... By V. S. Pritchett MR. CHARLES MORGAN has a place of his own in contemporary fiction. It is not at the top. He is not one of the good good novelists nor one of the good bad novelists. He belongs to that curious mixed company of the bad good, the faux bon. I dreamt that I dwe-elt in ma-arble halls describes the sensation his books give to one. One wakes up in one of those literary nails ot ...

... Films of tlie Day Advance Notes on an Epic By George Campbell AN American spy on whom I rely for information now and then has been trying to dig up some information about The Great Dictator. After putting an official of United Artists' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Culture to the question, my informant succeeded in breaking through the veil of secrecy with which Chaplin surrounds his ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Lunchlime Shakespeare Strand IT may be said that the theatre these days is getting along like one o'clock-- though why one should get along faster or slower than any other hour, nobody has ever been able to explain to me. One, however, is now unquestion ably the popular entertainment time, possibly because, in addition to its status as an interval, raid or no ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Lunch Italic! (Arts Theatre Club) AMONG the discoveries of this war, not the least interesting from the point of view of the theatrical manager is the lunch hour. Miss Myra Hess led the way with her National Gallery Concerts, which have been for many an oasis of culture in a waste of vulgarity. Very good sandwiches at a reasonable price and very nne music at a ...

... The 44 Bystander Bookshelf Victorian Moss By V. S. Pritchett ON the principle that it is best to get over the bad news first and then settle down to cheerfulness, I will begin with a sinister prophecy from a now despised prophet. It is in a book which Miss Viola Meynell has edited, The Letters to Sir Sydney Cockerell (Cape; 17s.) When he was young, Cockerell was a worshipper of Ruskin he even ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Itevudeville Windmill) PLANES may come and 'planes may go, but the Windmill, brookfully, goes on for ever. Hail to thee, Windmill! Oft have we tilted at thee in the past, even as Don Quixote him self, but to do so now would indeed be unchivalrous. Honour to thy sails, which cease not from revolving, and honour eke to thy most rescuable nudes, who wink not a lash even when ...

... Films of the Day 44 We Burn You, Heine! We Burn You, Einstein! Bv George Campbell WHAT else could I do? screams the Nazi in The Mortal Storm, who has just shot his half- Jewish sweetheart for trying to escape across the frontier. And her half-brothers have no answer, for there is none. Given the Nazi doctrine that the State thinks for you, takes charge of your conscience, owns you body and ...

... The 4 4 Bystander Bookshelf The Haunted Rectory By V. S. Pritchett TWO or three years ago, the Press, the B.B.C., and groups of observers, who ranged from members of the Society for Psychical Research to under graduates, and from undergraduates to the scrupulous Dr. C. E. M. Joad, investi gated the haunting of the Rectory of Borley, near Long Melford. A compre hensive account of all the ...

... Films of the Day Suspense Without Sense, by Hitchcock By George Campbell KEEP your lights going-- they're the only lights left in the world, cries the hero of Foreign Correspondent, broadcasting to America from London, as the lights go out and the studio rocks to the roar of bombs. Just what he meant I don't know. Some critics interpreted his exhortation as an appeal to America to join in; ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon All 's Well That Ends Well Vaudeville WHEN the war broke out and the shows shut up, I suggested to a friend that then, if ever, was the time to put on King Henry VI., Part 2, since in normal circumstances how could it hope to stand against Under Your Hat?-- but with all competi tors out of the field, somebody might go. A similar thought seems now to have struck ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Ridgeway's Late Joys (13, Albemarle Street) UNDER the congenial and command- ing direction of Mr. Leonard Sachs, Ridgeway's Late Joys have, for the duration, removed their habitat from King to Albemarle Street, demonstrating in the process that they can eat and drink as well as sing both high and low. Tem- porarily forsaking the attic of their origin, since attics lack ...

... The 64 Bystander Bookshelf The Arclidukeries By V. S. Pritchett ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA, the Consort of the Emperor Franz Joseph, is the subject of Miss Elizabeth Sprigge's new novel, The Raven's Wing (Macmillan; 8s. 6d.). It belongs to the tender-to-Royalty school of fiction, and sheds a nostalgic and sympathetic tear over the sad archdukeries of the nine-teenth-century Europe. To my prejudiced ...