4 MAY 1974, page 20

The Oldest Profession

Peter Ackroyd The Athenian Widow Robert Harling (Chatto and Windus £2.50) Oktoberfest Frank De Felitta (Collins £2.25) ABCD David Slavitt (Hamish Hamilton, £2.40) The Athenian......

Uneasy Lies The Tsar

Robert Blake Alexander I, Tsar of War, and Peace Alan Palmer (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.95) The grandson of Catherine the Great has always appeared as an ambiguous and......