... 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 ...

... The Sadler's Wells Ballet (New) By Horace Horsnell AGE has not yet withered, nor custom staled, the Sadler's Wells Ballet. It has the freshness without the gaucheries of youth. Its repertory seems infinite in variety and is first-rate in quality. Founded and brilliantly directed by Ninette de Valois, it has become one of the brightest ornaments of our stage. The leading dancers, Robert ...

... WHAT do you really know about hotels beyond what you have discovered for yourself-- from the guests point of view-- or what you have read in the novels of such experts on the subject as Mrs. Vicki Baum or the late Mr. Arnold Bennett? 'he answer to that one is Nothing, or should be, if I 'm allowed to have my fun. (And who writes this page, any way Nothing at all, you will obediently answer, ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE 'T'HE SULKY FIRE (Arts). That two plays by the distinguished French dramatist, Jean- Jacques Bernard, have just been produced in Lon don within a week is, of course, merely a coincidence and cannot be said to constitute a boom. It is unfortunate that there is little in either of them to indicate why he is distinguished. The Sulky Fire is a small play with a tiny cast ...

... I ALWAYS think it rather a cad's trick to start the notice of any book with the opinion that it is disappointing, even though that usually con notes a sincere admiration for the writer's previous work. So I will markedly avoid any such reference in my comments on THE SEED WAS KIND (Peter Davies. 8s. 6d.), which however, is not the best of all Miss Dorothy Macardle's novels. Even so, it is ...

... Twelfth Night (Open Air, Regent's Park) By Horace Horsnell LONG experience has taught me that pastoral playgoing can be anything but an idyllic pastime. There is something about our protestant climate that irritates those pagan deities who ought to patronize classic pleasures, instead of imposing on them the hazards of long-planned picnics. Pastoral players, too, have much to contend with, ...

... WHAT'S femme fatale really mean? asks the young man in Mr. Robert Goodyear's new novel, and does not stay for an answer. That answer, in any case, would have been MRS. LOVE- DAY (Gollancz. 8s. 6d.), which is both the title and the heroine of this week's pick of the psychological novels. Glare i i .ovcuav was one ui uiuse women of such superficial simplicity tnat people meeting her were apt ...

... : 'Reviewed by Trevor zAllen IT is opportune of Mr. Harold Nicolson to reissue his diary of the Versailles Peace Conference with the implied comment: Now will you sit up and take notice, after a Second German War? What lessons can we poor deluded com moners learn from it to-day? In a new introduction to Peace Making, 1919 (Constable, 10s.) he submits twelve: Those desiring peace must first ...

... WHAT a good time people had in Regency days Of, rather, what a good time people had who possessed both money and position, for those are the figures most familiar to us through novels and memoirs in that age. The characters in Miss Georgette Heyer's new novel have all that could be asked of eleeance and frivolity and high spirits, and have even chosen the period most suitable to their ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THE most in teresting new film in London is not a new one at all, but a very old one-- a revival of Sacha Guitry's THE CHEAT at the little Torch Theatre in Knights-bridge. Whether you will want to see The Cheat, in view of M. Guitry's wartime record, is another matter. This question of the interrelation of art and politics is a tricky business, winch every customer must ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. HIGH ENDEAVOUR is the story of Jimmy one of several brothers who owned a circus, and of the difficulties be met with and overcame in the fulfilment of his ambition to be a pilot in the R.A.F. It is a true story, ana, unlike some true stories, it bears the stamp of truth. One never feels that Mr. Edward Seago, J immy's friend and biographer, has touched it up. Even the ...

... MR. RAFAEL SABATINI has weighed in this week with a new historical romance that has all the authentic detail and sense of period that we have learned in the last twenty years or so to expect from him. KING IN PRUSSIA (Hutchinson. 9s. 6d.) is the story of an exiled English nobleman who befriends Frederick of Prussia when he is Crown Prince, but is forced to leave the State. Years later he acts ...