... THE most surprising thing about Mr. Lion Feucht wanger's new novel is its short ness, since this is an author who likes, in the common phrase, to spread himself, and who is seldom content, as in the present case, with a mere 200- odd pages. Nevertheless, I think that SIMONE (Hamish Hamilton. 8s. 6d.) will be one of his most lasting successes. In many ways it seems written by another man irom ...

... WORDS. DEEDS AND FICTION -By Vernon Fane A Stylist's Anthology Brilliant 'War Reporting Fascism in the Sun An English Miss in the Czardas I DON'T like anthologies. There is almost nothing to be said in their favour, except by those compilers and pub lishers who make a good thing out of them. For the lazy minded they provide what look like short cuts to that to which there is no short cut. They ...

... I HAD heard a great deal about the first book on my list this week before I read it, and that is not always a fortunate approach, but THE WHITE TOWER (Collins, Ios. 6d.) is one of those rare novels which, having been acclaimed with some reason as best-sellers in the United States, survive the Atlantic crossing and bid fair to become as widely successful in this country as is compatible with ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE CEE HOW THEY RUN (Comedy)'.-- There were' no mice and there was no farmer's wife. But they certainly did run, those five parsons, and so should the piece. For this is a slap-dash sort of farce, in which the majority of the British public seem to delight. It has to be well done, and in this case the entertainment, of its type, could hardly be better. The author knows his ...

... THERE is a clear parallel, which the author is the last to ignore, between the period treated in Mr. Arthur Bryant's new book and our own days. YEARS OF VICTORY (Collins. 12s.) covers the epoch from 1802 to 1812, and the gradual destruction of the great force built up by Napoleon. His dominion over Europe was broken, first by the slow but progressive encirclement lrom the sea, and then by a ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE TT//S TIME IT'S LOVE (Comedy).-- How that amusing Frenchman, Louis Verneuil, ever came to write a quarter of a centurv ago so dull a plav as this, and whv two clever English people have taken the trouble to translate it, I find a bit of a mystery. The translation is a more than impossible job of work, and that is why, coupled with some excellent acting the evening was ...

... -By Vernon Fane Lion Feuchtwanger 's Story of Nazi Germany Ach-ack and a Kentish Village Murder in Pre-war Austria The Ingredients of a Chinese Puzzle THE new Feuchtwanger novel evokes this author's usual atmosphere of ugly splendour and macabre Gothic intrigue. It is a melodrama of Nazi Germany before this war, and tells the story of two men who are shown as having a dubious influence over ...

... The LIVES of MEN in the PUBLIC EYE A Biography of Lord Halifax The Story of the Sassoons Dr. Rauschning's Counter -Tiazi Philosophy By Vernon Fane AS long as there are famous men, people will want to know about them, and to read about them. So wrote the author of the recently-published biography of such a man. Modern publicity methods and the development of newspapers and magazines into gossip ...

... THE THEATRE IN WARTIME The Festival at Stratford-on-Avon and a Brief Review of London's Shows. By PHILIP PAGE IT has been remarked that if William Shakespeare could have attended his own Festival last week, Stratford-on-Avon under a black-out would have sur prised him. It would not. There are many things about wartime Stratford which would have caused him surprise (among them, I think, certain ...

... THE OPENING of the SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL at STRATFORD-ON-AVON The New London Stage Productions Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE SINCE returning to theatre-going after many painful weeks in hospital through being struck down by a taxi, I have been struck also by many far more pleasant things. One is the shrewdness and general capacity of those who present, produce, etc., the majority of the large- scale ...

... MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES has called the third volume of her autobiography THE MERRY WIVES OF WEST MINSTER (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.), and it covers the years between 1896, the date of her happy marriage. to 1914. These are reminiscences and memoirs of a high order, and if I had a criticism it would reallv be confined to the title, which is exact and fitting in everything but that qualifying term of ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE PEER GYNT (New).-- By far the most im portant event for theatrical London since the victory over the flying bombs has allowed a return to a normal state of affairs (and even a bit better than that) has been the launching of the new Old Vic Company, with an important repertory and some distinguished players. With their first effort. Peer Gynt, I must confess that I was ...