Recent paperbacks

James Hughes-Onslow

The Reason Why Cecil Woodham-Smith (Constable £4.95) How (and whyj the Brudenells and the Binghams pursued their obscure family feuds from Dublin.so London to Balaclava and set the scene for the most famous cock-up in history. Invaluable assistance from the late Lord Lucan MC. The late late Lord presumably, Madam?

A Sea-Grape Tree Rosamond Lehmann (Virago Modern Classica £2.95) A very modern classic, this one, first published in 1976. A case of ac- celerating fashions or diminishing copyrights? I don't like Lehmann, myself, but someone does because Virago have just published two more, The Ballad and the Source (£3.50) and The Swan in the Evening (£3.50).

Kitchen Hints Hilary Davies (Fontana £1.25) You can make scrambled egg go further by add- ing white breadcrumbs, make soup with left- over salad by mixing it up with tomato juice and Worcester sauce. Want to know about recycling stale sandwiches? Dip them in beaten egg and milk and fry them until golden.

Enjoying Wine: A Taster's Companion Pamela Vandyke Price (Heinemann £5.95) This is a book of basic information and encouragement rather than of wine snobbery but it has a glossary which explains 'mushroom nose.' And it tells you what to do if your companion smells more strongly than your wine.

A Book of Sea Journeys: An Anthology com- piled by Ludovic Kennedy (Fontana £3.50) Somerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Monsarrat, Winston Churchill, Thomas Hardy, W.H. Auden, Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling, Hilaire Belloc, Harold Nicolson, Jules Verne, Ludovic Kennedy et al.

Eminent Victorian Women Elizabeth Longford (Papermac £4.95) Illustrated. Florence Nightingale, Ellen Terry, the Bronte sisters, Annie Besant, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Kingsley and Dr James Miranda Barry, the emi- nent surgeon who dressed as a man all helped in the early years of women's struggle for recogni- tion and independence.

Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts Alfred Brendel (Robson £3.95) At the typewriter keyboard, Brendel interprets Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Busoni, his teacher Edwin Fischer and pianos in general. He is now performing Beethoven's complete piano sonatas in 10 European cities.

De Bono's Thinking Course Edward de Bono (BBC £3.75) Thinking skill is quite different from intelligence and can be improved with prac- tice, says the inventor of Lateral Thinking. Beware of the Intelligence Trap which enables you to argue fluently without understanding the situation at all. Personal Impressions Isaiah Berlin (OUP £2.95) Berlin has the ability to meet geniuses on equal terms and is equally forthright on human beings and on ideas. Namier, the Jewish historian, was a genius and a bore, he says. Churchill, Weiz- mann, Bowra, Einstein, Huxley and Pasternak are amongst the friends he describes here.

The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea Yukio Mishima (King Penguin £1.95) A 13-year- old watches through a peep-hole as his mother carries on a passionate affair with a starry-eyed sailor and the boy's friends decide how to put a gruesome end to it all. A weird and sinister tale of love and violence which would be funny if it wasn't Japanese.

The Call of the Wild Jack London (Puffin 85p) The classic Klondike Gold Rush story of a well- to-do Californian dog who gets taken away to become a sledge dog in the Yukon. Buck's innate breeding and strength sees him through and he escapes this humiliation to become the much respected leader of a wolf-pack.

Culture and Anarchy in Ireland 1890-1939 F.S.L. Lyons (OUP £3.50) Sounds like a cure for insomnia but these 1978 Ford lectures by the former Provost of Trinity College, Dublin cover the period between the fall of Parnell and the death of Yeats, a lively one in literature and politics.

The Falklands War The Sunday Times Insight Team (Sphere £2.50) A chronicle of events based on news reports but containing additional facts now available. Subtitled 'The Full Story', it does not pre-empt the official report, says In- sight, but merely suggests an important part of its agenda.

Hugh Gailskell Philip M. Williams (OUP £5.95) Though not quite PM, Gaitskell (the name means 'goat pen') left a more lasting impression than most party leaders. Macmillan said Gait- skell missed all the fun of opposition by behaving as if he were in government.

Ice Sir Fred Hoyle (New English Library £1.95) Will another cold winter herald the return of the Ice Age? Probably not but Hoyle believes it will happen if we don't take steps to protect our en- vironment. It's all to do with ice crystals in the air diffusing the sun light.

Let's Lunch in London Corrine Streich (Paper- mac £3.95) Overfed and over here, the author of Let's Lunch in New York selects her 300 favourite lunch places — no mean feat. Restaurant lunches serve many purposes, im- pressing clients, making contacts, initiating romance without going too far, making secret plans or talking your heart out. So variety is clearly essential.

Salome Dear, Not With a Porcupine; Three Decades of New Statesman Competitions Selected and introduced by Arthur Marshall (Un- win £1.95) Some prizewinning entries from 1955-1478. Wit from many of the pens which in recent years have also been contributing to the Spectator's competitions.

Good Behaviour Molly Keane (Abacus £2.95) The story of an Anglo-Irish family who cling to their old way of life, losing their grip on their bank balances and on the changing political situation. 'We'd rather be shot in Ireland than live in England' is their tolerant and nostalgic view of the frightful things going on around them.