Recent paperbacks
Two books from Penguin are recommended to amateurs of natural history: The Naturalist in Britain by David Elliston Allen (£1.25) is a social history, the first on its subject, enlivened by a fascinating cast of enthusiasts, scholars and eccentrics. William W. Warner's Beautiful Swimmers (£1.50) describes the crab-fishers of Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast of the United States, and the life habits of the blue crab —200 million of which they catch every year. Not entirely free of selfconscious fine writing, it is all the same a delightful book.
Marcel Bloch's French Rural History (Routledge £2.95) is, with Feudal Society, one of the great French historian's two masterpieces and should be read not only by history students but all lovers of France.
Eric Rhode's A History of the Cinema (Pelican £4.00) is a narrative to complement the several reference books on the subject. Political prejudice pops up from time to time, and Mr Rhode is opinionated and occasionally inaccurate as is bound to happen when the plots of films are described from memory. As well, he tends to write sentences like: `The conviction of this film depends on a meditated care for circumstance.' But a useful book.
The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim (Peregrine £2.75) is a psychoanalytic study of fairy tales which avoids the jargonising and idiocies sometimes found in this approach, and is in fact charmingly written. Simone Weil's The Need for Roots (Routledge £2.95) is a series of aphoristic reflections on social and political questions by the tortured and saintly French writer, first published in 1952.
Two novels and a book of poetry: Pamela Haines's Tea at Gunters (Penguin 95p) and Paul Theroux's The Family Arsenal (Penguin 80p) are among their authors' best books. Cheeks on Fire (John Calder i1.95) is the collected poetry of Raymond Radiguet, the brilliant and precocious author of Devil in the Flesh. Published in France in 1925, the poems are translated by Alan Stone.
Finally, two picture books. London's Historic Railway Stations (John Murray £2.95) has a characteristic and learned commentary by John Betjeman, and excellent photographs by John Gay. And The Inven tions of Leonardo da Vinci by Charles Gibbs-Smith (Phaidon £3.95) is a very well-produced collection of drawings showing that Leonardo discovered practically everything from flying machines to machine guns.
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