Richard Ingrams
Everyone complains that people use this feature to plug their friends' books, but these tend to be the only books I read. I therefore feel no shame about recommend- ing Incline Our Hearts by A. N. Wilson (Hamish Hamilton, £11.95) which must be his best novel to date, full of good jokes and subtle observation. I also much en- joyed another novel with a Prayer Book title, An Intolerable Burden by Teresa Waugh (Hamish Hamilton, £10.95). This book also seemed to me to be the author's best so far. It succeeds in conveying the flavour of the modern world without being indignant.
Needless to say I derived great pleasure from reading The Silence in the Garden by William Trevor (Bodley Head, £9.95). As a writer, Trevor seems to me greatly superior to all the Booker-prize finalists.
Two real-life thrillers I found unput- downable: Stalker by John Stalker (Har- rap, £12.95) and When Salem Came to the Boro by Stuart Bell MP (Pan, £3.99), an account of the Cleveland Child Abuse scandal. Both books were very well writ- ten.
The most beautiful book I acquired was The Wood Engravings of John Nash, com- piled by Jeremy Greenwood (published by the Wood Lea Press, Grassendale Lane, Liverpool L19 ONH, £48). Very bold im- ages, many of plants. A bit of an eye- opener.
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