... : Reviewed by Trevor Allen NOVELISTS may hate this war, which destroys literary detachment, slashes royalties, and cuts paper supplies, but they cannot escape it. The Fiction Front widens. Three novels in this batch concern the present eruption, although one, refusing to be intimidated, merely has the laugh on it. I refer with chuckles to Envoy on Excursion (Michael Joseph 8s.), by Caryl ...

... -.1 )l -fjWWVvinf 61 fl l- MENUS MONDAY Mixed Casserole Cauliflower au gratia Mashed Potatoes Ginger Biscuits Jam Pancakes TUESDAY Braised American Pork Cold Meat Cakes Slices of Potato and Carrots and Onions Mixed Vegetable Salad Mixed WEDNESDAY Macaroni Cheese Vegetable Soup Fried Tomatoes Savoury Pancake Steived Apples THURSDAY Salmon Rissoles Consomme Potato Hash Potato and Onion Salad f ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor ^Alleu WHATEVER the limitations on actual travel to-day, there are none on armchair substitutes. about places tumble from the press, and personally I love them, for in prodding the wanderlust they also assuage it-- by proxy. Ann Bridge and Susan Lowndes, jaunt ing off the beaten track in a small car, serve well The Selective Traveller in Portugal (Evans, 21s.), that sunny ...

... : f Reviewed by I 'Trevor Allen I HOW I envy those detached people who can retire with a hefty novel, not only reading every line in a leisurely way, but living in the story and not worrying if it takes a month to finish. Mr. Frank Tilsley's Champion Road (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 12s. 6d.) tells in 700 packed pages of Jonathan Briggs, tough Lanca shire builder, who gets ahead by Jerry and ...

... Reviewed by Noel Thompson JUDGING by the sales of The Thin Blue Line there must be many thousands of people who will want to know what happened to its heroes, Tommy Halton, Henry Ireland, Paddy Tallard, Jock Riddell, Ginger Pleasanton, Kit Crockart and Hugh Claverley. In The Avengers (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d.) Charles Graves satisfies that wish by giving the adventures of the heroes after he ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor Allen DURING these crisis years we have been served remarkably well by roving correspondents on the Trouble Fronts. Negley Farson, Vincent Sheean, John Gunther, Douglas Reed, Philip Jordan, Pierre van Paasen have given us the first-hand reactions of reasoning minds to movements of violent unreason in a world turned topsy-turvy. Mr. Ferdinand Tuohy lines up with that ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor oj{llen DAVID the Shepherd-King wherever -- now he plucks his harp -- should be flattered to find that, more than 3,000 years after his passing, a distinguished general who served on Allenby's staff does him the honour of plotting his campaigns, mapping his battles, and comparing him with Hannibal Frederick the Great and Napoleon. David (Skeffington, 12s. 6d.) by Gen. Sir ...

... : Reviewed by Alan Seymour MARY LAVIN'S new book, The House in Clewe Street (Michael Joseph, 12s. 6d.), provides her debut as a novelist. Already she has given us two volumes of dis tinguished short stories-- Tales from Bective Bridge, her first, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the best work of fiction published in the fruitful year 1943, and The Long Ago, published the ...

... Books.- 1 Reviewed by r Noel Thompson LET us start off this month with a book which is surely going to be a winner, The Thin Blue Line (Hutchinson, 5s.) by Charles Graves. It does not matter what Charles Graves writes about, you will always learn something new, and this book, his first in novel form, is no exception. He has taken seven young men who joined the R.A.F. in October, 1939 as his ...

... : Reviewed by Noel Thompson TWO books this month have their setting for the most part on board ship. The first is Life Boat by Signe Toksvig (Faber and Faber, 7s. 6d.), and a very unusual book this is. The plot is that of the American wife of a German husband on their way back to Germany. The husband's former governess is on board, now a missionary, and terribly wounded about the face by the ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor ...

... Reviewed by Trevor Allen SINCE laughter should ring in the festive season, let us turn first this month to showman Billy Rose of Broadway night life. He seems to have promoted most things in his time. Once he wanted an elephant for a show, and was urged to go to Mr. Charles W. Beall, wild animal trainer as well as vice-president of the Chase National Bank. In addition to his zoo, Mr. Beall had ...