregrine Worsthorne

Most of the new books I read are those written by friends (others I wait until they appear as paperbacks to buy them) of which my favourites for 1982 are: An English Education: A Perspective of Eton by Richard 011ard (Collins) and The Gentleman in TrolloPe: Individuality and Moral Conduct, by Shirley Letwin (Mac- millian). Both of these tell us more about this country than any of Anthony Samp- son's botched best-selling Anatomies, the latest of which — the fourth — is my least favourite book of the year. My third choice is From Rome to San Marino, by Oliver Knox (Collins) — an account of a walk by the author and this son in the footsteps of

Garibaldi. Both father and son are old Eton- ians and their civilised commentary perfectly illustrates the kind of morality taught at that school — (described ex- plicitly by 011ard and implicitly by Mrs Letwin) — a morality responsible for shap- ing the least barbaric ruling order which the world has ever known.