The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 27

Sunday Plus: 27 THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY 14 NOVEMBER 1982 CULTIVATING THE MIND an amateur could wish to grow and even includes vines in the open, and growing these and tree fruits of various kinds in pots. Guidance on choice of varieties, cultivation and pruning is given simply and The arranging of flowers in churches and cathedrals has always been a real labour of love. It has been so often a case of trial and error, particularly years back when we had no modern accessories like blocks of Oasis (water absorbent material), florist wires or even attractive containers to Gil with flowers. In those days not everyone knew about wire netting supports and we had no books for guidance. Accordingly many thousands of devoted folk who regularly arrange church flowers will I am sure welcome Growing and Arranging the Church Flowers for Seasonal and Special Occasions' by Margaret Best (A.

Mowbray hardback 7.95, paperback 4.95). It contains not only practical advice but has many black and white illustrations to show the finished effects. As we grow older we understand better the difficulties of handicapped people who want to garden. 'Gardening istfor Everyone 'by Audrey Ooetantt. i Chris Underhill 6.95 hardback, 4.95 paperback) is a splendid encouragement to all disabled people even the housebound who want to garden.

with their names. It enriches our knowledge of the past half-century of gardening in Britain and the many splendidly autocratic, highly intelligent and creative gardeners and knowledgeable plantswomen who contributed so much to our heritage of British gardens and of garden lore. Into The Origins of Garden Plants' (Constable 12.95) John Fisher has packed a distillation of a vast amount of research. He tells 'the story behind the label' of some 900 plants we grow and love in our gardens. Not only do we learn where plants came from, how they got here and by whose efforts, but be also reveals much about the great names of the past whose interest in gardens sustained the search for new plants or the breeding of hybrids from them.

A splendid and readable book. One reference book I would not readily do without, and which is constantly by my side, is Perennial Garden Plants by Graham Thomas. It is good to see that a new revised and up-to-date edition (J. M. Dent 14.95) has just been produced.

It deals with hardy plants in great detail and is well illustrated, often with his own delightful pastel drawings. This is a book that any serious gardener would be glad to have. An excellent little paperback is 'Fruit Growing' by Mary Spiller (Penguin Books 2.95). It covers all the outdoor fruits BOOKS OF THE BODY BEAUTIFUL CELINA FOX looks through the latest batch of beauty manuals in for international travel thoueh as such, she scarcely Natasha NEAR Christmas we always get a spate of new gardening books. Some of these are 'all purpose volumes, ideal for reference, particularly for anyone new to gardening.

Then were are the specialist works, devoted to one type of plant or aspect of gardening, and this year, surprisingly, there are quite a number which deal with gardeners rather than gardening. Outstanding among the latter both for its research and content is William Robinson by Mea Allan (Faber and Faber 12.50). This irascible Irishman really brought us into the twentieth century with his condemnation of the carpet bedding and formal plantings of the late 1800s. A prolific writer with some 19 books to his credit and the founder of such periodicals as Gardening Illustrated, The Garden and the much sought-after Flora and Sylva, it was he along with Gertrude Jekyll who really influenced the gardening public to adopt a more natural approach in the use of plants. Robinson travelled a good deal, especially in France, where he seems to have been much impressed by French methods of training fruit trees, particularly peach trees fashioned to form such names as Napoleon and Lepere.

Surety most artificial, and contrary to his views on bedding plants 1 Mea Allan, who regrettably died just after its publication, has produced an outstanding JUDGING the squeals of delight, a little girl's best friend is her play tutu. Complete with shiny satin bodice, several layers of frothy net and matching satin knickers, these lurid garments are an obvious most for all child prodigies and a dear winner in the dressing-up box. 'Flower Fairies are available in 4. different colour combinations Wild Rose (pale pink bodice, pink and blue frills) Clematis (deep pmk bodice, lavender and violet frills); Forget-me-not (sky blue bodice, magenta' and deep blue frills) Sweet Pea (aqua bodice, white and pale lemon frills), and come in -3 sizes i 22 in. chest, price 10.75 24 in.

chest, price 26 in! chest, price 11.25, plus 60p from Flower Fairies, 102 Richmond Road, Montpelier, Bristol, Avon BS6 5ER. RETURNERS' is a useful handbook to help and encourage those women who took a break in their careers and who now want to return to paid work. It doesn't pretend to offer any magical formula for getting the job you want, but. it does demonstrate some of the practical steps you can take to make the search quicker and less painful, as.well as listing the various institutions and professional associations where you can get advice and information. First published in 1975, this new updated edition, written, by Elizabeth Dobbity fulfills an important need in an increasingly tight employment market.

