... 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, ...

... THE life of Sir Michael Sadler, by his son, is a model of what a good biography ought to be. Even so, in a foreword, Mr. Michael Sadleir disclaims that it is a biography in the accepted sense, and goes on to say there were immense tracts of his experience, intellectual and spiritual, which were either un known to me or beyond my comprehension. But where, we may ask, is the biography to be ...

... A MAN with a genius for friendship would be one way, and a good way, of de scribing Dr. Harry Roberts, one of the liveliest figures of our times, who died only three years ago, and whose interests, all of which seemed equally strong, were not only medicine, but gardening, talking and politics. Harry Roberts was the most rational rationalist and the most democratic democrat I have ever known, ...

... MR. FRANCIS STUART is a novelist of real power, and one to be reckoned with in the literary scene to-day. His conclusions may sometimes dis tress you, as they have me, and even exasperate you, but neither they nor he can be ignored. Redemption (Gol- lancz. gs.) is his latest work, and it will make an unmistak able impact on the world of letters, in which I include the general reading public, ...

... FEUDAL FEEDING TO FACTORY FEEDING Sir Noel Curtis-Bennett's Survey In a world, seemingly enmeshed in political problems, we have had abundant evidence from experts, like Lord Boyd Orr, that the immediate future of civilisation depends upon the proper development of and the proper use of our food resources. One man who takes the long view on this subject, sees It in historical perspective and ...

... FEELING a little low and depressed and bored, Mr. John Steinbeck, the distin guished American author, and Mr. Robert Capa, the dis tinguished American photo grapher, sat in a bar in New York one day and wondered, respectively, what their next job of work was going to be. In a desultory way they dis cussed the political situation, and in so doing they decided that no matter how good the ...

... IT is not the easiest of tasks to write about a man during his life-time. More especially if he is, at the moment, holding high public office. THE BIOGRAPHY OF SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS (Heine mann. 21s.) is by an American, Mr. Eric Estorick, who makes up in industriousness what he may lack in verve. A biographer, of course, should take a positive line, and Mr. Estorick's is a clear and unequivocal ...

... PIPER ON PUBS A Defence of Victorian TraDDinzs Good taste is out-of-date before the regulars have got used to it is just one of the many penetrating judgments of John Piper, whose chapter on the art and architecture of the gin palace is a feature of his new book, BUILDINGS AND PROSPECTS (Architectual Press. 18s.). Mr. Piper has a great time examining some of the more florid public-houses, ...

... MR. CECIL GRAY calls his autobiography MUSICAL CHAIRS (Home and Van Thal 16s.). He is, of course, well known in musical circles as well as for his writings upon music, and he rather disarm ingly sub-titles this book Be tween Two Stools, for he says he is apt to be dismissed by musicians as a mere writer, and by writers as a mere musician. As a writer he sees the art of autobiography mainly ...

... THERE never could be a story so specially well-tailored to fit an historical novel as that of Anne Boleyn. That it has been done before and will be done again makes no matter, for a skilled novelist can take any one of a number of points of view of this controversially historical char acter and her colourful contem poraries. Mrs. Margaret Campbell Barnes, in Brief Gaudy Hour (Macdonald. ios. ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...