... //y/* By James Agate A Protest A Yank in the R.A.F. is one of the greatest ventures ever undertaken by 20th Century-Fox and one of Darryl Zanuck's costliest productions. Every phase of the great battle for Britain has been re enacted-- the take-off of the R.A.F. squadrons on the bombings of German cities, dog fights in the clouds, attacks on German ports, rail yards, hangars and troop ...

... : 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 ...

... By Herbert Far j eon The Mail Who Came to Dinner (Savoy) ON its first night at the Savoy this American success was a roar both on the stage and off. The roaring off the stage was done by the audience, which delighted in the sophisticated, flish-flash sallies provided by those ingenious and indefatigable authors, George Kaufman and Moss Hart. The roaring on the stage was done by that admirable ...

... FROM THE CHEFS SCRAP-BOOK: A WARTIME MENU. Jyt OTAGE DE TOMATES A L'AIL. Br 7) 1 lb. tomatoes. 2 oz. rice. 2 medium-sized onions. r 4 pints of stock. 1 carrot. Salt. 1 dessertspoonful of margarine. Sugar. Garlic. Lightly fry the chopped onions, break the tomatoes in half and put them in a saucepan with the onions. Leave to simmer on a very slow fire until soft. Add the stock either water in ...

... Reality and Reminiscences --By Vernon Fane Charles Graves goes Awfully British Bernard Darwin s Memories Mrs. Belloc Lowndes Looks Back on Childhood Frank S. Smythe, the Happy Mountaineer ONE of the first bits of literary gossip I heard when I got back to London was that LIFE LINE, by Charles Graves (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.), had sold out its first edition in a few days after publication. I had ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. IT is a sad commentary on the quality of life at the present day that lyrical poets should be so few. Poets we have in plenty; but they are reflective and interpre tative, satirical, denunciatory or partisan, prophets first and poets second. The spon taneous flowering of a mood, essential to lyric poetry, is withheld from them, so con cerned are they with dis cerning the ...

... By Herbert Far j eon Old Acquaintance (Globe) MR. JOHN VAN DRUTEN once wrote a tender and touching play entitled After All in which he demonstrated the indestructibility of old domestic ties-- a play of stodgy uncles, fusty aunts and seedy depen dants from whom the young turned with aversion as they grew up, but to whom they turned again as they grew older, wiser, less expectant of the future ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THE New Gallery, I suppose, will again be the Mecca of parents with children to entertain these Christmas holi days. The new Disney Christmas annual is out, and it's called DUMBO, and proves to be the simple, gaudy, straightforward sort of thing that children expect from Disney, without any disturbing innovations. Dumbo is a baby elephant, an innocent, blue-eyed baby born ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. SERGEANT YORK (War ners) would appear, at first sight, to be the sort of war- film that is generally made several years after the end of a war. In its restraint, its sincerity, and its care ful avoidance of hys teria and jingoism it belongs to the class of The Big Parade, Journey's End, and All Quiet on the Western Front, rather than to the vituperative melodramas of ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. DURING his literary career Mr. Osbert Sit- well has opened doors leading into many countries, many subjects, many lives. There is nothing deliberate or experimental about his versa tility. Poet, satirist, critic, traveller, as well as novelist, he writes to satisfy his curi osity about life, and this curiosity is continually taking fresh forms for its expression. Like Alice ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Love in a Mist (St. Martin' s) ON the programme there is Exmoor, and on Exmoor there is fog. Hence the title of Mr. Kenneth Home's new comedy. And hence, when the honeymoon car containing Pat and Nigel, married that very morning, can no longer see its bonnet before its wind-screen, the bed-and-breakfast bungalow of Mr. and Mrs. Evans appears to offer most timely refuge. Mrs. ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. WHEN a director makes one good film, it may be luck. When he makes two, it's a pleasant surprise. When he makes three, he has got to be watched. When he makes four, it 's getting serious. When he makes five, you can begin to think about calling him a great director. By this arithmetic, TOM, DICK AND HARRY (London Pavilion and Marble Arch Pavilion) makes a great director out ...