Price 1.95 from National Advisory Centre on Careers for Women, Drayton House, 30 Gordon Street, London WC1. FOR THOSE who can knit (and I don't just mean one plain, work about a highly controversial figure and a very readable book. A Century of Gardeners by Betty Massingham (Faber and Faber 12.50) describes the life and work of 17 famous gardeners beginning with Sir Joseph Paxton and ending with Vita Sackville-West. It is fascinating to read about these garden giants of the past, although I do wonder if longer pieces about fewer people might have been more rewarding. As to be expected in these days when women are successfully asserting their rights, a book about outstanding women gardeners had to appear.

'Down to Earth Women by Dawn MacLeod (William Blackwood 7.95) is a volume to be dipped into and savoured, giving us anecdotes about the great norticulturalists of the past, and the plants associated one (purl), Kaori O'Connor's knitting kits include everything you need to make one of her original designs detailed pattern, yarn (2-ply pure Shetland), buttons and a designer label to finish off with. The kits were prompted by the huge response to the handko'tting section of her book, Creative Dressing (Penguin 4.95). There are four. designs "to choose from, all of- them rich in traditional symbolic stitches, and her prices are very 27.95 to 32.95 (you can now pay anything between 150 and 200 for a hand-knitted designer sweater). For a free colour brochure, send a sae to Creative Dressing, BCM Creative, London WC1N 3XX.

ANYONE entering the National Schizophrenia Fellowship International Poetry Com-petition take note that the closing date has bsen extended to 31 March. Carey Sedgwick Back massage (top) and facial exercises (above), fromOeborahHutton'8' VoeueBookofCompleteBeauty." Neusha a Nikolai tapestry kite bf Mrs. Grfgbry ere the perfect mecchirtf pair for the young or just the young at heert. Both kits can be worked quickly in one simple stitch by the beginner or the more experienced These lovely tapestries, worked in fourteen cheerful colours, can be purchased individuilty or as set. And they make a perfect Christmas girt.

Eadt.UpestriUlcosUtust 120 or 2295 for the pare Including pottay A packing. Eeety kit contains printed twelve squares to the Inch canvas, needle, plenty of wool and simple instructions. To order please send your chequePO. made payable to Headers Account Guildmark. to the address below enclosing your name and address (in BLOCK CAPITALS) and stating the tapestry kit you require for 12.50 or the pair for 2235.

tour gpods will bt to jtju wtlhin 21 dty. Ifyou art not wnpKttljr united mum the kit uraiwd tor a cmrtplru refund. tbur remittance thould be made payable to (trader Account OmldmeA end thll rrmjin your money until four psodi have bendpa(ed roycu theediiinl specified Natasha Nikolai Tapestry Offer Dept. OBI I Guildmark Products Everdon House. High March.

Daventry. Northants NNI 1 4RP Quiblktrk Products tl Begtttered tn England 16466H sssassassasaaasassssi It was not until the Sixties that the subject was researched in any depth, and this book is an exhaustive guide to the. latest in diets, recipes and exercises, induding 'water shape-ups' and Tai Chi. A New York doctor is even on call to put some svelte lady through the paces of his prescribed- course, but the photo-sequence disappointingly reveals that' be himself does not appear to have benefited from his own medicine. Vogue Young Beauty was written by Brbnwen Meredith with the help of a'; live teenager in the' shape bf her daughter, Arabella, we'are assured; has worked her way' through the book, 'though not, one hopes, through die chapter on.

'harmful Mrs Meredith's tone is distinctly nannyish, as if called iipn to advise a slightly subnormal 13 year-old. In teenage years, she says, it's a firm no to smoking, drinking and drugs. But her true-life moral tales on the associated dangers will hardly deter those most at risk, in. the unlikely event that they get beyond the contents page. She is all for teddy-bears, 'tidy bedrooms and baths not left for mothers to dean.

Rather discordantly, the wlioleiS'peppediiplvitlra large number of glossy pictures, 1 selected in the main, it would seem, from the portfolios of Italian photographers with Lolita complexes. By contrast, Felicity Dark's Vogue Guide' to Skin Care, Hair Care "arid MakeS-Up appears to be aimed moreat roe mature woman, with advice on professional skin treatments and expert make-up for women over 35. The reader -Ms Qark has in mind also evidently goes needs to be told twice over that humiditv olus air pollution can be found in large cities like'New York, Rome, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo. This is not a case of slipshod the book haying been bundled toeether in hardback from three paperbacks, but the level, of information presented is not of sufficient depth to be much use to anyone. The best of the bunch is Deborah Hutton's Vogue Book of Complete It starts out with the advantage of being designed with specially commissioned photographs.

