16 AUGUST 1986, page 21

Down To A Sunless Sea

Patrick Skene Catling ONLY BY MISTAKE by P. J. Kavanagh John Calder, £9.95 I nnocence is so rare, even in its least daring, negative form of nonwickedness, that the shining......

Snapping At The Bait

Francis King MATING BIRDS by Lewis Nkosi Constable, £8.95 F ar more American novels about life in the Deep South have concerned them- selves with perilous sexual relationships......