As a critic, John Carey confounds many professional writers by writing better than they do, with a gift for memorable phrase that few of them share. As a consequence, his disapprobation is much to be feared. In my early days I was on the receiving end of some of that, so I speak from experience. But he is not just out to cut pretentious writers off at the knees. (I like to think that his objectivity was proved when he found some of my later books more tolerable.) He is a happy celebrant of quality and knows how to detect it even when it comes from a figure he otherwise deplores, such as Evelyn Waugh.