20 MAY 2000, page 49

Moscow Advances And Retreat

Simon Sebag Montefiore TO THE HERMITAGE by Malcolm Bradbury Picador, £16, pp. 498 I n October 1773, Denis Diderot, the phil- osophe and literary celebrity of his age second only......

A Keen Wind From The North

Frank Kermode THE BOOK OF PREFACES by Alasdair Gray Bloomsbury, £35, pp. 639 his book is both weird and wonderful' as totally sui generic as The Anatomy o f Melancho, a work......

Spectator Book Of The Week

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