Recent paperbacks
James Hughes-Onslow
An Actor and His Time John Gielgud (Penguin pp. 229, £1.50). Listeners to Gielgud's off-thecuff radio talks may have thought they had been taken in by his mellifluous voice. Now that his life is in cold print (slightly adapted by John Goldsmith) we can see that he is a natural observer and brilliant name-dropper.
The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe (Bantam pp. 367, £1.50), Monkeys went up first, proving themselves very good astronauts, which was a shock for the magnificent seven MCreury team who had already been to the edge of space in rocket planes (rather like the shuttle) and who were trained to come first. They were made of the right stuff. Political intrigue and drama which belies their laconic packaged image.
A Giacometti Portrait James Lord (Faber pp. 117, £2.25). A portrait of the artist, by his model. One moment it's nearly finished, the next it's scrubbed out and Giacornetti is about to give up painting. But his subject keeps him going with wide-ranging discussions on life and art, finally deciding for himself that the picture iS finished by voting with his feet.
A Patient's Guide to Operations Dr David Delvin (Penguin pp. 329, £1.95). What happens while you're at their mercy told with that breezy clinical humour which doctors think we find reassuring. Hernia sufferers may have to have a testicle removed but they'll probably be consulted first. Anyway, it doesn't matter. One is enough, as long as it's the one that works.
Black and White Donald Woods (Quartet pp. 142, £2.50). You can't keep politics out of South African sport, says the former editor of the Daily Dispatch in a wide-ranging, if personal, discourse on Apartheid. He is trying to persuade the Irish rugby team not to go there because the blacks like the Irish and because it's rugby, not cricket, the Afrikaners play. A liberal racialist playing his own game?
China Men Maxine Hong Kingston (Picador pp. 301, £1.50). A sequel to The Woman Warrior which was about the female side of her family. This one deals with her grandfather, father and brother and how a Chinese girl of traditional upbringing is gradually assimilated into California life. A link between two cultures, part memory, part myth.
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