17 MAY 1975, page 14

Fiction

Traditional Peter Ackroyd A Division of the Spoils Paul Scott (Heinemann £4.90) First Love, Last Rites Ian McEwen (Jonathan Cape £2.50) Paul Scott's new novel opens with a......

Talking Of Books

The comedy of a dead soul Benny Green Ever since Maurice Baring dubbed him "the greatest humorist of Russian literature" more than sixty years ago, there has been a tendency to......