15 DECEMBER 1923, Page 30

The end of the lives of selfish and self-centred people

is a somewhat depressing theme, and Mr. Maxwell alienates his readers by beginning his novel with an account of the senility of his two principal characters. It may, however, be doubted whether, even without this, the story of Wilfred Heber and Carrington Bird was worth telling. It is, no doubt, a photo- graphic account of the lives of two very undistinguished people about whom the only possible interest is that they are human beings. The account of their adventures in France during the War does not ring entirely true, and as a whole the book is not as successful as most of the works of this author.