Reviews

Tanya Gold, in The Spectator, writes restaurant reviews; they are almost all unfavourable.

It would be more helpful for me, at least, to read about undiscovered gems or newly opened examples of culinary virtuosity. Book reviews are a different matter. Tina Brown (CBE !); The Palace Papers, Century, £20. She was interviewed the other day on the Today programme so maybe it’s worth a score? Hugo Vickers’ review in The Oldie put me right. It’s a masterpiece (his review), demolishing his erstwhile friend’s book but not leaving me high and dry. The second half of his article surveys the best royal biographies, although he cannot resist putting in one he edited. I have ordered two of them and look forward to reading about Queen Victoria and George V.

In the same issue of The Oldie Harry Mount does an even more effective demolition job on Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK, by Simon Kuper (Profile Books £16.99). He sees why Kuper was interested in Oxford as a political crucible. “It is extraordinary that of the 15 postwar Prime Ministers, 11 went to Oxford. The other four didn’t go to university at all (Winston Churchill, James Callaghan and John Major) or went to Edinburgh (Gordon Brown).” His cogent critique of Chums will not boost Kuper’s sales.

Harry Mount is not a sour old curmudgeon, at least I don’t think so. He later praises the new Downton Abbey film. “Fellowes isn’t in Wodehouse’s league – nor would he claim to be. But he pulls off the same trick – of allowing us to escape into a more delightful world … In a world of dark, grim, plot-free, self-indulgent films, a trip to Downton is a quickfire blast of sunny innocence under a clear blue, Mediterranean sky.”

Henry Mance, reviewing The Palace Papers in The Financial Times writes: “we don’t want another royals book”. Actually I do if it’s a good one and I expect there will be some of them. In fact I am just starting Behind Closed Doors by Hugo Vickers.