... . By JOHN RUSSELL. MR. FREDERICK VALK'S OTHELLO came as a refreshing and heartening excite ment in some of the darkest and heaviest days of the war, and Mr. Donald Wolfit has earned our gratitude by recalling Mr. Valk's monumental bogey-man to the London stage. This Moor comes trumpeting across the scene like the whole host of Hannibal's elephants; and when the hired vitality of Africa is ...

... THE MAN WHO RECLINES AND WALKS ON AIR! 44 To walk on air is a phrase with a sinister meaning, but CHARLY of the acrobatic act, Adrianne and Charly, has robbed it of anything but wonder. And here CHARLY has leapt with rhythmic gro down again as lightly ond is completely airborne. lie comes ly (is he icent up. LEVITATING AIRBORNE DANCER CHARLY. And this is how CHARLY rises from a reclinipg ...

... fJin-up Qirl: i/o. 50 ^Pamela ll/axi. BALLERINA PAMELA MAY of the Sadler s Wells Ballet Company is dancing leading roles at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. With Margot Fonteyn she alter nates in the part of Princess Aurora in 44 The Sleeping Beauty the company's new ambitious and successful production. Pamela first emerged from the corps de ballet in 1934, in the pas de trois in 44 Swan ...

... . MME. CHAMOUN is the wife of the first Lebanese Minister to represent his country at the Court of St. James H.E. M. Camille Chamoun, a leading lawyer of the Lebanon and formerly Minister of Finance and of the Interior. She speaks English French and Arabic, is political-minded and played a leading part in the emancipation of women in her country. The dispute which broke out between the French ...

... - MISS KATHLEEN HARRIMAN, for following up her London debut as blit? reporter by a second appearance as diplomatic hostess. MISS KATHLEEN HARRIMAN, daughter of Mr. Averell Harriman, the new U.S. Ambassador in London, will act as his hostess at the Embassy. She made a name for herself in this role in Russia, during his term as U.S. Am bassador in Moscow. Her father likes enter taining and she ...

... DICKENS' CHARACTERS BY MARTITA HUNT AND VALERIE HOBSON. As old Miss Havisham's ward Estella, of Dickens' novel 44 Great Expectations VALERIE HOBSON goes skating in a costume of dark-blue wool trimmed with black velvet, velvet bonnet and sable furs. Jilted on her wedding-day, eccentric Miss Havisham (MARTITA HUNT) years later still wears her wedding dress. Her house is dusty, dirty wreathed in ...

... CHARLES DICKENS ON THE SCREEN: GREAT EXPECTATIONS. VALERIE HOBSON'S Estella is jilted, in her turn, by her wealthy fiance, on hearing that she has a convict father. So fully has Estella absorbed the atmosphere created by Miss Havisham (MARTHA HUNT) that this tragedy turns 'her into a near resemblance of her guardian until Pip turns up. The screen version of Dickens's dramatic novel Great ...

... ^Jin up Qiri: OfL. 4-9. Joan (jjawjorct JOAN CRAWFORD is the winner of the 1945 Oscar award by the American Academy of Motion Pictures as the best actress of the year for her performance in Mildred Pierce, a film which has been pictured in The Sketch but not yet shown in this country. She began her career by winning dancing contests in the chorus of a Chicago revue and was then engaged by ...

... av BY APPOINTMENT GIN DISTILLERS TO H.M. KING GEORGE VL Tanqueray Gordon Co., Ltd. Qua&tfy Gordons Stasias Sup'c&ffiji Maximum Prices: Per bottle 25/3; Half-bottle 13/3. U.K. only (y4* QUALITY ^sf*Cals for FESTIVE OCCASIONS _ Top right) B.153. Sketched is just one example from our'fine collec tion of Ascot models. Gay and delightful soft straw bonnet, lavishly trimmed with roses and spring ...

... . BEFORE 1938 Mrs. Rennie O'Mahony's Cygnet House sub-dej had only to learn how to wear their feathers gallantly to f perfectly equipped for life in a care-free world. When the war came t p school went to North Wales and undertook pre-Service training for t e I W.R.N.S., etc. Now it has returned to London and provides a spei'^ post-school course designed to fit suh-debs to take their place ...

... IN ENGLAND, NOW THAT SPRING _ IS HERE Bright colours are replacing the more 1 sombre tones of wartime. This Nicoll coat is M made in a wide range of colours red with m black lining, blue with navy lining, and green with nigger lining. The contrast lining idea is carried out also in the buttons, which are of corded silk. Nicoll stockists all over the fl country have this coat. Marcus ...

... . Through a window in the porch of her fine old Berkshire farmhouse MRS. ALEC HAMBRO and six-year-old ROSAMUND were photographed by brother Cecil Beaton. Her husband in the Reconnaissance Corps, was killed in North Africa. Mrs. Hambro has another daughter, aged ten. Her elder sister is Lady Smiley. PHOTOGRAPH BY CECIL BEATON. ...