16 JUNE 1984, page 29

The Aristocrats

Careless of petit-bourgeois shame, They bent the rules yet played the game. Now they're just people in old homes Distinguished by a lack of gnomes. The richer ones invest, keep......

Poverty And Rain

Mark Amory Jean Rhys: Letters 1931-36 Edited by Francis Wyndham and Diana . Melly (Andre Deutsch £10.95) T etters are arbitrary. Crucial events may A be left out because the......

Poetry Books

All irony and no fire Michael Horovitz Some Contemporary Poets of Britain and Ireland Edited by Michael Schmidt (Carcanet Press £9.95, £4.50) M ichael Schmidt's preface begins......