... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE UINE FEATHERS (Prince of Wales's).-- Before becoming the chief attraction in the above revue, Mr. Jack Buchanan had a most successful shot at straight comedy, appearing in a revival of Frederick Lonsdale's sophisticated The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. I should be very sorry to see the last of Mr. Buchanan. But anything less sophisti cated than Fine Feathers I have rarely seen ...

... IT has been announced that book publishers are to receive an extra 15 per cent. on their paper ration, which brings their allocation up to 65 per cent. of their pre-war con sumption. That does not mean that the famine in the book-shops and in the libraries will be relieved, since the pub lishers have been requested by the Government to use the extra allocation for export. How far this dole ...

... A Bell For Adano (Phoenix) THE church bell of the Sicilian village of Adano has made a great noise in the world. Novel readers, film-goers, theatrical audiences, all know the triumphant chime which symbolizes a community's well- being, and now if you happen to be passing the Phoenix Theatre at the right moment you will hear it echoing grandly along the Charing Cross Road. It brings down the ...

... Fine Feathers (Prince of Wales) ECONOMY is doing without something you want in case you may some day want something which you probably won't get. The man who said that lived at a time when there was some choice in the matter: you could, if you wished, choose not to be ruined; and the taking thing about Mr. Robert Nesbitt's new revue is the brave pretence it makes that we live in a world where ...

... : Reviewed by Ti evor /{llen I HAVE been looking at some superb photographs of Parliament, marvelling that so much architectural har mony should have come out of so much professional discord. Fierce disputes beat about the head of Charles Barry when he was given the job of rebuilding the Palace of Westminster after the disastrous fire of 1834. In 1837 Barry himself quarrelled with his chief ...

... AN English woman, returned to this country after six years in America, said to me the other evening that London seemed completely changed to her. And completely dreary, she added, rather unnecessarily, I thought. Of course. I agreed vaguely. The bomb damage, and so on. It turned out that she was partly depressed by the drabness of everybody's clothes, but that her reaction to the ruins and ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. NEARLY all, though not quite all, good novels are novels of idea, and Miss Hilda Vaughan's Pardon and Peace is no exception to this general rule. Her hero, Mark Osbourne, is shown to us at three critical stages of his life, separated from each other by many years: before the First World War, when he meets and falls in love with Flora Treowain; after it, when he finds her ...

... I HAVE long thought that no one author had more good, clean fun in the com position of his work than Mr. C. E. Vulliamy, whose chronicles of mythical families are such very good jokes, and at the same time so alive with accurate historical research. It seems almost too much good fortune that books written with what is clearly such en joyment should also be suc cessful sellers, as I feel quite ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. BY now, fact and fiction should have trained one's nerves to stand almost anything, so I began Colonel Nigel Balchin's story of a psycho-analyst whose most interesting patient is a schizo phrenic airman afflicted by an intermittent impulse to murder his wife, with a fairly good heart. But I have to admit that my atrocity-resistance was worn down before the end. Tales of ...

... The Rivals (Criterion) THE Criterion Theatre, which served during the war as a B.B.C. studio, has been released, and it is pleasant to enjoy once more the sensation of sitting inside a dainty chocolate box. Much less pleasant to wonder uneasily if the opening production will send many away under the impression (never perhaps to be obliterated) that The Rivals is a poor play. Sheridan's first ...

... Henry IV Part One (New) IN the last four or five years there have been some mighty fine revivals to beguile the sad time, but here is one which excels them all on three main counts --individual brilliance, satisfying team work and firm direction. Of the Falstaff it may be roundly said that nobody has in our time played the fat immortal so well as Mr. Ralph Richardson; and of Harry Hotspur ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THE best double bill in London just now is un questionably at the Academy, in Oxford Street, where they are showing MARIE- LOUISE and STRANGE INCI DENT in the same programme. I am not sure whether this is really very tactful programme planning, as I imagine that many gentle-hearted people who will be enchanted by Marie-Louise, may find Strange Incident both harsh and ...