I probably wouldn't have chosen a work of criticism rather than Proust if the Bible and Shakespeare weren't already there, but for some years now I have taken the view that my 'Desert Island' book, if I were asked, would have to be David Thomson's A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema. First published in 1970, it has just re-appeared as A Biographical Dictionary of Film in a third edition that is revised and considerably enlarged. Despite its titles it is indeed a work of criticism: 'each of the thousand profiles,' as the blurb says, 'is a keenly perceptive, provocative critical essay.'

LRB 8 June 1995 | PDF Download