The humour of self-deprecation is peculiarly English. Few people do it better than Jeremy Lewis. His first two autobiographical volumes - Playing for Time and Kindred Spirits - are being reissued in Faber Finds to coincide happily with his third volume - Grub Street Irregular - being published by HarperCollins. The second volume of Jeremy Lewis''s wonderfully entertaining autobiography sees him starting out with a mixture of diffidence and self-professed incompetence on a career in publishing. Along the way we see him tucking into cod and chips with Jane and Geoffrey Grigson drinking tea with Kingsley Amis and retsina with Patrick Leigh-Fermor. When reviewing this book Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson called it ''The funniest book I have ever read about publishing. this is not merely a hugely entertaining book but an important one''. That judgment still stands. . Language: English