The, lay-out is messy but fun the writing lively, and if up-to-dateness is the criterion of judgment, this is the only book to treat herpes as a social disease, not a cold sore. Ms Hutton does say that beauty lies in the heart of the possessor and age is an unalterable, unavoidable, inevitable fact. She is simply in favour of developing the habit of looking after your health and looks while you have them. Perhaps it is too defeatist to follow Robert Benchley, who advised that when you feel in- neea oi exercise, ue aown ana wait for it to go away. But tnslblehjueal purpose of these offer 'a more' glamorous forni of escape.

When the reflection in the mirror is too, depressing, lie. down and browse through them until you feel better. Cosmopolitan's Vital Health Bnay Press 4.95.,' Vogue Book of Diets and Penguin 4.95. Vogue Young Alien Lane 9.95. Vogue Guide to Skin Care and Make-UpS Allen Lane 7.95.

Vogue Complete Octopus Books 10.95. WIME gQPERgTOHES fikolai HADLEY WOOD 12 Crescent West ASH FOR M1DDX. RrTree Place LONDON BRIDGE Under Duke St, HiU. OUTSIDE LONDONt ANDOVER bi Uurlum RA BOURNEMOUTH MBWiraboma F4-SUNNINGDALE 1 Statsm Parade, CARDIFF 2 Oiv Rd. READING Heron Sma Sot.

Bath Ret -HOVE WINCHESTER 28 Jewry St SOUTHAMPTON Lower Banatcr St REIGATE 2b Church Sc PORTSMOUTH 7 Kingston Rd SaVknw a M64W1 I HAVE long suspected that writing health and beauty books is a form of superannuation for fading beauty editorsi The tame advice on r- diet and exercise, hair, skin and makeup is served up over again, garnished with a sprinkling of photographs, called from back numbers of the magazine with which they are associated. This year, nevertheless, has produced a bumper crop, which suggests that the publishers at least think there is something new to be said on the subject. Perhaps the post-feminist, second-stage woman is ripe for reshaping. Perhaps Jane Fonda is an -inspiring profit model. Whatever the reason, the new packaging is only skin deep.

Beneath it lies the quaint assumption that women have the time to spend on dance classes and special diets, if not on quite the scale of indulgence unveiled in Alan WMcker's memorable interview with Princess Pignatelli a few years ago. Certainly: Penny. Vincenzi, author of Cosmopolitan's Vital Health believes that, 'Potentially, you are a pretty amazing 'Did you WFT WPATHFB CLOTHES ioJOOM waterproof nylon cloth. CAPES 16.50. Raiuhit 14.30.

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Prices include postage and packing. vou are not comDletely satisfied pitas return within 7 days for the jacket blurb enquires, that fitness improves your sex life, gets you promotions, makes your skin glow After a brief discourse on fuel or diet, Ms Vincenzi zips through a course of from calisthenics, aerobics and the California Stretch to the time-honoured Lotte Berk Method, dance and gym. If all this proves too much of a strain, you can turn to chapters on yoga, meditation and alternative medicine. By way of encouragement presumably, these are inter-" spersed with pictures of bare-breasted beauties alongside muscle men, and Real Life Real Style stories, focusing on an impressive array of models and starlets, looking terrific on soap and water. In the face of such puritan zeal, it is something of a relief to come across a confession to junk food addiction or, among the hairdressers, a fondness for black Vogue- has made no less than four forays into this area over the last couple of years.

The Vogue Book of Diets and Exercises'-by Barbara Tims, first published in 1980, has just Per nquMM only, pksaaaj telephone 01 i Please been reissued as a paperback. The introduction gives a fascinating historical outline of slimming in Vogue. Among the first physicians purporting to cure obesity was a Dr Riviere, whose patients were offered, 'a colour bath without water or iodine, or with both they were also invited to try any position on any kind of mechanical steed, with any kind of Since his distinguished customers included Edward VTJ, no reliance should be placed, on success of his methods, but he was awarded-, the Ligion (PHomair for his valuable contributions to science. Primitive remedies included balancing on one's head, obesity bath sachets which when dissolved helped the evacuation of all. superfluous fat through the intestines' and reducing corsets for 'hunting, riding; dancing, day and evening Fasts became smart in the 1930s with Syrie Maugham asserting that she bad lived solely on water and a little.

orange juice for sot weeks. In; the following decade, compul sory rationing provided its own cure. 3S7 SMS Col Andrew's Hill. London EC4V. Observer East.

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