SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
(Notice is Vas column doss not necessarily preclude subsequent review.]
Cloud and Silver. By E. V. Lucas. (Methuen and Co. 5s. net.)— The majority of these charming essays have already been published in various periodicals, but admirers of Mr. Lucas's work—and they are legion—will be glad to have them in book form to read again at leimre. Many of the essays touch on the war, chief among them being "My First Battlefield" and "The Marne after the Battle." Included in the collection are also Mr. Lucas's warm appreciation of the well-known Irish writers "Martin Rose" and E. CE. Somerville, and a dissertation on "The Best Stories." Mr. Lucas's own choice of a "best story" is for Lamb'. famous retort to the complaint of his India Office superior: "You always come late to the office." "Yes," replied Lamb, "but see how early I leave I" The one chapter in the book that is published for the first time is "In a New Medium," "designed to increase the home- sickness of Englishmen away from England." The " medium " is the gramophone, and Mr. Lucas conceived the idea of writing a poem for a record to be used in the trenches, describing the various sights and sounds of English town and country life dear to the heart of "Tommy Atkins," and accompanied by reproductions of the various sounds. The poem is delightful in itself, and most amusing is Mr. Lucas's account of hew it was finally committed to the gramophone with the aid of a professional reciter, an accomplished whistler to represent nightingale and skylark, motor-horns, fire-bells, rattles, &c., &c.
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