10 NOVEMBER 1928, Page 26

In Theodore Roosevelt's Diaries of Boyhood and Youth (Scribner, 10s.

6d.) we are shown the boyhood of one of America's greatest citizens. In a manner which combines something of the charm of When We Were Very Young with the less affected parts of The Young Visiters, the boy Roosevelt describes the experiences, trials, and triumphs of the nursery. The man who was to lead an army and win a war, the man who was to be the idol of the American people, tells us how "All the morning I played store and ' baby ' " ; how "The first fig of our garden was eaten that evening " ; how he "met with several cross chambermaids " ; and how "We discovered a weasel's hole and a foxes burrow." All through the book there runs that charming naiveté that was perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of America's great President.