NON-REALIST YEARBOOK Physical courage one admires, of course. Yet I think moral courage is more to be commended. Serenity is supposed to come with age: I am not sure that it does.
The Yearbook of Courage and Serenity by Celia Haddon (Michael Joseph, £8.99) is for those in whom all these qualities arc called for, and it could fortify them greatly in the time of trial that we are living through.
It consists of a personal selection of quotations, one for every day of the year. In her preface the author states: "The first time I heard it, the word 'God' was hateful to my cars: [it] had an aura of religiosity, self-righteousness and condemnation. The god that I believed in (though I told myself I was an atheist) was a tyrant bcnt on torturing mankind. He was my moral inferior who would doom me and those I loved to Hell. If any of you... find the word 'God' difficult or worrying, I bcg you simply to substitute a word like 'love', or give it any meaning you choose." Clearly she is our kind of author! - MICHAEL PATERSON.
The Yearbook of Courage and Serenity, by Celia Haddon. Michael Joseph, £8.99.