11 JULY 1987, page 32

Desperately Affable But Not Amusing

Aidan Higgins PLAYING FOR TIME by Jeremy Lewis Collins, £12.95 I n the damp kingdom of the unfunny phrase, presided over by posturing Ken- neth Williams, fawning Frankie Howerd,......

Drifting Out

She sits beside his bed in the winter dusk. Just for a while she can do nothing more. Doctor and priest have been. His sons will come By a night train. She keeps the curtains......

Falling In With The Old Groaner

Laurence Lerner THE LETTERS OF ALFRED LORD TENNYSON: Vol II, 1851- 1870 edited by Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon Jr. Clarendon Press, PIO T ennyson hated writing letters.......