... VARIETY for your BOOKSHELF -By Vernon Fane The W ill '0 'the- Wisp Barrie A Maternal View of Keats; More Blitz Literature; Masefield's Dunkirk and Two Jslovels WHATEVER Barrie's view might have been of this authorised biography of him, THE STORY OF J.M.B. (Peter Davies. 11s. 6d.), it is certain he would have enjoyed the reviews. It would have amused him to see friendly and hostile critics, ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. AS most people will readily divine, Mahatma Kane Jeeves, who is credited with the screen play of the new W. C. Fields film, THE BANK DETECTIVE, is nothing but a nom- de-plume for Fields himself. It- is well known that the come dian likes to write his own lines and business and The Bank Detective is seventy brisk minutes of Fields lines and business. Besides, no one could ...

... KING GEORGE V Mr. John Gore's Personal Memoir --By Vernon Fane TO my colleague, Mr. John Gore, better known to readers of The Sphere as The Old Stager, the King and Queen Mary entrusted the task of the writing of a personal memoir of King George V. It had been wisely decided that an official biography should be postponed until comment can freely be made on the political aspects of his reign ...

... The LIVES of MEN in the PUBLIC EYE A Biography of Lord Halifax The Story of the Sassoons Dr. Rauschning's Counter -Tiazi Philosophy By Vernon Fane AS long as there are famous men, people will want to know about them, and to read about them. So wrote the author of the recently-published biography of such a man. Modern publicity methods and the development of newspapers and magazines into gossip ...

... THE THEATRE IN WARTIME The Festival at Stratford-on-Avon and a Brief Review of London's Shows. By PHILIP PAGE IT has been remarked that if William Shakespeare could have attended his own Festival last week, Stratford-on-Avon under a black-out would have sur prised him. It would not. There are many things about wartime Stratford which would have caused him surprise (among them, I think, certain ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Orchids and Onions (Comedy) ALTHOUGH there are quite a lot of people in this more or less intimate revue, it is really a one-man show, and that one man is George Doonan. When I first saw Mr. Doonan, I jumped to the conclusion that he was going to turn out commonplace, which is not a good thing for a comedian to be, as well as turning out common, which is quite a good thing ...

... (A iixJL By James Agate A Good War Film IT was the Americans, I think, who invented that beautiful phrase sales resistance. Thus a publisher, instead of a brutal Can't get rid of a darned copy, has the suave Sorry to tell you, madam, your novel is meeting with a considerable amount of sales resistance. Think how usefully the scope of this phrase might be extended. Of Miss Null, whose ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. TO write about Horace is not the responsibility it might seem. Poet Laureate in his own day, he has occupied a prominent niche in the temple of fame ever since; and no one, I think, has tried to shake this most established of poetical reputations. His monument, as he observed himself, is more last ing than bronze it will not be honoured if 1 lay a laurel on it, or disturbed ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. BOTH as a writer and as a personality, Barrie had genius, and more than his share, perhaps, of the mystery that is inseparable from genius. In the immensely intricate pattern of his nature, shyness and showmanship were inextricably blended. Per haps unconsciously he realised the importance, in certain in stances, of not giving the public something that it wanted. Another ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. THIS week it is my pleasant task to welcome a new series, Britain in Pic tures; or, to be more accurate, three new series, for, besides Britain, the Penns-in-the- Rocks Press are publishing illustrated commentaries on the countries of the British Empire (The British Commonwealth in Pictures), and illustrated anthologies of the English poets The English Poets in tures). ...