... : Reviewed by Trevor ...

... Reviewed by Trevor Allen AS a boy comedian touring with a juvenile pantomime company Georgie Wood overheard people say: Oh yes, he's all right now, but wait until he grows up! What if he suddenly sprouted like Jack's Beanstalk, became tall and thin like Carlton the Human Hairpin? Every night he prayed: Please, God, don't let me grow up. But he need not have worried, for his fate was in the ...

... Sporting Pleasures. Messrs. Truslove and Hanson have pub lished their first post-war catalogue of books which cover all outdoor pursuits. Some of their stock is new, some secondhand. The firm's headquarters are at 14 a, Clifford Street (second door from Bond Street), W.i. ...

... Royal Crusader, by Glenda Spooner (Latimer House Ltd. gs. fid.). The Black Beauty form of horse autobiography is unpopular with many horsemen on the grounds that it inevitably attributes human thoughts and feelings to the animals, and consequently has liberal doses of senti mentality in its pages. Yet such books, from Anna Sewell's work onwards, have their large following, and there is no ...

... Playgoers' Pilgrimage, by A. E. Wilson (Stanley Paul 21 s.). Dame Sybil Thorndike decides that this is the life-story of a dramatic critic, and Mr. Wilson himself set out to write a book of his experiences as journalist and dramatic critic. Memory is a tempting thing, however, and the critic finds himself carried away by nostalgia for a bygone age. The earlier chapters are the richer and ...

... Better Horsemanship, by Lieut .-Colonel J. E. Hance (Country Life 15 s.). Yet another instructional book on the subject, this time by an acknowledged authority. While much of what the author has to say has been said before, and will doubtless be said again, there are chapters dealing with riding-schools and their horses which are particularly appropriate to-day. Of people wnose one desire is ...

... Somewhere in Scotland i (Robert Hale 15s.). This is a reprint, greatly enlarged, ol the hrst edition published in 1938. The author, Alasdair Alpin MacGregor, is an authority on the Western High lands and Hebrides. He is. how ever, no schoolmaster, nor does he present a guide-book. His work is authenticated and informative, but, above all, readable, and well laced with stories and humour. There ...

... , by Norbert Casteret. Those interested in the art of pot-holing will need no recommendation to this book of cave exploration in the Pyrenees the author's name will be already well known to them. The uninitiated will find fascinating descrip tions of dangerous climbs underground, and accounts of the type of equipment required for this sport as well as a brief summary of what is known about pot ...

... 1 here have been many books on African wild life and there will undoubtedly be many more so long as the wild life is permitted to survive, but the unusual beauty of the flash light photographs taken by James Riddell, the author, raise the value of this work well above many of its fellows. Mr. Riddell writes modestly he disclaims any expert knowledge and with a sense of humour. In words and ...

... Riding, by Benjamin Lewis (w. n. Alien, ae luxe eamon 1 is.). The fact that one enjoys riding horses is no excuse for galloping into print and yet the spate of books on the subject in recent years gives one the impres sion that almost anyone who has ever had anything to do with horses feels he and often, she is quali fied to write authoritatively about them. Consequently, some dreary and often ...

... Reviewed by Trevor a. Allen IT'S bracing to read of unconventional folk in these docketed days; and circus people, I suppose, are as free and versatile as any. Reco, the Great Blondini wire-walker, for example, has worked as miner, farmhand, tumbled for coppers on market days, wandered the road with performing don keys, served as fill-in clown, been penniless and now owns his own show. There ...

... BY long odds, THE AMERICANS (Cresset Press, 10s. 6d.) is the most remarkable book of the week. This is a study, revealing and readable, of the characteristics of the people of the United States, and it has been made by Mr. Geoffrey Gorer, a British anthropologist whose serious contribution to this science is only equalled in value by his admirable candour. Mr. Gorer's findings are sometimes ...