12 SEPTEMBER 1957, page 26

The Brooding Monastery

Cassino—Portrait of a Battle. By Fred Maj- dalany. (Longmans, 21s.) THOSE who had fought in Africa found the Italian campaign hard going by contrast. 'The trouble with this......

Fabulous Vanderbilt

SOME books are made to be read : others to be rummaged through. In most of us the rummaging instinct is keen; and from exploring such books one sometimes derives the same......

How Mad Was Nero?

Nero. By Gerard Walter. Translated by Emma Craufurd. (Allen and Unwin, 25s.) WHAT would a psychiatrist make of a man who could commit incest with his mother, then murder her,......