10 JANUARY 1998, page 29

An Ideal Companion

Richard Shone SOUNDINGS by Anita Brookner Harvill, £16.99, pp. 214 T hose of us of a certain age who remember Anita Brookner as an art histo- rian before she became the premier......

Clerihew Corner

The reputation of the poet Spenser Couldn't be immenser, Yet those who have finished his Faerie Queene Are very few and far between. James Michie......

Ruff And Tumble

Anne Somerset UNICORN'S BLOOD by Patricia Finney Orion, £16.99, pp. 454 H istorical novels make me uneasy. All too often the juxtaposition of established fact with invention,......