21 SEPTEMBER 1991, page 36

You And Whose Army?

They gave him his part in the school play at Christmas And smiled when they told him 'You won't need to practise And surely your Dad has a velveteen waistcoat And won't you be......

Lying Down With The Kid

John Wells THE LIAR by Stephen Fry Heinemann, £13.99, pp.277 A drian Healey, Fry's bisexual hero, has just been introduced to real foie gras: You'll find the Carton Charlemagne......

Poetry Amid The Battle

Penelope Lively UNDER EGYPT'S SPELL: THE INFLUENCE OF EGYPT ON WRITERS IN ENGLISH FROM THE 18TH CENTURY by Mursi Saad el Din and John Cromer Bellew Publishing, £18.95, pp. 254......