31 AUGUST 1985, page 25

A Modern Emma Woodhouse

Harriet Waugh UNEXPLAINED LAUGHTER by Alice Thomas Ellis Duckworth, £8.95 I n her short, edged comedies of human failure in the face of some ultimate good , Alice Thomas Ellis......

A Man Bewitched By Mermaids

Philip Glazebrook KEEPER OF THE STREAM: THE LIFE OF A RIVER AND ITS TROUT FISHERY by Frank Sawyer Allen & Unwin, £9.95 A good fishing book fills the fisherman who reads it with......