RECENT & READABLE

An English Year, by Nan Fairbrother. An Englishwoman's beautifully written reflections on changing nature, growing children and the wonders of life in general (TIME, June 7).

Madame de Pompadour, by Nancy Mitford. A life of Louis XV's dazzling mistress, done up in rich literary brocades by a fine British writer (TIME, June 7).

Chinese Gordon: The Story of a Hero, by Lawrence & Elisabeth Hanson. A first-rate biography of the odd but dazzling fish who was Victorian England's shining knight (TIME, May 31).

The Golden Echo, by David Garnett. A British novelist's memoirs of a wacky and celebrity-studded youth (TIME, May 24).

The Tunnel of Love, by Peter De Vries. A punny farce about sin and redemption in suburban Connecticut (TIME, May 24).

The Courts of Memory, by Frank Rooney. One of the year's best first novels, although tedious in spots, about the lost generation of the '30s and its conformist nonconformists (TIME, May 17).

The Reason Why, by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Best and most fascinating account to date of the most glorious snafu in military history: the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava (TIME, May 10).

From the Danube to the Yalu, by Mark W. Clark. Lessons and recommendations for his countrymen by an American general who has fought Communism in Europe and Asia (TIME, May 3).

The Fire-Raisers, by Marris Murray. A vivid, moody story about a South African valley and its willy-nilly incendiaries (TIME, April 26).

Minutes of the Last Meeting, by Gene Fowler. More stories about those three Hollywood musketeers, John Barrymore, W. C. Fields and Author Fowler, disguised as a biography of their colleague and poetic oracle, Sadakichi Hartmann (TIME, April 5).

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