Alan Watkins

I most enjoyed two dissimilar books by similar historians, Gwyn A. Williams's When Was Wales? (Black Raven Press) and Richard Cobb's People and Places. Professor Williams is......

J. G. Links

For once I am in no doubt as to the 'best' book of the year — for me. It is Easing the Passing by Patrick Devlin. I have always been a murder-trial addict and the second half of......

Edward Norman

This year saw the republication of Aldous Huxley's travel notes of the East, Jesting Pilate: The Diary of a Journey (Paladin, £2.50), originally produced in 1926. A large part......

Peregrine Worsthorne

Best books: Peter Vansittart's autobiographical memoir, Paths from a White Horse, which is a beautiful description of the author's lifelong love affair with words. Ben Pim-......

Noel Malcolm I Am Usually Too Busy Reading Old Books

to manage very many new ones. None of my choices, therefore, is altogether new. The first is an obvious one: Geoffrey Hill's Collected Poems, newly assembled by Pen- guin. Some......

Auberon Waugh

It may seem whimsical or twee to say so, but I honestly do not think I have enjoyed any book this year so much as A Turbulent Decade: The Diaries of Auberon Waugh 1976-1985. All......