25 Years of Terror The IRA's War against the British, by Martin Dillon (revised edition, Bantam, £5.99 in UK)

This book is especially topical now that the ceasefire appears to be definitely off and the drearily familiar round of terrorism and counter terrorism has resumed its numbing, predictable course. It was originally entitled The Enemy Within, and this edition is a revised one with an updated foreword. The British public appears to have regarded events in Northern Ireland at first with horror, disbelief and incomprehension the thought that the violence would be carried over to "the mainland" scarcely occurred to it. Since then, a long train of bombings, political assassinations and other blows has placed the Irish Question in the foreground rather than the background. Martin Dillon pulls no punches about the political, military and other blunders which have worsened the evils they were meant to curb. He believes that England is heading towards disengagement in Northern Ireland, though Major's most recent stance or turnabout? must make this questionable.