... 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). ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Women Aren't Angels Strand THIS farce by Vernon Sylvaine, in which characters, still further to brighten the dialogue, answer to such surnames as Butch, Bandle and Popday; in which husbands hunt, or are hunted by their wives, in pairs; in which pretty girls in dishabille are bundled behind curtains at short notice to avoid-- or can it be to arouse?-- suspicion; and in which ...

... Wednesday After The War (New) By Herbert Farjeon ONE gathers from the theme or title song of this outstandingly unexhilarating musical production that by the Wed nesday After the War everything in the garden of Europe will be absolutely wonderful, and that we shall all immediately be allowed as much petrol as we can use and as many onions as we can digest, while young ladies will respond with ...

... Reviewed by Noel Thompson THERE have been stories in the newspapers recently, Your Canaries Can Still Sing and No Need to Kill Your Pets, dealing with the shortage of birdseed and enumerating substitutes for adequate feeding. When a few days later I picked up Bechhofer Roberts's book The Bird seed Pool (Robert Hale, 7s. 6d.) I looked at the title with amazement and then dived into it. ...

... By Herbert Farjeon No Time for Comedy (Haymarket) SMART is the word for this play, which is as smart as they make them. As smart as Noel Coward, though it is by S. N. Behrman. As smart as Schiaparelli, though Diana Wynyard's costumes were de signed and executed by Paquin and Victor Stiebel. As smart, twice, thrice as smart, as the Haymarket Theatre, where it is being played. And the ...

... REMINISCENCES of theGREAT A mbassador Dodd's Diary Viscount Mersey's Memoirs John Buchan's Last JJovd -By Vernon Fane FROM 1933 to 1938 the United States Ambassador to Germany was Mr. William Dodd, formerly Professor of History in the University of Chicago, and the holder of a Doctor's degree from the University of Leipzig. Presi dent Roosevelt appointed him because he wanted for the post a ...