5 JUNE 1982, page 27

Fiction

Past masters David Williams li istorical novel' is a chameleon phrase. Now it looks like this. Now it looks like that. What have The Talisman and War and Peace got in common?......

Misfit

Harriet Waugh Providence Anita Brookner (Jonathan Cape £6.95) A nita Brookner's second novel, Pro- vidence, is a beautiful study of a clever, pretty, rather unhappy woman who......