... Little has ever been written about the ancient West African king dom of Benin, and therefore Ray mond Tong's Figures in Ebony (Cassell 16s.) will be welcomed with interest. The author, who spent four years in the province with the Colonial Education Ser vice, writes with clear understand ing and affection for Benin and its peoples. Besides painting a vivid picture of Benin and the Binis of to ...

... by GERALD LASCELLES I REFER so often to the great masters of jazz that I feel I should write more fully about them. To begin with, jazz did not just suddenly happen --it arose from the conglomeration of musical ideas expressed by Negroes throughout the United States over a period of many years. No one person, style or place can claim the honour of being the first in jazz, though several ...

... 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 ...

... 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, ...

... CINEMA RECENT PRODUCTIONS INDISCREET (Warner)-- Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in a glossy comedy about a woman's pique when she discovers that the married man she has taken as a lover is only pretending to be married. Hollywood style. London settings, Paris fashions. Vertigo (Release August 25) Slightly sub standard Hitchcock thriller, with James Stewart as a detective with no head for heights ...

... Title to Fame j Balzac's Drolleries in a New TranslM What an immense and varied total production Balzac achieved in his comparatively short career. Many critics have said that Cousin Bette was Balzac's topmost achievement, and they may well be right, but the author himself considered that his Conies Drolatiques would in days to come constitute my principal title to fame. Almost carried ...

... NEW OPERA COMPANY (Sadler's Wells)-- This very courageous company has presented five works this summer, all of extraordinary interest, and on the whole magnificently well done. The ensemble is made up of amateurs from the music colleges, stiffened with professional singers in the leading rôles, and with professional producers and orchestra. Arthur Benjamin's A Tale of Two Cities is an exciting ...

... Adventuress Actress Strange Experiences in South Africa the Wit of Peter Fleming; Murders Most Vile; Three Novelists from America; Science Fiction for Adults THERE is a little lady, now, I suppose, middle-aged, though that seems difficult to believe in view of the tremendous vitality of her writing, who has already produced an early book of autobiography dealing with her ancestors, Huguenot ...

... What is Truth? A Dissertation on Legal Proof Deductions made by a detective may not always be accepted as fact by a court of law. Or, to put it another way, the police may be certain of a man's guilt, but a lawyer may not be able to prove it to the satisfac tion of British justice. This is the theme of ACCORDING TO THE EVIDENCE, by Gerald Abrahams (Cassell. 21s.). The author is a barrister and ...

... WHITE HUNTER' SERIES: 'One Fatal Weakness' ALTHOUGH The White Hun- ter series was made in this country, with location shots and background material from Kenya, most of the scripts came from America. The script of this episode is no exception, by Lee Erwin. John Hunter (Rhodes Reason) is asked by the Kenya Games Com mission to conduct a safari for a man named Doak (Mervyn Johns). Doak turns ...

... Reviewed by ANGELA MILNE WRESTLING with the problem of how to be the right sort of guy in the wrong sort of world, the long Ameri can novel of today can make heavy-- or, at any rate, careful-- reading with the intro spection it must carry. On the other hand, if young love is the problem, then something lighter, more spontaneous and outgoing must get into the treatment; and that is what Sloan ...

... The Goddess (Curgon), written by the author of Marty, is very clever in a joyless way; a kind of poor man's Tennessee Williams. It 's about the rise and fall of a lonely Southern girl (Kim Stanley) who becomes a Hollywood star through her availability, then goes to pieces in a haze of drink and drugs. Vive Monsieur Blaireau (Cameo-Polytechnic) is gently amusing French comedy in real holiday ...