12 OCTOBER 1996, page 46

No End Of A Lesson

Theodore Dalrymple ALL MUST HAVE PRIZES by Melanie Phillips Little, Brown, £17.50, pp. 288 L ast week, I asked a girl aged 15 to multiply three by nine. One could almost hear......

A Style For Every Story

Francis King THE BRIDE OF TEXAS by Josef Skvorecky Faber, £15.99, pp. 606 L ike those dust-jackets which boast that this or that author has been 'nominat- ed' for the Booker......