Peter Levi
To choose the most overrated book of the year is a mouth-watering exercise that leaves a taste of ashes; these bad, silly books are not interesting enough to write about. To judge by John Carey's defence of it on television, something called Illy- whacker, short-listed for the Booker Prize, was overestimated grossly enough, but would not dream of reading it.
I got enormous pleasure from the Col- lected Roy Fuller and I know I shall have pleasure from this master as long as I live. I was also greatly excited by the new pub- lication of The Bayeux Tapestry introduced by David M. Wilson (Thames & Hudson). It is painful not to be able to offer a dozen books instead of two. I have read a lot of thrilling collections of poetry, many more than usual. I spent the whole summer with the Aeneid and Dryden, but I thought Roy Fuller in autumn stood up to them admirably, and so did John Fuller.
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