... . . By James Lansdale Hodson. (Gollancz 12s. 6d.) (Gollancz 12s. 6d.) Another instalment of this wide-awake ob server's day-to-day journal. Of more interest to posterity than to us, I feel. ...

... . By Nora Kent. pviacaonaia as. oa.j A vigorous story of two women friends, set in Westmorland and Hastings. This writer- knows her background and is determined that the reader shall know her characters. ...

... PHON ETICAL FANCIES A Glasgow Publisher Has Ambitious Plans for the English Language From Scotland comes another villainous attack upon the English language, or, alternatively, another noble attempt to deal with the barbarities of our spelling. It all depends how you feel about phonetics. Mr. Peter D. Ridge- Beedle, a Glasgow publisher, has decided that the time has come to modify the English ...

... I SUPPOSE that the only thing that Norfolk has in common with Dorset-- apart from their both being English coastal counties with inadequate train services-- is that both have produced a splendid variety of English characters. Norfolk possibly leads in this, or else its figures have had better treat ment from the biographers, and certainlv Mr. R. W. Ketton-Cremer has done honour ably and well ...

... ARTIE BAKER first came into prominence when he understudied Artie Shaw from 1940 to 1942. Later he played with Raymond Scott's band and recently he has been a soloist in the Perry Como radio programme. Now, on the first record of his Salon Swingtet to be released in Britain, he plays two of his own compositions, Platter Chatter Jump and Microphonics. The first features himself and his pianist ...

... Elizabeth Hewens Foundation* in the Dust Rafe Granite Another Woman's House Dinner for \onf FOUNDATIONS IN THE DUST, by Seton Lloyd, F.S.A. (Oxford University Press; 15s.), is a history of archaeological ex ploration in Mesopotamia. These words seem long-- it is after an instant of contemplating them that their magical possibilities open up. Magical, that is to say, to the imagination: ...

... t If Diamond Lil (Prince of Wales) Anthony Cookman Tom Titt and SINCE Marie Lloyd died there has been no English actress whose name was a universal joke. Perhaps this kind of joke, which must of course please the vulgar besides tickling the fancy of the uncommon nice, can only grow in a community that is vulgarly rich, with layer upon layer of warm-hearted vulgarity, as was English society in ...

... DESPITE the ruthless omni potence of the Gestapo, it is obvious that some potent anti-Nazi forces existed and were active in Germany even at the height of Hitler's power. The plot which culminated in the abortive attempt on Hitler's life in 1944 was born of no sudden resurgence, but of a long-term understanding be tween certain elements in the political and military circles in Germany. ...

... By C. A. Leieune VICE VERSA.-- I am relieved to learn from my synopsis of Vice Versa that Peter Ustinov, that gifted handyman who can act, produce, direct, write, mimic any given type in half-a-dozen languages and, for all I know, make animal noises, is now twenty-six years of age. That will not deter his employers from referring to him as brilliant, but it may discourage them from adding ...

... THIS isn't the great Sphinx. This is only a dear little kitten of a Sphinx. This is my pet Sphinx, says Cleopatra to the Roman stranger in Shaw's play. This isn't a great film. This is only a dear little kitten of a film. This is my pet film, I felt like saying when came out of the Academy Theatre after watching 'L'Ange de la Nuit.' It is a long time since I lave been so touched and ...

... . By Bethell Jones. (Allen and Unwin 9s.) Why is it that frank and daring sex novels about the middle-classes are so often in bad taste, whereas similar stories of the old aristocracy or the new proletariat so rarely seem offensive This one is in the former class. R..C.-C. ...

... The L 'tie of Frightened Philistines. By James barrel!. (Koutledge 12s. 6d.) writ nkerous essays, chiefly on literary Subjev s, by the author of Studs Lonigan. a ...