... on to the early post-war entertainment scene like a pair of Transatlantic meteors. He was drily witty in the manner of some of the great American humorists, to whom we had become accustomed during the war years, she was an exceptionally promising young actress who matched her husband in possess ing a sense of comedy. Together and separately, they prac tically monopolised the airwaves in the ...

... Hollywood Stars on at least two counts: it is self-evidently written by the lady herself, with a degree of literacy and emotional maturity that make it a work of art to be cherished, and it is refreshingly free of any trace of bitterness or complaint over a life that has had more than its share of heartbreak and lost opportu nities careerwise. Although in over 75 films her direc tors have ...

... Morley (Hodder and Stoughton, £10.95) I cannot think of anybody in the modem theatre world who gets about quite as much as Sheridan Morley, cropping up as he does on radio and television, in the national and magazine press, in theatre programmes, even on occasion in the theatre itself, usually as a narrator, and on one occa sion, as narrator ot his on compilation Noel and Gertie. When he is ...

... the difference between a companion, a guide and an encyclopaedia? Not a lot, if present-day publishers are anything to go by. Encyclopaedia is obviously considered too daunting, but whatever you call it, the encyclopaedic form is followed here, with 2,000 alphabetical entries. This volume will inevitably be com pared with last year's Penguin tome on the same subject, and on the whole I think I ...

... Harrap's Book of Film Directors and their rilms, by Alison J. r timer and Andre Golay (Harrap, £14.95) This book, listing over 26,000 films made by over 3,300 directors, is a complement to other film reference books, which generally list only the most significant films in a director's output. This one includes practically every known English language direc tor, and it is noticeable that the ...

... British Theatre Yearbook 1990. edited by David Lemmon (Christ opher Helm Publishers Ltd, £12.95) It is good to see that this book, which first appeared last year, looks like lasting, for it is an excellent guide to the year in the theatre, not just the West End and the major subsidised companies, but the best of the fringe, including the Gate, Latchmere and New End, and the regional theatres. ...

... visited Canadia this year, I can vouch for the fact that there is far more to Canadian theatre than might appear to be the case from this side of the Atlantic. It has, for instance, a distinct identity, being neither an offshoot of English theatre, although its roots go back to colonial days, nor influenced by its near neighbour in the States. Moreover, there are two theatres in Canada, ...

... BOOKS Hamp, by Lionel Hampton with James Haskins (Robson Books, £14.95) LET no one accuse Lionel Hampton of writing one of those jazz biographies which is long on sensation, but short on facts. Hamp is fairly stuffed with them, band per sonnels, touring schedules, recording dates. One sus pects that this is largely due to his late wife Gladys, a remarkable woman who believed that being both ...

... famous women in the world-and judging from the Cleopatra stills reproduced here surely the most beautiful woman ever to have been photographed makes for compelling reading. The facts of her life are so extraordinary they make gossip and speculation unnecessary as Walker phrases it with characteristic tren- chancy, Ten years of marriage, 1 1 movies, and 30 million dollars and that just ...

... Seeing is believing: PETER HEPPLE on a book that moves with the times The Moving Image, by John Wyver (Basic Blackwell, £35 hardback, £15 paperback) I have more than one history of cinema on my bookshelves, but all deal more with the films themselves than with the industry and technology that gave them birth. Though not going into great detail, which is just as well for non-technical people ...

... Hands up for Sooty The Secret Life of Sooty, by Geoff Tibballs. Foreword by George Harrison. Paperback. Ring Press, £4.95. I will get my usual complaint about any show business biography out of the way immediately: No Index. Any bear or human who has mixed on intimate terms with crowned heads, the cream of the entertainment world and Barbara Woodhouse, besides being introduced handsomely by ...

... Blues Fell This Morning, by Paul Oliver Cambridge University Press, £30 hardback, £9.95 paperback) First published in 1960, this book, the first real fruits of Paul Oliver's researches into the blues, has long been regarded as a classic, all the more remarkable because it is written by an Englishman, whose work opened up a whole field of blues study, as much in the States as anywhere else. But ...