11 JANUARY 1975, page 17

The Twilight World

Peter Ackroyd The Leavetaking John McGahern (Faber and Faber £2.50) The Best of Antrobus Lawrence Durrell (Faber and Faber £2.50) The Lea vetaking is written in a Gaelic......

Apes And Angels

Benny Green That Charles Darwin should nave been so mild-mannered and self-effacing an old gentleman, even when he was a young man, is one of the best jokes of the nineteenth......

Bookbuyer's

Bookend Why is it that the exciting things always seem to happen just before Christmas, when the newspapers are preparing to shut up shop? Take the book trade last month, for......