Book Review: Torn Curtain ; Never Mind the Moon by Jeremy Isaacs Bantam Press Pounds 20 in House by John Tooley Faber Pounds 25

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Jeremy Isaacs, the man who brought us Channel 4, had never failed at anything before he became general director at the Royal Opera House. This confident, clever but prickly Glaswegian ran Covent Garden for nine years before it closed for redevelopment. Both his successors, and a chairman, left after a few months in the job; the board resigned en masse. The Opera House became a laughing stock, a scandal, and a candidate for complete closure.

What no one has so far asked is how much Jeremy Isaacs was to blame for this catastrophe. He is, himself, rarely susceptible to doubt, and in this matter seems to harbour none. Towards the end of his convivial apologia, he says: "I am …