... THE scope of Mrs. Markoo sha Fischer's novel. THE NAZAROVS (Gollancz. 12s. 6d.), is very wide, as it embraces not only the Russian scene from 1905 to the end of the Moscow siege in the last war, but also the rise, fall and renascence of a Russian family, together with their husbands and wives and some of their dependants. Nevertheless, the storv is not confused and the author has been able to ...

... IF DELIGHT (Heinemann. 1os. 6d.) had been by Logan Pearsall Smith or George Saints bury, or even by one of those leaders of literary fashion who achieve fame by producing a book once in twenty years, it assuredly would be being acclaimed on those esoteric planes encompassed by the middle pages of the literary weeklies, the largest slab of the one page devoted to books in the Sunday newspapers, ...

... IT seems that a number of very talented people have spent the past year in assembling their memories, their notebooks and their journals in order to give us, the readers, the benefit of their experiences and their comments, more or less articulate and subtle, on those events. Professional writers, which sometimes seems to me like a redundant title, political commentators, travellers, and just ...

... . A New Romantic Anthology (The Grey Walls Press. 10s. 6d.), compiled by Stefan Schiman- slci and Henry Treece, covers the romantic revival in writing, during the war years, and includes an essav on Romanticism bv Herbert Read, as well as contributions by a number of distinguished writers. The animals and plants which inhabit our sea shores provide material for a fascinating hook by Professor ...

... WHAT a fruitful field for speculation is a literary collaboration! Who, for instance, writes what piece or pieces, and what happens when they disagree, as often they must? For our entertainment, Mr. Malcolm Muggeridge creates Anthony Anstruther, a successful collaboration in thrillers. One half, Ossian Routledge, expires drama- ticallv in the British Museum. As it turns out, the other half, ...

... A ROMANCE coming to a man and woman mature in years may sometimes be endowed with the deepest poignancy; it can touch the heights of which the young can only dream, that is, if it escapes being ridiculous; it may possess a spiritual quality that has little affinity with the high passion of young love. Such was the experience of Ramer Maria Rilke, the German lyric poet and mystic, and of Magda ...

... MR. J AMES THURBER once observed when challenged in a New York bar that he was the only living writer who had not called on George Bernard Shaw, and who did not want to call on George Bernard Shaw. His statement led him to reflect on the niceties of literary pil grimages in general, and to write one of the funniest pieces in a book that is, from beginning to end, hilariously funny. In fact, ...

... LIKE all the admirers of Miss I. Compton-Burnett's novels, I like to think that I have a special appreciation of them, and so I opened TWO WORLDS AND THEIR WAYS (Gollancz. IOS. 6d.) with the keenest anticipation. At its end, I was not entirely dis appointed, because there is an inimitable art here; but, frankly, I had not enjoyed myself as much as 1 had hoped. Her books, of which 1 have a ...

... Honey produces a white wine in rivalry to that of the grape. It is the mead of our ancestors, possessing both body and bouquet, and such rich-sounding names as Pyment, Melomel, Sack Metheglin and Hippocras. In WASSAIL! IN MAZERS OF MEAD (Phillimore and Co. 15s.), G. R. Gayre tells us a great deal about these ancient beverages which, now, after a lapse of centuries, are again being made in ...

... THERE can be no doubt but that the publication of Mr. Somerset Maugham's A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (Heine mann. 12s. 6d.) is a literary event of the first importance. Whatever contemporary criticism may say of the content of his novels, short stories, plays and belles-lettres, it is unanimously agreed that, in his profession, Mr. Somerset Maugham is the greatest craftsman of his day. Readers of The ...

... QUITE apart from his writing, Charles Dickens was one of the most interesting characters of his age. He was possessed of well-nigh demonic energy; in the exuberance of his comic genius he was a master of exaggeration; his quarrels, his love-afiairs, and his inexhaustible curiosity went to the making of a man who will never fade completely from the world's grateful memory. Hesketh Pearson sums ...

... 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 ...