I must be a masochist to try Secrest's latest, Duveen. It reads like a romance novel with a dizzying number of facts (the card catalog school of history we always called it) and unfortunately the subject not as endearing as Clark.

But how comforting to see a roster of familiar names like Francis Haskell whom we knew in Cambridge. I will never forget that dinner with Michael Jaffe and FH at the Cocke's; it was my first introduction to the high snobbery of shameless name dropping and one upsmanship in knowledge of FACTS!!!!!! Perhaps it is what put me off becoming a professorial type.

Say what one might Secrest's achievement is considerable and She Did It!