Books

STEVE ANDREW examines an account of Israeli racism told through the eyes of a medic.

ON one level, David Marquand's book does exactly what it intends to do. It charts the development of Britain's democratic institutions and tries to understand the interaction of the key political figures, events and social classes that have helped to make the British state what it is today. And it is a comprehensive, well-written and informative account.

ON Space and Time seems to be aimed at a popular audience that is prepared to do a bit of work.

COMPILED from a series of guidebooks about Britain written between 1897 and 1948, this collection is very much a mixed bag. At its very worst, it's terribly English and middle class.

PAULINE FRASER follows foreign correspondents into the bloody fray of the Spanish civil war.

THIS is a fascinating but frustrating work, a sort of post-modernist book about the writing of a book, a memoir not so much of the author's origins but of his struggle to make sense of what he can find out about his far-flung Levantine ancestors.

TIM Pat Coogan is more famous in Britain for his journalism than as a man in his own right. He has written a history of the IRA, on "the troubles" in the north of Ireland and on great Irish historical figures such Eamonn de Valera and Michael Collins. This book, however, is about Coogan himself.

WITH his 20th novel, John le Carre's latest treatment of the Kafkaesque world of what is laughably termed the intelligence services is never less than totally assured.

TOM MELLEN reads Christian Parenti's unflinching analysis of the US justice system.

THERE are some people who hold that, had the official US attitude to September 11 1973 in Santiago de Chile been different, September 11 2001 in Manhattan could well have been rather different, too.