... by Playbill THE theatre has probably never meant so much, both in London and the 'provinces, as it does to-day. That is not to say that every theatrical produc- tion is full of meaning; many of them, in- cluding some of the most popular, mean precious little. But there is a probably unprecedented boom, and the living drama, from Shakespeare to pantomime, is being supported (most London ...

... THE WAR ON LAND AND SEA --By Vernon Fane A Cruiser Epic Bromfield versus the Boche The Fifth Column Reaches Bloomsbury Miss Sitwell Reflects and Ponders Mr. C. S. FORESTER is supreme in his field: the dramatic, ingenious and poetic presentation of British sailors on the high seas. In the past, his novels (for he is essentially a writer who is happiest in the elastic bounds of imaginative ...

... LIVELY READING IN FACT AND FICTION -By Vernon Fane The Biography of a Flying Pioneer Eighteenth-Century American Frontier Battles A Ffovel of Occupied France, and a Thriller of the Week BILLY MITCHELL is known as the stormy petrel of American aviation, and his life is still regarded by many as an example of a man fighting against inertia and prejudice in high places, and against a re luctance ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE THE little Windmill Theatre, with its non- stop revue (which has not stopped, save for necessary rest and refreshment a few hours in the twenty-four for the company, for ten years or so) has other claims to consideration in addition to its record of hard work and the fact that it is the only London theatre to have had a play written about it and produced in New York. I ...

... MEMOIRS, MURDER AND ADVENTURE -Bv Vernon Fane Sir Henry J\[ewbolt's Autobiography, and His Lighter Side Three J\[ew Thrillers The Balkans Under Fire and let- or SIR HENRY oOLT (Faber and Faber. 2 is.) comprise the second volume of his memoirs which he started writing in 1932, six years before his death, and they have been edited by Lady Newbolt. This part of his reminiscences and diaries ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE PANAMA HATTIE.-- Rarely have I heard such witless dialogue as there is in this Cole Porter musical at the Piccadilly; every one was talking through his, or her, Panama hattie, and most of them seemed to need a microphone (and in one case a megaphone as well) in order to enable them to do it. Cole Porter's tunes are well below his usual level; indeed, the only music ...

... THE BEST BOOKS OF THE WEEK -Bv Vernon Fane M lie. Curie as a War Correspondent Biographical Essays of Two Saints The Story of a Bomber Pilot The Fate of the Islanders of Bonin MLLE. EVE CURIE, besides being the biographer of her great mother, is a war corre spondent of no mean ability. Her JOURNEY AMONG WAR RIORS (Heinemann. 15s.) is a brilliantly written journal of her experiences during the ...

... STORIES OF PEOPLE AND PLACES --By Vernon Fane A Dramatic and Inspiring Play; An American Woman's Study of Japan; A Causerie on the Modern University A Smalltown Swashbuckler and the Thriller of the Week MR. MAXWELL ANDER SON is one of America's most distinguished playwrights, and I understand that his most recent play, THE EVE OF ST. MARK' (Bodley Head. 5s.), is now being performed in this ...

... A Long Poem of the Present War; Michael Graham's Angling Book; Alun Lewis's Character Sketches of Army Life The Story of a Fighter Pilot and the Log of a Merchant Airman A Romantic Novel of Heroic Dimensions; Claude Houghton's Book About a Book --By Vernon Fane A MONTH or two ago I heard the lovely, measured voice of Miss Diana Wynyard reading these lines over the radio: I thought with love, ...

... --By Vernon Fane Victorian Influence in the West Indies An Englishman from Tokyo A Character Study of Raleigh A Fine Record of the Royal A[avy The Batsford Centenary CASHEL, in Mr. James Hope Hennessy's WEST INDIAN SUMMER (Batsford. 12s. 6d.), was aide-de-camp to the Governor of Trinidad in 1939. From the boredoms of official life he turned to a library of books written by eminent visi tors to ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. DESTINATION CHUNG KING is the auto biography of a Chinese lady, born in Honan and bred in Peking, who, in 1937, when barely twenty, came to London to study obstetrics. Her natural bent was for literature, but Science was our god, a beneficent god to make of China a rich and happy nation. At that time she was a pacifist, and had many bitter arguments with her childhood ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IT is so pleasant to watch those ex cellent artists. Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon, Eric von Stroheim and the rest at work again, that few people will grumble if the new French film at Studio One, DERRIÈRE LA FAÇADE, is not arranged quite as impeccably as their talents merit. Derriere la Facade was in pro duction when the war broke out. It was actually showing in Paris when ...