... Balloonist* Beware Anthony Cooliiiiiiii NOTHING (fortunately) has happened to cause Miss Beatrice Lillie, during her long absence abroad, to change her belief that we are all living in a completely mad world. She comes back to us at the Globe just the same terrible child that we remember in the 'thirties-- so open-eyed to our general absurdity that it hardly seems to matter which of our pet ...

... Anthony Cookman ALREADY in 1939 M. Jean Anouilh had become so adept at launching rose- coloured stage balloons that he could calmly refrain for a whole act from letting the audience know whither a balloon was bound. How far he succeeded in turmng what the orthodox would call bad theatre into good theatre by sheer liveliness of comic invention we may judge by Miss Patricia Moyes's translation ...

... Elizabeth Bowen WHO, in their day, has not loved a bore? Or at least, been subject to the compulsion which a likeable, honest-to-God bore can exercise? Nigel Balchin's LAST RECOLLECTIONS OF MY UNCLE CHARLES (Collins; 12s. 6d.) is an engaging picture of a relation many of us have known: with every page, I am bound to say, one comes more and more to share the I of the story's resigned ...

... BEADY-MADE TREAT AT Lime Grove summer is a time of experiment, of daring successes and embarrassing flops. But no hare brained novelty takes pride of place above such ready-made treats as Mozart from Glyndebourne. To-morrow any sit-at-home viewer may share in the luxury of Don Giovanni, with Sena Jurinac's peach- voiced Elvira. Aidan Crawley's new series, Viewfinder, started with the imposing ...

... Elizabeth Bewen FAITH COMPTON MACKENZIE's THE CROOKED WALL (Cape; IOS. 6 d.) is the Book Society's choice, and one cannot wonder. This is a novel, sub-titled A Victorian Story of Love and what, exactly, the author means by this adds further mystery to the story. Does Lady Mackenzie wish to indicate, simply, that here is Love Among the Victorians, or is she proposing to show us the tender ...

... Up from Y onkers and Blackpool with JL_C. TREWIN I WAS not very happy about The Match maker in Edinburgh. After all, it was only the third time I had seen it. The company had not settled down; moreover, someone behind me was trying, with impassioned earnestness, to find a logical explanation for Thornton Wilder at his wildest. Aye, she would begin suddenly, but and you have no idea into what ...

... (d)ur cJjooLlielf TO THE WOOD NO MORE. By Ernest Raymond. (Cassell and Co., Ltd. 12s. 6 d.) CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE. By Nan Fairbrother. (The Hogarth Press 12s. bd.) SET ALL AFIRE. By Louis de Wohl. (Victor Collancz, Ltd. 12s. bd.) Reviewed by G. B. Stern POSSIBLY Mr. Ernest Raymond would call his recherche du temps perdu, set in St. John's Wood during the mellow days of King Edward VII., a ...

... (c j l (d j V^unouser ana /uriouser 1 with J. C. TREW1N The Private Secretary {Arts) Charley's Aunt {Nexe) IF Charley is your darling you will find him, remarkably spruce, at the New Theatre, where he has succeeded Dear Charles (it is all, like the farce, a little confusing). At the Arts, thirty seconds' scamper away, you will see Mr. Cattermole lifting the Reverend Robert Spalding by the seat ...

... The Prisoner (Globe) WITHIN the mediaeval castle that is now a prison, we listen in vain for any sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. This, in its European capital, is the home of mental torture. A Cardinal, once a hero of the Resistance, must be softened. Another resistance must be worn down he must be made to say whatever the Government wishes him to say. So we have the ...

... Knock on Wood (Plaza).-- A story of no great consequence about an American ventriloquist who gets accidentally mixed up with a European spy-ring gives Danny Kaye a chance for a number of lively turns. The best is his impersonation of a very English motor salesman demonstrating a very complicated car, but you 'll enjoy the burlesque of ballet, too. Mai Zetterling plays opposite him in her first ...

... A Taste of Poison Richard Ullmann Heads This Week's Selection of Novels and Short Stories Whose Backgrounds Range from Hungary, Across Britain, to New York -By VERNON R\NE MR. RICHARD ULLMANN writes of pressing human problems in his novel A TASTE OF POISON (Werner Laurie, 10s. 6d.), which treats of a Hungarian woman, young, educated, ex tremely good-looking and used to her creature comforts, ...

... Battles Against Desperate Odds t -By VERNON FANE Few Soldiers in History Can Claim to Have Done More than the Australian Independent Companies in Timor A Story of Devotion to Duty c EPIC is a word that has been over-used and misused, but there is no other word which so well fits the exploits of the 2/2 and 2/4 Australian Independent Com panies in Timor during the war. There were 327 of them, ...