... THREE NOTABLE BIOGRAPHIES Pen Portraits of the Great -By Vernon Fnne THIS week is in the main one of biographies, and of these the most distinguished comes from an author famous throughout Canada. Mrs. Laura Goodman Salverson is descended from the last of the Viking nobles. Her parents were Icelanders who emigrated to Canada over fifty years ago, and there moved from place to place in search ...

... PHILIP PAGE on the Behind ihe Schemes at the Shaftesbury A Farce on Nudism at the Comedy DO the public like to he introduced, for entertainment purposes, to the inner workings of certain professions and to see the wheels go round? The answer is that obviously they do, particularly in the case of (i) the theatre and (ii) the newspaper world. It is true that few, if any, plays, except ...

... ACCIDENTS IN THE BLACK-OUT The New Regulations Will Do Little to Prevent the Number of Casualties Which Now Are so Numerous at Night By A. PERCY BRADLEY, M.I.A.E., A.M.I.Mech.E. (C/erfc ol the Course, Brook/andi) IN a way it is a good thing that the appalling casualties on the roads have stirred the Government into action. But the measure that they have taken, namely, the imposition of a 20 m ...

... AN EXPONENT OF FEMININITY -By Vernon Fane A Japanese Soldier's impressions Von Papen's Luck Roland Pertwee's Career THE author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden has, in her time, been fruitful on the subject of husbands. Her wit, which can be as illuminating and elusive as a dancing sunbeam, never fails to be exhilarating when one of her characters stands revealed as a husband. The very word ...

... PHILIP PAGE on Good Hellish Effects at Sadler's Wells-- A Naughty Butler Tries to Blackmail at the New Theatre A Powerful Play af the Westminster THE season of Ballet at Sadler's Wells has been far too short-- the company has now gone on tour again-- but it has been an important event in its way. Also, it has been marked by the production of a new work of great skill which should take a ...

... ROMANCES OF ROUNDHEADS AND ROYALISTS -By Vernon Fane Two Absorbing Novels of England's Civil War ENGLAND'S Civil War is dealt with in two of this week's novels. Miss Phyllis Bentley's sober and full account of the Yorkshire campaigns under Sir Thomas Fairfax and General Cromwell and Miss Helen Ashton's biographical novel of Henry Vaughan, who fought as a soldier-surgeon in the King's forces up ...

... --By Vernon Fane A Biographical Study of Marie Corelli and Some Other Interesting Books THIS week has provided such a very mixed and very entertaining bag that I shall not attempt to sort them out or classify them in any sort of order of merit. You pays your money and you takes my choice; and here it is. Not one of these books is either dull or negligible, though it is highly improbable that ...

... Experiences and Memoirs In Ihe Provinces and in an American Village --By Vernon Fane IT cannot be said of Miss E. M. Dela- field's provincial lady that she rises to occasions, but she has at least an inspired way of muddling through them. The latest chronicle of her adventures, THE PROVIN CIAL LADY IN WAR-TIME (Macmillan. 7s. 6d.), is as amusing as ever, and has the same ruefully acknowledged ...

... SEVEN NOVELS FOR THE WEEK A Varied Collection for the Bookshelf -By Vernon Fane A story has no locus except the air, So many nice people are used to declare. Characters must live in a vacuum. Avoid the world, especially the scum. It's wicked to mention to the spectator Words such as war, democracy, dictator SO writes Mr. George Buchanan in an intro ductory note to THE SOLDIER AND THE GIRL ...

... BIOGRAPHIES for fhe BOOKSHELF -By Vernon Fane The Lives of Well-known Personalities Make Interesting Reading this Week AT school, I remember, it was a point of honour never to reveal one's second name. It was a jealously guarded secret and, for some reason I have never been able to fathom, rather a shameful one, and it is an odd thing that even in middle life people are still reluctant to part ...

... CHARACTER STUDY NOVELS of TO-DAY The Vagaries of Human Nature As a Fictional Theme -By Vernon Fane AN eminent critic has said of Mr. Graham Greene that he is one of the really significant novelists writing in any language. That THE POWER AND THE GLORY (Heinemann. 8s. 3d.) is a novel which demands more than ordinary attention is apparent to anyone after reading the first three pages. For Mr. ...

... FICTIONAL VARIETY of the WEEK A Blood; A Story of the Air; The Study of an Explorer; and Others -By Vernon Fane IT seems only a day or two ago that I was reviewing a book of Mr. A. G. Macdonell's, and here he is again with THE CREW OF THE ANACONDA (Macmillan. 7s. 6d.), a grand ''blood, which is none the less authentic for lacking lurid, illustra tions. I heartily recommend it-- indeed ...