... M Faulkner raises a laugh by LIZ ABET H BO WEN THE volume of William Faulkner's collected stories is Uncle Willy And Other Stories & Windus, 15s.). As you will understand, the gathering-up of this great Southerner's tales is important-- the 1949 award, to him. of the Nobel Prize for literature, set a seal Faulkner's position. He stands right at the top, and may be the most ...

... by ANTHONY COOKMAN IT IS A LONG WHILE since a new author raised higher hopes for his future than has Mr. Peter Shaffer in Five Finger Exercise at the Comedy. He is a traditionalist. His play has nothing in common with the angry young man drama. It recalls rather such pieces of the thirties as the Musical Chairs of the ill-fated Ronald Mackenzie and the Asmodee of M. Francois Mauriac; and if ...

... ELIZABETH BOWEN SIR LAWRENCE JONES'S Georgian Afternoon (Rupert Hart- Davis, 21s.) is the third volume in a series of reminiscences-- A Victorian Boyhood, then An Edwardian Youth preceded it. On the strength of those two, Sir Lawrence is recognized as having a specially human place in literature. His writing is not so much nostalgic as, in the liveliest sense, evocative. This time, his power ...

... Cars for the masses-- it's happening by GORDON WILKINS WACKER, said my friend (from which you may deduce that the conversation took place somewhere to the north of the Midlands), Wacker, there's no de pression here. We're going downwards and outwards. It's weeks since I sold a car to a person of intelligence. If anyone comes into the showroom with a bowler hat and umbrella, the boys take ...

... The pursuit of love-by Mrs. Fitzherbert's nieces by SIRIOL HUGH-JONES THE IRRESISTIBLE title of Mr. Richard Buckle's book, The Prettiest Girl In England (John Murray, 21s.), was the phrase used by the Duke of Orleans in 1833 to describe the 18-year-old Georgina Smythe, niece of Mrs. Fitzherbert, and great-great- grandmother of Mr. Buckle. The book consists of Georgina's private journal, which ...

... by ANTHONY COOKMAN IT IS SELDOM that a play written anywhere near in time to the violent events it describes turns out a good piece of drama. Mr. Sean O'Casey has shown that it can be done. How difficult it is to do Mr. Robert Ardrey in Shadow Of Heroes at the Piccadilly tacitly acknowledges. His ap proach to the tortuous political activities which led over some 12 years to the tragic ...

... by SIRIOL HUGH-JONES I BELIEVE that those who love, honour and are frequently alarmed by the works of Graham Greene must all know by now that Wormold (the muddled, conscientious, unsuccessful vacuum-cleaner salesman who becomes an unwilling pawn in the hands of a maniacally inept Secret Service), is the anti-hero of Our Man In Havana (Heine- mann, 15s.), the author's new entertainment. This ...

... by GERALD LASCELLES SPECIALISTS in the art of salesmanship have long practised a game which I associate with the auctioneer-- that of packaging in one lot several items which are individually a doubtful sales line. There is no trick in this device; it is simply a question of hanging sufficient bait on the end of the hook to tempt the unwary to bite. I cannot judge how often the biters return ...

... obacco Road? Give me the sty! by ELSPETH GRANT THERE IS simply no accounting for tastes. Some people, says Mr. Max Bygraves, like sleeping on nails. This is no more stonishing to me than that Mr. Erskine loves (or is alleged to love) the poor white trash who haunt his Tobacco Road and Populate God's Little Acre. For myself, I can't abide 'em or the way they go on: cussin' and a-lustin' ...

... by SIRIOL HUGH-JONES SUMMERTIME, and the living is easy-- the reading, too, if you're not making a weekly habit of it and expecting some sort of masterpiece from publishing houses in August when sensible people mostly seem to think more about shrimping-nets than art. So, in the off-season and for want of a book for which I feel an urge to express deep love to the tune of several paragraphs, ...

... by ELSPETH GRANT FOR ME, THE GREAT fascination of I Was Monty's Double is that the story is, in the main, true. In 1944 a couple of M.I.5 chaps really did cook up a quite preposterous plan to divert the Germans' attention from our preparations for D-Day and suggest that our attack would be launched from the Mediterranean-- and Mr. M. E. Clifton James is the very man who carried it out for them ...

... by ANTHONY COOKiMAN THAT you will see Miss Pat Kirkwood interrupt a dance to drain a pint mug of beer without drawing breath is a sufficient reason for going to the Prince of Wales Theatre. There are other reasons. Chrysanthe mum coming after the lamentable Mr. Venus is something of a surprise, a musical comedy which has got hold of an amusing idea and exploits it with an exhilarating sense of ...