... THE fourth volume of Mr. Sean O'Casey's memoirs is as rich and tempestuous read ing as its predecessors; reward ing, but a little headachey in the long run. INISHFALLEN FARE THEE WELL (Macmillan. 16s.) opens in Dublin in the days of the throubles and the Black and Tans, and ends with the author's leaving Ireland for England, where he has now lived for many years. It is a book whose quality ...

... THE romantic approach is used in fiction perhaps more often than strictly neces sary, and certainly this is true of that form of fiction, the historical novel, a dangerously vague term in itself. There seems to be something particu larly tempting in trying this kind of approach in writing of the late eighteenth century, and the very early nineteenth century. vvnetner it is tne iteign 01 terror ...

... THE POE CENTENARY The Anthology of a Tragic Genius A writer whose successors include Dorothy Sayers (creator of Lord Peter Wimsey), Jules Verne (exponent of the scientific romance) and Stephane Mallarmé (the French poet and leader of the Symbolists), was nothing if not versatile. Edgar Allan Poe, the centenary of whose death is recalled this month, was in his own day supreme as an inventor of ...

... THE divine Sarah is an excellent subject for a biography; volatile, uncon ventional, world-famous to this day and spectacular in her own. Sarah Bernhardt (Hurst and Blackett. 21s.) is her story as told by her granddaughter, and it is not only a record of her stage triumphs, but a fairly intimate account of her not very private life. Even as a child Bernhardt was tempestuous and was already ...

... THIS has been a rich week for novels and a busy one for women writers, who are respon sible for nine of the books under review. In the historical field, the stories range from a frontier town in the 90's to Israel in the ninth century B.C., and in the modern field they cover Italy, Africa, Assam and the west coast of Ireland, as well as the English countryside and our familiar London. To begin ...

... Books Reviewed by Noel Thompson IF you want to read the private diary of a public man, I recommend Off The Record (Hutchinson, 10s. 6d.). At the beginning of the war, Charles Graves, then writing a daily column for the Daily Mail, started putting down at night all his doings, the people he had met, the subjects dis cussed, and his private reactions. Much of this material could not be ...

... books: Reviewed by Trevor Allen GREAT boys are the Japs in China! They had a master plan drawn up in Tokyo for backward cities like Sungkiang. There should be lovely broad roads! They made them by ripping through bedrooms, kitchens, court yards without compensating the owners. There should also be a new canal! They dug it by grabbing every able-bodied man they saw and giving him a bowl of rice ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor zA lien FANNY KEMBLE was an unusual actress. The theatrical profession, she said, was utterly distasteful to me, though acting itself was not. Cast to play Desdemona, she confessed, I feel horribly at the idea of being murdered in my bed. She would dissect her own acting more ruthlessly than any critic, with no illusions that she was an inspired genius. She ...

... Sweet Home wwwww S 'cylS a fascinating story the evolution of Home, Sweet I Home from primitive hut to steam -heated mansion. The Tudor fireside was an open central hearth with but X a hole in the roof to draw off the smoke. When grates and firebacks came in both they and windows were long S regarded as personal property distinct from the rest of i) the house, and often listed separately in ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor lien NO man, they say, is' a hero to his valet: To his cousin, Mrs. Clare Sheridan-- when she sculpted his head at morning bedside sittings at 10 Downing Street-- Mr. Winston Churchill was the Hogarthian figure with cigar and spectacles, patting a hot-water bottle affec tionately, and, incidentally, twiddling his toes under the bed clothes to amuse a black Persian to ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor tAllen CHRISTMAS is a happy time for book buyers; they can impose on others their own particular fancies and thus double their pleasure. Instead of merely saying You must read so- and-so, they pack off the book, which is much more satisfying-- to the sender if not always to the recipient. JNo doubt the new Bernard ralk biography, The Way of the Montagues (Hutchinson, ...

... Reviewed by Trevor oydllen THERE is a story in Mr. Charles Graves's Great Days (Hutchinson, 12s. 6d.) that when Mr. Churchill once twitted Montgomery on his. silence, the General said he was very sorry, but he was a teetotaller, a non- smoker, and had little conversation. The P.M. is supposed to have replied: I smoke cigars, drink all the good wine I can find, and am a hell of a good Prime ...