Margaret FitzHerbert
People tend, very tiresomely, to have a political reaction to Doris Lessing; as a result, many may miss her outstanding new novel, The Good Terrorist. It is quite excellent and makes one realise how un- satisfactory is the thin diet of the clever, slight, stylish novels to which we have all become accustomed.
The book which gave me most pleasure this year was a privately printed but commercially obtainable memorial to Caroline Hill. A complete, illustrated cata- logue of all her paintings, watercolours, drawings, etchings and fabric designs, with essays by assorted friends and critics and short notes by the subjects of her portraits (including Graham Greene), it is both fascinating to read and beautiful to look at.
The biography I enjoyed most was Robert Gray's polished but very provoking life of Cardinal Manning.
Susan Chitty's mendacious, malicious book about her distinguished mother Antonia White was the most overrated.
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