... MISS MARY MITCHELL'S new novel is a long, long step away from A Warning to Wantons; a step towards the sober, revealing light of the everyday. There is little room for gaiety in the theme the writer has chosen, and the emphasis is decisively on facts rather than fancies. Neverthe less, THE PILGRIMAGE OF MRS. DESTINN (Methuen. 9s. 6d.) is very far from being a dull book. It may not have the ...

... . By Margaret Archer. (Jarrolds 9s. 6d.) Poison and sentimentality. The rustics talk in indefatigably rustic dialect and there 's an Irishman who savs bad cess to him and a cup of tay. R. C.-C. ...

... A FILM that purports to clarify the case against anti-Semitism within the space of two hours is an audacious thing; a film that selects this special moment for doing so is even more audacious. It is obvious to any decent man or woman that persecution of any kind is both evil and stupid, but the particular bias of many people at many times against the Jews is a pheno menon that springs from ...

... YOU shall not know by what strange accident I chancèd on this letter, says Portia, at the end of The Merchant of Venice, when Shakespeare is bluffing shamelessly in order to get the play ended. Similarly, you need not know by what strange accident I was obliged to see most of Traveller's Joy on my feet, standing at the back of the Criterion stalls. I had not stood through a play since ...

... . By Jan Ciechanowski. (Gollancz 18s.) Yet another account of the betrayal of Poland. The author writes with clarity and authority. He was Polish Ambassador in the United States until his Government ceased to be recognised. it- ...

... . By Mary Durham. (Skeffington 9s. 6d.) Conventional crime but quite an ingenious solution ...

... THE PLANTAGENETS A New Estimate of a Dark Era in Our History What manner of men were the Plantagenets? No other dynasty has reigned so long over England since the Norman Conquest, and yet somehow they remain shadowy figures, those Kings who wore the sprig of broom, descen dants of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, and the Empress Maud, or else, where Shakespeare turned the floodlights upon them, we ...

... THERE are some good novels this week and, though none of them is necessarily of great significance, they make a satisfying and notable list. First of all, A QUIET NEIGH BOURHOOD (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.), a book of considerable character in spite of its gently restricted theme. Mrs. Anne Goodwin Winslow writes, if I may use an old-fashioned term, like a lady, with restraint, delicacy and a polite ...

... Reviewed by Trevor Allen STRANGE are the winds of circum stance that blow into men's lives, launch ing them on unusual journ eys-- Captain Roy Farran went east in 1940 at nineteen, fought in tanks in the Western Desert and in Crete, operated as a Special Service commando behind the enemy lines in Italy and France, and finally served in the Palestine Police-- a job that involved him in a charge ...

... Elizabeth ftewehs MOUNT IDA, by Monk Gibbon (Cape; 18s.), is a book far from easy to classify-- it is not quite autobiography, not quite novel. Mr. Gibbon has, indeed, forged a form of his own: and why should he not? He is an outstanding Anglo-Irish poet; he is the author of The Seals. Moreover, in Mount Ida he is making a new approach to an ancient subject-- the primary subject, possibly, ...

... AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY (Aldwych). A messenger from Mars in Downing Street. This is not William Douglas Home's best play, but it is at least satirical comedy with a certain sting, and Raymond Lovell, Jane Baxter and Jacques Berthier act it well. The only poor first-night performance was the gallery's a dreary exhibition of bad manners. wonders never cease (Comedy). But this critic's interest ...

... A LA CARTE IT is a handsome menu-- and, thank heaven, we are not fussed about by too many cooks. Indeed, there are only four names at the head of the Savoy programme: Book and lyrics, Alan Melville; Music, Charles Zwar; Production, Norman Marshall; Décor, dresses, dances, William Chappell. Here is a change from the monstrous regiment of authors, lyrists, composers, choreographers, designers, ...