12 SEPTEMBER 1987, page 34

The Smack Of Firm Government

Piers Paul Read A GOOD ENOUGH PARENT: THE GUIDE TO BRINGING UP YOUR CHILD by Bruno Bettelheim Thames & Hudson, £12.95 B runo Bettelheim, together with Erik H. Erikson, is......

Convicts And Convictions

Nicholas Lezard THE PLAYMAKER by Thomas Keneally Hodder & Stoughton, £10.95 0 f them fiction could make much, though history says nothing.' These are the last words of The......

After The

ball was over . . . J. L. Carr THE BOOK AND THE BROTHERHOOD by Iris Murdoch Chatto & Windus, £11.95 T hese are hard times for book-writers. Booker season is here and publishers......