CHRISTMAS BOOKS II
A further selection of the best and most overrated books of the year, chosen by some of The Spectator's regular contributors P. J. Kavanagh Young Jason Goodwin, fascinated by Byzantium, decides to walk there, to Istan- bul, and with fine perversity chooses the most uncomfortable route, from the Baltic to the Bosphorous, across Eastern Europe. A travel book is only as good as the traveller, and Goodwin is so engaging, his observations so just and well-expressed, that in On Foot to the Golden Horn (Chat- to, £15.99) we willingly follow him every step (mostly painful) of the way. Another youngster, Alain de Beaton, in Essays in Love (Macmillan, £12.99), a first book, catalogues obsessively an obsession (with a girl). The result is original, truthful and sometimes funny. It is the kind of book that could become a cult, or disappear at once. Whichever, it is an impressive begin- ning, and a cheerful one.
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