... Fame is the Spur, by Howard Spring. Collins 9s. 6d.) TTHIS might be called the Lib. -Lab. -Suffragette 1 Forsyte Saga half a century of England's teeming social and political life pivoted on the career of Hamer Shawcross, his climb from the Manchester back streets to cabinet rank, his wife Ann's heroic share in it as loyal partner and militant suffragette. Range, breadth, background, ...

... Reviewed by Trevor Allen MORE first-hand testimony about that ex-housepainter for whom millions suffer and die, and the sacred soil of France is profaned and drenched in blood-- this time from Vagabond Typist Ida Hurst, whose latest wanderings took her to New York, Germany, Prague, Danzig, Venice, on another live, laugh and love odyssey: Dare to Live (John Long, 16s.). She says of a visit to ...

... BOOKS for the ARM-CHAIR TRAVELLER Night in Bombay; High Sierra; And so to Bath --By Vernon Fane MR. LOUIS BROMFIELD has travelled a long way since he gave Annie Spragg to the world, and became someone to whom the wit and beauty of Europe flocked to accept a delightful hospitality at Senlis. Senlis, alas, is no more, and Mr. Bromfield has very properly returned to the Ohio farm of his ...

... A WAR-TIME BOOM IN THEATRELAND Dear Octopus Again Presented A Revival of The Devil's Disciple Shakespeare at Regent's Park A New Farce at the Duke of York's Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE FOR some inscrutable reason there is something very like a boom in theatreland. True, it is a rather pathetic little war-time boom; yet a boom it is, and not the least remarkable feature is that it has come at a ...

... THEATRES OF WARTIME LONDON. By THEODORA BENSON and BETTY ASKWITH, Authors of Foreigners or the World in a Nutshell. No. 17. BALLET AT SADLER'S WELLS. IT isn't true, said Paul, to main tain that We of The Press spend our whole time drink ing. We also pull strings. He was justly proud of having produced two good stalls for the season's three new ballets all on one pro gramme. in response to ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon High Temperature (Duke of York's I WHAT I say three times, quoth the Bellman, is true-- for getting, by the way, to say it more than once, so perhaps we needn't believe him. But on a similar principle Mr. Avery Hopwood, the author of this depressing scramble, would appear to hold that what is done three times is funny, and what is done three-and-thirty times ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. EVER since Eleaner Powell tapped her way into the Broadway Melody series, three films back, the Melodies have been becoming more and more of a dancing show. The current edition, BROAD WAY MELODY OF 1040 (Regal) is the most nimble of the lot, Miss Powell being joined by Fred Astaire, and by chubby-faced George Murphy, himself no mean tapster. Since the cast is headed by ...

... Films of the Day A Pimpernel in Germany Bv George Campbell WAS it quite so easy for aliens to enter England, just before the war, as you might suppose from Night Train to Munich? I shouldn't be surprised. The whole passport rigmarole has always seemed to me rather a waste of time, seeing that the worst crooks and enemy agents never seem to lack one; but perhaps it keeps officials happy. Anyway ...

... Speaking as a Man By V. S. Pritchett THE short stories of Irwin Shaw show once more what a debt English literature owes to the American tough reporters. They played an important part in that revolution which has set free popular speech, which has driven out the euphemisms of the drawing- room and driven in the euphemisms of the café and the street. Sailor Off the Bremen (Cape 7 s. 6 d.) is a ...

... . I HAVE always felt that creating character must be child's play beside the task of re-creating a living person. Fictitious characters are not lifelike, and though we call them lifelike, it is only in a Pickwickian sense. The truth is that no real character could be got into a novel there simply wouldn't be room. And, of course, historical biography,' in its presentation of human beings, is ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE REALITY AND FILM BY far the most interesting film seen in our cinemas since the beginning of the war is Men of the Lightship, showing at the News Theatres. This recounts how, on a day in January this year, two German bombers attacked the East Dudgeon lightship. Everybody will have his own reaction to this actuality. One critic finds it wholly startling, and adds If ...

... Round the New Shows At the Theatre Dear Octopus (Adelphi) DEAR OCTOPUS wears well, and still clings as closely as ever to public favour. It is, of course, a habit of octopuses, octopi, or octopodes (that 's the right one), to cling. The revival at the Adelphi confirms me in my opinion that the play is a good one, but thin, in that it is sadly lacking in the dramatic element. I do not suggest ...