11 OCTOBER 1924, Page 24

SANTA CLAUS IN SUMMER. By Compton Mackenzie. (Constable. 7s. 6d.

net.)

Mr. Compton Mackenzie is here very frivolous and worldly. He has collected a great number of nursery rhymes, and has fixed them, "in scramble-sort," into a long, sophisticated story for children. We wish there had been someone at hand who remembered childhood to check Mr. Compton Mackenzie : it isn't fun making fun of nursery rhymes, and they don't need any expansion or explanation. We didn't enjoy a bit the account of the school kept by Miss Mary Q. Contrary, where they taught such subjects as Fractions without any Vulgarity Hebrew, Shebrew, and Double Dutch. Most of the book is like that, too. It is quite probable that children would enjoy it ; but they would be prevented from enjoying nursery rhymes for their own pure sake when they met them in their natural surroundings.