A man's style, like his appearance, often takes something from
his profession. No reader of Sir Francis Lindley's pleasant Diplomat Of Duty (Benn, 12s. 6d.) can fail to note its Foreign Office flavour, and this although the book is about. the jolliest things imaginable, ski-ing in Norway, tiger-hunting in Korea (Sir Francis shot no tiger, but has written a delightful essay), a good chapter on bathing (we should like to hear a discussion of the relative merits of the beaches of Miami and Capri), and a great deal about fishing. Sir Francis seems doubtful about sharks in the Mediterranean, but we can assure him they have been seen, within a boathook-length, in. the Gulf of Rapallo : there is, however, no recorded instance of injury to human beings. The fruit, of a happy and well- spent life, this is an altogether charming book.
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