All Things Considered

***MOST UNCOMMON SIGNED AND INSCRIBED*** What better way to place the events of the last two years in perspective - not to mention enjoy yourself - than by relishing Bernard Levin's latest selection of his articles for the Times? It is a period which has seen an alarming new campaign against homosexuals, a growing harshness in legal procedures and turmoil in the Church. Single Issue Fanatics have threatened human life in the name of animal rights, while the Nanny state seems determined to govern not just what we read and view, but even what we eat. Beyond his pleas for our personal liberty, Levin here pays tribute to Janet Suzman for bringing Othello to an uneasy Johannesburg audience and to Ronald Harwood for bringing God to an even more uneasy London audience. He discusses the correlation between orchestra conducting and longevity, chess championship and madness, and why the subject of spectacles is likely to come up at the next AGM of the Alfred Brendel Groupies. While urging policemen never to appear on television and Sara Keays to cease her revenge, Levin also salutes David Schummy for being the world's greatest boomerang thrower, and even finds mystery in asterisks. On art, politics, the naming of plants and decoration of stamps - from Kurt Waldheim to pornography - Levin's opinions are ever humane and never ambiguous. And there is even an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury. In earnest or jest, by way of hilarious diversions and all things considered - if you agree with him or sometimes you do not - Bernard Levin's views are invariably stimulating. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.…