13 JUNE 1981, page 19

Soft Zoology

Nicholas Luard Sand Rivers Peter Matthiessen, with photographs by Hugo van Lawick (Aurum Press pp 213, £9.95) Divine pudding is not what the French chef serves you before brandy......

Blunt Knife

Alfred Alexander Mortal Lessons Richard Selzer (Chatto pp.216, f8.50). Mortal Lessons is a collection of 24 essays, sketches and short stories which have appeared in Esquire,......

Large Wrecks

Philip Warner Nightmare at Scapa Flow H.J. Weaver (Cressrelles pp. 194, £6.90) . Battleship Bismark: A Survivor's Story Baron Burkard von MiillenheimRechberg, trans. Jack......