3 DECEMBER 1977, page 32

Christmas Crime

Patrick Cosg rave There are fewer more interesting and Perhaps instructive contrasts than that b etween the American tradition of the to ti8h, professional private eye, and the......

Watery Grave

Peter Ackroyd Beggarman, Thief Irwin Shaw (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.95) For those of you who are interested, it's nothing like the television programme. White men in the book......

Man Of Letters

Benny Green Letters on Literature and Politic s, 1912-1972 Edmund Wilson (Routledg e £12.50) What is the purpose of this or any other review? Is it for the writer to perform a......