22 JUNE 1985, page 26

Unfortunate Spinsters Down Under

Margaret FitzHerbert THE GOVERNESSES by Patricia Clarke Hutchinson, £12.95 F or those who sometimes lie awake in the small hours of the night, feeling a little at odds with......

Apples, A Dead Baby And Orphans

David Profumo THE CIDER HOUSE RULES by John Irving Cape, f8.95 F or a writer like Irving, whose sen- timentalism and graphic violence are equally celebrated, the choice of an......