... REVIEWED BY ELIZABETH BOWES The Sixth Heaven The Contemporary Theatre Transformation Scene THE SIXTH HEAVEN (Putnam; 8s. 6d.) is the continuation of L. P. Hartley's The Shrimp and the Anemone. A third volume, which is to conclude the story of Eustace Cherrington and his sister Hilda, is announced for the spring of this year. Deliberately I have avoided the word sequel, with its suggestion ...

... Books: Reviewed by Trevor zAllen SINCE this is panto time, who, may we ask, originated it? John Rich, the first harlequin, at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in 1717, though similar shows had prepared the way. Who was the first principal boy? Probably a Miss Ellington, prince in The Good Woman in the Wood at the Lyceum in 1852, though she was discreetly skirted to the knees, trunks being scorned ...

... ENGLISH children, as well as American children, will now have a new Mouse to add to their collection of friends, where Mickey has reigned alone for so long. The new representative of the race can't be said to compete exactly with the film rodent; he is a character on his own and in a different medium. Mr. E. B. White is probably best known as a member of the brilliant staff of writers ...

... 800K REVIEWS ELIZABETH BOWES S The Life of the Heart Westwood How to be An Alien In the A9ey Mayo Trio THE LIFE OF THE HEART, by Frances Winwar (Hamish Hamilton; 12s. 6d.), is the story of George Sand and her times. And what a story! This astonishing Frenchwoman was born in 1804; died in 1876. As a little girl, she exchanged a glance with Napoleon; she was to live through (and at close ...

... DEATH IK THE THIRTEENTH DOSE. By Belton Cobb. When Detective-Inspector Cheviot Burmann set out to seek the murderer of old Mrs. Vance he was accompanied by Sergeant Ross, newly- returned to the Yard after having been invalided out of the Forces. Ross described himself as the dutiful lamb following at Cheviot's heels, but any respectable lamb would have blushed through his wool to have ...

... TL Christmas A ftersrlow CHRISTMAS this year, but for its warm and happy afterglow in the theatre, might have seemed to tightly rationed children an affair of a few hectic hours-- a sudden ecstatic surfeit followed by the hangover they are not yet old enough to accept philosophic ally. Now that parties are the deuce to feed adequately it is the theatre which must prolong the day or two of ...

... with UNDISMAYED by the short run of Big Ben, C. B. Cochran is busy on his plans for the A. P. Herbert-Vivian Ellis operetta Bless the Bride, due at the Adelphi in April, with a possible pre liminary week in Manchester. His recent visit to Paris with composer Ellis in search of a French leading man was successful, though C. B. cautiously refrains from disclosing his name. All that he would say ...

... TRANSFORMATION SCENE. By Claude Houghton. Mutatis mutandis, the same might be said of Mr. Claude Houghton's new novel. This is a kind of psychic detective-story. Who murdered Carol? Max Arnold, the painter, who tells the story, thinks he did, for the reasons that he dreamed he had, that he was a sleepwalker, and that he had long wished to break with Carol. She had been many men's mistress, ...

... By Monica Dickens. By L. P. HARTLEY. THE title of Monica Dickens's latest novel is a slight mis nomer, for Major Oliver North was not a very happy man. He had good reason not to be, for during the Arnhem operation, though not during one of its heroic moments, he was hit by a shell, lost his leg and sustained a serious injury to his heart. Now, with the war over, he lies bedridden in his mother ...

... BERTRAM MILLS In full spangled glory Bertram Mills's Circus has opened once again. The Sylvans. two men and a woman with horses, whose tricks are original and cleverly carried out. give the first act. Then come the Tovarich Troupe, a brilliant company of who twist and turn and ?ti each other with amaz- 'Mity and beauty of form and line. Peggy Holt presents her Symphony in Grey, an equine ...

... STARTLING, original, pos sibly even shocking to a number of readers, is Mr. Robert Graves' KING JESUS (Cassell. 12s. 6d.). In this long book, which I sometimes felt as I read it was overburdened with the detail that may prove erudition, the author develops a theory that Jesus was born of an earthly father and mother, and that He was the temporal heir to Herod's kingdom. The book is written in ...

... SHORTER REVIEWS From the Latest Publishers' Lists In the years before the war, with a few very weighty exceptions provided by Taylor Caldwell, Margaret Mitchell and Hervey Allan, the novel tended to achieve a standard size and a standard price. Since the war the length of novels has decreased markedly, and while this is not altogether an evil, it must, on the other hand, invite comment from ...