... ALTHOUGH it may seem at first sight that a book called The Technique of Competitive Swimming (Collets Holdings; 15s.) would be of interest to a somewhat limited public, the world being not over-full of competitive swimmers, this is not the case. ims volume by Bela Rajki is illustrated by the staggering number of 528 photo graphs, reproduced in such a fashion that almost every stage of every ...

... by J. C. TBEWm ONE day, perhaps, we shall stop talking about ages: sweet peace will settle over all. We shall have neither Juvenile Prodigies nor Grand Old Men. We shall see that it is tedious, in speaking of a play or a performance, to drag in the age of dramatist or actor. I have never been tempted to go to a play just because it is the work of a very young man or a very old one. I am not ...

... by C. A. EEJEUNE SOME time before the war a Hollywood unit came to England to make a film in a British Army camp. After suffering a number 01 outrages in silence, an elderly colonel mildly objected to the director, We don't do that here. Of course not, replied the director cheer fully, You know you don't and I know you don't, but in Kansas City they know you do. The British, it is conceded, ...

... Studio One A true adventure story of the American Civil War, with Fess Parker as the Union spy who steals a Southern train (object, to destroy the enemy's supply routes), tnd Jeffrey Hunter as the intrepid conductor who sets off on foot, trolley and locomu ive, in pursuit. Walt Disney has collected ome wonderful old rolling-stock for the picture, and railway children of all ages should adore it. ...

... Paris -Pullman Story of a torrid Greek Carmen, who gets her quietus from the football player she leaves standing at the altar. Out-of-the-rut entertainment with some fascinating scenes of Athens, and an interesting star person ality in Melina Mcrcouri. ...

... Cameo- roiytecnmi An eye-catching wench named Manna Vlady, in a nasty scx-and-violcnce aHair about two escaped convicts and an artis s model alone in the Camarguc marshes. ...

... HOW UNFAIR. ABOUT PAINTERS! by ANGELA MILNE T7TSITORS who enjoy a ramble. Forgive me, but the official holiday guide keeps getting in among my more serious reading, and these courteous words ring in my head until I am tempted to use them to introduce Valleys of Springs, by Dorothea Eastwood (Wingate; t8s.) while hurrying to add that ramble, which surely denotes a mild and myopic progress ...

... The Night-Comers By Eric Ambler. (Heinemann; 13s. 6d.) The fascination of tough novels about Abroad seems as strong as ever; and if some oddities, like me, tend to escape it, they can only tell themselves that novelists would be doing a poor job if they did not reflect the troubled and narrowing world of to-day. Certainly Eric Ambler has a good hero of the times in Steven Fraser, an engineer ...

... . Lyceum Theatre: August 21 to 25, Under Milk It ood, by Dylan Thomas. August 27 to September 1, Piccolo Teatro di Milano: rr- i!fcc^'no' the. Servant of Two Masters (Goldoni), To-night, We Improvise (Piran dello); m Italian. September 3 to 8: Fanny's First Play Acc/I, ,V,'llage Wooing, both by Shaw. Assembly Hall: August 20 to 25, Pleasure of Scotland --singing, dancing, etc. August 27 ...

... An Epic of Mountaineering Hermann Buhl's Ascent of Nanga Parbat a Guide-book to Rome Debased Murderers; Peter de Vries' Comic Novel Three Stories about Ships and Other New Fiction By VERNON FANE THAT wonderful day when we heard that Hillary and Ten sing had climbed to the summit of Everest is not likely to be forgotten by anyone in this country. It was a proud moment and it had been in a large ...

... St. James's Lesley Storm's play, based on the predica ment of Mrs. Donald Maclean, falls between melodrama and discussion, and takes three acts to reach the bottom. It is one of those plays in which cigarettes, drinks, playing the piano, opening and shutting of hand- bags all those old producer's stand-bys-- f arc used to disguise the fact that there is never any real need for anyone to move. ...

... Royal Festival Ilall The 1956 London season runs until September 8. The two new offerings arc Charnlcy's Homage to a Princess and Les Deux Errants, the first work of a new choreographer, Wolfgang Brunner. The first is chi-chi and rather motiveless revue stuff. The second is a gimmick ballet (some of the dancers arc intended to merge into the scenery), but there seems to be no reason at any ...