14 FEBRUARY 1987, page 42

That's No Lady That's An Arsonist

Francis King THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY by Fay Weldon Hutchinson, £8.95 T he first thing that strikes one on starting this novel is the force of the personality of a narrator......

A Selection Of Recent Paperbacks

FICTION Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis, Picador, £3.95 A Fanatic Heart by Edna O'Brien, Pen- guin, £4.95 Police at the Funeral and Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham.......