... : Reviewed by Trevor ^Allen PROBABLY the most tense episode in our naval war was the hunting and killing of the Bismarck after the loss of the Hood. One may relive the radio excitement of that chase in Commander E. Keble Chatterton's The Royal Navy: January, 1941-- March, 1942 (Hutchinson, 21s.), a period which included also the Balona bombardment, Cape Matapan battle, and loss of ...

... AS Christmas approaches, the bookshop is our Mecca. We are looking, of course, for light and neutral stuff that will do just as well for Auntie Maud if we decide to give that tray- cloth to Auntie Dora after all. We hardly think in terms of weighty volumes like Lewis Mumford's THE CONDITION OF MAN (Seeker and Warburg. 25s.), which nowadays only America has the paper to print. But it is the ...

... BETWEEN this war and the last there was a flood of books all following roughly the same pattern of Court memoirs, chroniques mildly scandaleuses and nostalgic echoes of the days when a Grand Duke really was a Grand Duke. I had read so I many of them some of them excellent, some of them repeti tive, few of them altogether negligible since they gave at the worst some kind of picture of a life ...

... -By Vernon Fane An Intimate Biography of Queen Victoria A Pleasing Indian Cameo and an Indian Political Novel Amateur Activities in the Country NOTWITHSTANDING a prefatory statement that previous studies of Queen Victoria's reign have been, generally speaking, too domes tic, Sir George Arthur has written one of the more intimate and entertaining accounts of this lady's private life that I have ...

... YOU could do anything with PASTORAL (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.); film it, dramatise it, set it to music, paint it on china. Mr. Nevil Shute has chosen to write it as a novel, and a darn fine novel it is. For all that, the other manifesta tions may follow later, because it is what in some professions is called a natural. It is the storv of a young ex-insurance clerk, now pilot of the bomber R for ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE LAST OF SUMMER (Phœnix).-- Some of the most successful plays have been based on successful novels, but I doubt whether this will be one of them. It has its charm, as well as a fairly interesting story about a family in Eire dominated by a terrifying mother and disturbed by the arrival of a pretty young French cousin, who falls in love with one of the sons and he with ...

... Reviewed by Trevor oydllen THERE is a story in Mr. Charles Graves's Great Days (Hutchinson, 12s. 6d.) that when Mr. Churchill once twitted Montgomery on his. silence, the General said he was very sorry, but he was a teetotaller, a non- smoker, and had little conversation. The P.M. is supposed to have replied: I smoke cigars, drink all the good wine I can find, and am a hell of a good Prime ...

... : Reviewed by T revor Alle7i AN eighteenth-century eccentric of some note was Dr. Messenger Monsey of Bury St. Edmunds and Chelsea Hospital. His idea of painless dentistry was to tie an aching tooth by catgut to a perforated bullet and fire the bullet from a pistol. His habit in the country was to hide his banknotes in the fireplace under sticks and coal, for safety; and once he returned ...

... By Horace Horsnell White The Sun Shines (Globe) MR. TERENCE RATTIGAN (author of French Without Tears and Flare Path) is expert at antic haymaking. For him the sun seems always to shine; and his latest crop is a welcome addition to a theatre bill dominated by obstinate successes. It is a wartime frolic; light in substance, topical in key, and agreeably funny. The tale it tells, though a caution ...

... The Lilac Domino at His Majesty's By Horace Horsnell THIS musical romance, which first saw the footlights at the Empire in 1918, is not a musical comedy, but an operetta. The distinction may not seem important to the rising generation, seeing and hearing it for the first time. Nor is the distinction important. What it amounts to is that the principal arias invite coloratura, that the concerted ...

... MYSELF AT THE PICTURES More About Tosh By James Agate WITH your permission, dear readers, I shall return to the question of tosh in the cinema. You may remember that I explained its popularity in the way Charles II accounted for the popularity of a bad preacher-- --I suppose his nonsense suits their non sense. On thinking more of the matter I have come to the conclusion that I like film ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Cradle Sons (Apollo) As its title suggests, this gentle play from the Spanish is simple in theme and untheatrical in style. Its story is hardly more eventful than a folk song or a lullaby, and it is told in language that discourages histrionics. A foundling baby girl is deposited in a covered basket at the gate of a convent, and until the basket is uncovered, it is mis ...