A.n. Wilson

I think that Shadow Play by Frances Fyfield (Bantam, £14.99) is her best novel to date, and that means it is pretty good. My hair stood on end for about a week after finish- ing......

Bevis Hillier

The tradition of the professional autobiog- rapher is an honourable one — Augustus Hare, Lady Dorothy Nevill, Sir Osbert Sitwell, Sir Compton Mackenzie, Christopher Isherwood —......

Richard Cobb

The book that I most enjoyed reading this year was Michael Bloch's biography of Ribbentrop (Bantam, £14.99). His subject, both as ambassador and as foreign minis- ter, raised......

Philip Glazebrook

Death Plus Ten Years by Roger Cooper (HarperCollins, £17.50) is the account of the fight put up by a strong-willed English - man to prevent his Iranian gaolers from imprisoning......

Jeffrey Bernard

Nothing very intellectual here. My favourite book of the year was John Keegan's A History of Warfare (Hutchinson, £20). Keegan is without doubt the most thrilling military......

Lindsay Anderson

Surely the fact that my own name — and words — appear in Jocelyn Herbert: A Workbook (Art Books International, £30) doesn't disqualify me from choosing it as one of my best......

Mary Killen

I prefer the Low Depravity Content of books from yesteryear so two favourites were reprints. One of the most comforting was The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford, republished......