15 JANUARY 2000, page 35

Is It A Bird?

Is it a fish? Hugh Lawson-Tancred KANT AND THE PLATYPUS by Umberto Eco Secker, £20, pp. 464 I magine that you are an Aztec warrior confronted by the sudden arrival on your......

To Have And To Let Go

Theodore Dalrymple THE SEX-CHANGE SOCIETY by Melanie Phillips Profile Books, £12.99, pp. 370 A t least a third of British children are now born out of wedlock, and more often......

Two Epicurean Stoics

George Melly BILL AND PATIENCE: AN ECCENTRIC MARRIAGE AT STOWE AND BEYOND by Harriet Hall The Book Guild, f16.95, pp. 305 T he McElwees, mother and father of the author of this,......