... Criticisms in Cameo. By J. T. Grein. i. THE VORTEX, AT THE EVERYMAN. GREAT acting in a great scene. When I say great, I mean it; I do not strew it about, as so many, like castor sugar. And I say, in the last act of Vortex, Miss Lilian Braithwaite reveals herself a great actress and the scene where mother and son, jetsam from the vortex, pour out their souls in sorrow, anger, and such ...

... . . By Joan A. Cowdray. (Hutchinson 7s. 6d.) Anne, French aristocrat, came through '93 alive, and cast in her lot with Bonaparte, whom she followed to the East as some sort of hospital attendant. At Jaffa the Turks nearly had her, but a British officer intervened, and small thanks did the poor good man get for that service. However, he sent her home to his mamma in England, where Anne doesn't ...

... cA Bookish Whiff of fropeshoh By ...

... 1 THE r I P LAY'S THE j THING Christmas Pantomimes Thirty-five Years Ago Girls as Principal Boys and Boys as Principal Girls HE1BE1T FARJEOH With the advent of Christmas, the pantomime dames and the principal boys are trooping back to work, and all over the country funny men are pulling on elastic-sided boots and giving their skirts a twist, while fetching women are arraying themselves in the ...

... The Literary Lounger. By Keble Howard New Ideas in Fiction. You will often hear it said that there is nothing new under the sun, especially in fiction; that all the best stories have long ago been told; that, in any case, there are only seven original stories in the world, and that all novelists base their plots on these seven stories. And then, confounding the grizzlers, who ought always to ...

... A Bystander- among the BOOKS By RAL?H STRAUS IN an intriguing binding of black and gold you may make the acquaintance of a young lady whose like is only too rarely to be discovered between the pages of a book. I do not say that you will approve of her, but meet her you certainly must. She is beautiful, only nineteen, and her name is Serena Blandish (Heinemann: 7s. 6d. net). There is a sub ...

... A Bystander1 among the BOOKS (1 By RALPH STRAUS Two admirable Christmas presents suggest themselves to my bookish mind. There is a classic which has never received the wide attention its merits deserve. This is Richard Garnett's The Twilight of the Gods (Lane: 21s. net), which has now been re-issued in an edition de luxe. Mr. Henry Keen's illustrations have virility and a quality of their own, ...

... Criticisms in Cameo. r e i. THE RUSSIAN BALLET, AT THE COLISEUM. THEY say we are not an artistic people. They say we have no soul above business and no eye except for machines. Yet there was not an empty seat and not one phlegmatic spectator. We had all come to watch the ballet, to look again on M. Diaghilev's creation, to revive afresh the memories, four years old, when last he and his ...

... . Bv Vivian Crockett (Cape: 7s. 6d.l Another novel of the ancient world. It is a hot, feverish story, but not more lurid than the heroine was in real life. The narrative, really well managed, both as regards setting and atmosphere, shows us the beginnings of the shameless Empress's mania in her initiation, as a mere girl, into the mysteries of the grove of Daphne at Antiocli. After that, the ...

... . Bv J EZEBEL J (Philpot 7s. 6d.) Mr..Budd had an adventure such as seldom comes to elderly Benedicks. As he lazed in his punt at Marlow, there bobbed up serenely from below a mermaid! One didn't know before that mermaids were like salmon and came up-river from the sea. This one did, and all along o' she Mr. Budd behaved like silly sailormen in legends. He ought to have known better. Oh, ...

... %rThe Literary Lounger. By Keble Howard jf* The New World of the Theatre. Mr. J. T. Grein, the author of this volume, is the dramatic expert of the Illustrated London News, which world-famous journal is the elder sister of The Sketch. His book is dedicated to the Editor of the Illustrated London News and The Sketch, and the Preface has been written by Mr. G. K. Chesterton, who succeeded Mr. L ...

... . . By M. C. T. Saw- bridge. (Allen and Unwin 7s. 6d.) (Allen and Unwin 7s. 6d.) George Bulkeley-Sims is an ideal name for a hard-faced hero. And a hard nut George was. He didn't care how he trampled upon other people, and when he came home from Australia to succeed to the family property of Hurst, he visited on his gentle young half-brother, Ishmael, all the resent ment he felt (not ...