Why would one bother reading a collection of old book reviews, books one had never read or never intend to read? In the case of Human Relations And Other Difficulties, because Mary-Kay Wilmers, the editor of the London Review of Books, writes so wisely and so wittily about people and their relationships.  At first sight the reviews seem to cover a wide range of topics – the life of Alice James, menopause, Patty Hearst, Pears’ Cyclopedia, and much more – but Wilmers has something she turns to time and time again: the relationship between the sexes. Looking at the lives of Jean Rhys, Ann Fleming, Barbara Skelton, and Vita Sackville-West is the springboard for serious reflection on how men have constrained and limited women’s lives.  When I imagined Wilmers writing these pieces, the image of a skilled surgeon came into my mind: someone cool, meticulous, and appropriately removed, completely at ease with her tools and very clear about what she intended to do with them.  A witty surgeon admittedly, and one you might like to have dinner with, but someone engaged in a serious business.