... HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY AND HORTICULTURE American History Without Tears The Last Bourbon King A Peripatetic Raconteur A Garden Book to Cherish -By Vernon Fane JUDGING by the ever-increas ing clangour about recon struction and the post-war world, anybody would think that this war was as good as won. As a counter to the soothsayers of the Sunday and weekly Press, and the cohorts of wishful- thinking ...

... TU By Horace Horsnell Sky High (Phoenix) Those two queens ot Burlesque, iviesaames Hermione Baddeley and Hermione Ging- old, have become popularly associated as a kind of dual constellation in the vaudeville heavens, where they shine with mutual and derisive glory. When last we saw them fooling there together, the slogan was Rise Above It Now it is Sky High, which seemed to promise even higher ...

... STILL MAINLY ABOUT THE WAR The Genius of Lin Tutang An Epic of the Battle of Britain Biographies of Roosevelt and General de Gaulle 7\[ordhoff and Hall Go to Botany Bay -By Vernon Fane LIN YUTANG'S new book has been for me unques tionably the novel of the week. A LEAF IN THE STORM (Heine- mann. 10s. 6d.) is a romance played out against a back ground of China at war. There are no English ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THERE is one thing to be said about Alexander Korda-- there is no monotony about the type of films he gives us. I doubt if there is any producer-- there is certainly no British producer-- who has been personally responsible for so many big and successful films of so varied and imaginative a nature. He has the real showman's flair for ringing the changes on his material. ...

... The World of Books By Vernon Fane OF PEOPLE and PLACES PAST and PRESENT More 1 \[ews from the Enemy's Camp What Russia Did to Germany The Eccentric Egertons, Mr. Bernard Folk's Candid Family History John Barrymore a Fine Obituary THE new literary tradition of American newspaper correspondents who travel, not with a Field-Marshal's baton but with at least a publisher's contract in their ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. WAR and peace is the sub ject of Mr. Stuart Cloete's long, leisurely romance of South Africa in the 1880's. A tremendous theme, and one that has been discussed and illustrated in what is perhaps the greatest novel of all time. The last war, as we all remember, produced a notable crop of war novels, but in the main they were not philo sophical in outlook. Their authors had ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THERE is more than one lesson to be learnt from THE NEXT OF KIN, that hush-hush film which will be gener ally released this week. The obvious lesson, the moral which the film sets out to point, is the danger of careless talk in wartime. But there is a technical lesson to be learnt from the piece as well one that might be framed in,. gilt and hung up in every studio. ...

... By Horace Horsnell Awake and Sing (Arts Theatre Club IN the theatre, as in other fields of adventure, idealists are apt to meet with less than their deserts. This ancient and treacherous institution has a fatal fascination for amateurs whose zeal outruns discretion. Innocence of life, or dreams of perfection, blind them to their own technical shortcoming and cold fact snubs warm endeavour. ...

... Reviewed by Noel Thompson JUDGING by the sales of The Thin Blue Line there must be many thousands of people who will want to know what happened to its heroes, Tommy Halton, Henry Ireland, Paddy Tallard, Jock Riddell, Ginger Pleasanton, Kit Crockart and Hugh Claverley. In The Avengers (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d.) Charles Graves satisfies that wish by giving the adventures of the heroes after he ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Gondoliers (Prince's) New Russian Ballet (Cambridge) GILBERT AND SULLIVAN are in town for the season, and the faithful will need no reminding of how good they are or how well they wear. The goodness of these Victorian operas is intrinsic; their durability is largely due to the jealous care of the D'Oyly Carte tradition. few things are safe these days trom the vagaries of ...

... . Starred by The Sketch. highest value. Adelphi: THE DANCING YEARS. Ivor Novello in his romantic musical play, with Muriel Barron and Roma Beaumont. ♦Aldwych: WATCH ON THE RHINE. Diana Wynyard Anton Walbrook Athene Seyler and Judy Campbell. Anti-Nazi family in the U.S.A. Apollo 44 OLD ACQUAINTANCE. Edith Evans in John van Druten's pla Perfect acting. Coliseum: MAID OF THE MOUNTAINS. ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. BORN in a back street in Palermo in 1743, Guiseppe Balsamo had many aliases; but the style he preferred, and came to be known by, was Count Alessandro di Cagliostro. That name has become a by-word for chicanery and mystification on the grandest possible scale. How it came to be so makes a fas cinating chapter in biography not the less fascinating because there are so many ...