... THERE is no doubt at all about the most important book of this week, for it may easily prove not only the most important book of this month, but of this season and months to come. General Eisenhower's CRUSADE IN EUROPE (Heine mann. 25s.) comes as near to being a must book as any contemporary publication can, this side coercion. There has already been considerable controversy over it, before ...

... HOW MANET SHOCKED FRANCE Once Reviled Olympia Enters the Gallery of Masterpieces Since the war, the book market has been flooded with books upon art from the Flemish primitives to modern times. For the most part these books have been admirably produced, and some of them deserve a special word of praise by reason of their high instructional value, notably the Gallery of Masterpieces (Max ...

... IN the early days of the French Revolution, and before the fall of the Bastille, Mirabeau wrote: It will be to the glory of France and of our selves that this great Revolu tion is costing humanity neither penalties nor tears. History has related only too often actions like those of wild beasts, among whom heroes have been few and far between let us hope that we are beginning the history of ...

... A NEW novel by Mr. H. E. Bates would be a matter for interest and speculation even if it were not the best thing the author has written up to date, as I think upon reflection, that THE JACARANDA TREE (Michael Joseph, 9s. 6d.) is, and when I write that, I am remembering both Spella Ho and The Poacher, which quite rightly made his early reputation. The new book is a story of Burma, or rather of ...

... SUCH is the good humour and physical endurance of Mr. Compton Mackenzie that the only faintly melancholy observation he makes in his enchanting new book of travel experiences is about the com parative ages of the distin guished people he met during his journeys through India, Burma and the Far East (which began in October 1946 and covered 50,000 miles), and that one is that he found only one ...

... THE fourth volume of Mr. Sean O'Casey's memoirs is as rich and tempestuous read ing as its predecessors; reward ing, but a little headachey in the long run. INISHFALLEN FARE THEE WELL (Macmillan. 16s.) opens in Dublin in the days of the throubles and the Black and Tans, and ends with the author's leaving Ireland for England, where he has now lived for many years. It is a book whose quality ...

... PROPHETS AT WORK A bymposium of Keiigious, Educational, and Political Forecasting independent, who, in the course of his prophesying rather rashly quotes John Milton, the poet-politician, on Britain's role in teaching the nations how to live. More heavy weight thinking in the political field comes from John Maurice Clark, Professor of Economics at Columbia Univer sity, whose new book, ...

... I FOUND Miss Frances War field's autobiography, THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT (Gollancz. 8s. 6d.), quite the most enchanting thing I read this week, in its humour, its honesty and the underlying pathos which is never allowed to intrude or to set the mood for the life-story. Miss Warfield, who is still young, writes of the central fact of her existence, which might have turned that life into a ...

... IT would be fairly safe to say that the most popular American alive to-day is, by English standards, General Eisenhower. His own superb war history explains a few of the reasons for that popularity, which also depends on his humanity and the sincerity of his feeling for our own country. hew who heard his Guildhall speech in the summer of 194s, for instance, will forget its warmth or its ...

... There was a brilliant gathering at London's Guildhall for the presentation of the Grotius Medal to Mr. Churchill, and the actual presentation was made by Dr. Kappeyne van de Coppello, President of the Vereeniging voor Internationale, Rechstsorde, the Dutch equivalent of the United Nations Association. In his speech Mr. Churchill paid a deep tribute to Grotius, the far-sighted Dutchman. ...

... MISS ANNE CRONE'S name is one to remember. She is a new writer and an important one, whose first novel, BRIDIE STEEN (Heinemann. 1os. 6d.) shows a strong and original talent such as one does not meet every day or even every year. Miss Crone's work will inevitably be compared with Hardy's, for her writing has something of his uncompro mising force and passion, though her style is her own and ...

... WAGHORN'S WAY The Pioneer of the Overland Mail As late as the third decade of the nineteenth century the conveyance of mail between London and Bombay was a business of fantastic difficulty. Between Bombay and Suez the steamers were hopelessly inadequate, and had to be crammed even to the Saloon with coal to ensure that they would get the 1,710 miles into Aden, the longest leg of the journey. ...