10 JANUARY 1969, page 17

Rat's Bane

JOHN ROWAN WILSON The Black Death Philip Ziegler (Collins 36s) The reservoir of infection from which the great plague of the fourteenth century took its origin is thought to be......

Small Wonders

ROY STRONG Buckingham Palace John Harris, Geoffrey de Bellaigue and Oliver Millar (Nelson 8 gns) The English House through Seven Centuries Olive Cook (Nelson 7 gns) Great Houses......

The Steam Whistle

SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER It is one of the pleasures of age to realise that at the Battle of the Nile one was there all the while. Reading Pat Barr's admirable study of the Meiji......