Books, Arts & Manners: Basic B. De Mille

The Hollywood History of the World: From One Million Years b.c. to Apocalypse Now, by George MacDonald Fraser (Beech Tree, 425 pp., $22.95)

Anything Mr. Fraser writes is well worth reading; he has been an amusing and enlightening presence for years. His suavely outrageous “Flashman” books, for instance, affectionately and shrewdly celebrate the history they send up; and there are always lessons along with the laughter.