... the eighties, and it becomes apparent that Britain now has an exceptionally gifted crop of composers. As usual, however, they are probably appreciated more abroad than in this country, where concertgoers and record buyers are inclined to be ultra-conservative and most contemporary music is consigned to an artistic ghetto of new music instead of being prog rammed in ordinary concert ...

... monstrously priced, attempts to examine the variety of ways in which Shakespeare exploited basic techniques of structural design until, transformed by his ingenuity they become as recognisable a part of his signature as the dense poetic texture produced by his clusters of imagery. It is to actors rather than academics that Professor Brennan, director of the annual Shakespeare seminar at ...

... Linda Evans by Michael Freedland Published by Weidenfeld Nicolson £9.95. TO thousands of middle-aged women across the United States and in Britain, Krystle Carrington, the role played by Linda Evans in Dynasty, inspires hope. Hope that a woman in her early forties can still be sexually attractive, glamorous and charming and retain the untiring love and respect from a wealthy oil magnate ...

... Why doesn't Paul do a better job himself? The ex-Beatles publicist on a sketchy portrait of McCartney Goddess: the Secret Lives of Marih/a Monroe, by Aatkoay Summers (Gol- laacz, £12.95) Anthony Summers has researched this book with a thoroughness which is a cross between that of a private detective and a serious historian, not a particularly good combination for an easy read. But in its ...

... theatre as a distinctive genre, and are quite right to take this attitude, because plays which adopt feminist stances should be treated on their merits as theatre. It seems a trifle strange to find pieces which have been widely presented in Britain, such as Top Girls, Piaf, Once a Catholic and Steaming, signposted as feminist landmarks in this book. But this volume in the Macmilian ...

... Yearbook continues to be the finest reference work of its kind, and even though, as is often the case with reference books these days, there has been a spin-off in the shape of the British Music Education Yearbook, the previous small section in this volume concerning music education still re mains. There are no new features but one can commend Robert Maycock's usual ex cellent Musical Britain ...

... that one cannot place a lot of reliance on the biographical sections of Kate Lynch's study, particularly because, as an American, she can have little personal knowledge of the singer's background or his work in the mid-sixties with a variety of bands, like the King Bees, the Lower Third and the Mankh Boys. Bowie is quite unique in that he has invented a whole range of personae for himself, so ...

... Denison must be the most fully chronicled theatrical married couple of modem times, including the jointly-written The Actor and his World, two autobiographies by him self, Overture and Beginners and Double Act and now the eagerly awaited one by herself which, along with 24 other books, one of which, The Glanville Women the story of a theatrical family is at least part autobi ographical, is a ...

... chroniclers than Charlie Gillett, whose own tastes are evidenced both by the radio programmes he presents and the records he releases on his Oval label. Gillett has a sure eye and ear for the differing strands of pop, nowhere better illustrated than by this book, a reissue of a volume first published in 1974, which tells the story of what must be his favourite record company, Atlantic. For me, ...

... Beatles details The Complete Beatles Recording Ses sions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Yean by Mark Lewisohn (Ham- lyn Books, £12.95) Mark Lewisohn has graduated from being a commendably painstaking music business research man to gaining recognition as one of the world's most reliable and authoritative experts on the history of The Beatles, and the working lives of the group's members ...

... produced an interest ing history of the music of the twenties, relating it strongly to the social and political influences of the decade. This was of course the age of Prohibi tion, against which jazz developed. But the important feature of the twenties was that it really saw the flowering of the popular music industry. It was in this decade that Gershwin, Kern, Rod- gers and Han, Berlin and ...

... BOOKS Hamp, by Lionel Hampton with James Haskins (Robson Books, £14.95) LET no one accuse Lionel Hampton of writing one of those jazz biographies which is long on sensation, but short on facts. Hamp is fairly stuffed with them, band per sonnels, touring schedules, recording dates. One sus pects that this is largely due to his late wife Gladys, a remarkable woman who believed that being both ...