John McEwen
The Great Age of Watercolour by Andrew Wilton and Anne Lyles (Prestel, £48). Superb memento of a wonderful exhibition which should be produced every time someone says the English have no visual sense.
Rebecca's Vest by Karl Miller (Hamish Hamilton, £14.99). A Scotch book in substance and style, passionate auto- biographical melancholy blended with liter- ary musings, by, of course, a legendary ex- literary editor of this magazine.
Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence (Harvill, £20). A very grown-up book, gold dust to over-50s. The middle-aged Flaubert the challenger, championing justice; the old-aged Sand the comforter, advocating mercy. One is a source of nuggets, the other of consolation. 'The first remedy would be to abolish universal sufferage, that insult to human intelligence.' (Flaubert). 'On the day I decided to put youth behind me I immediately felt 20 years younger.' (Sand).
Worst: any art book which describes a picture or sculpture having 'resonance'.
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