Shorter Notices
Archdeacons Afloat. By C. A. Alington. (Faber and Faber. 7s. 6d.)
READERS of The Spectator will not need to be reminded that the author of this lively narrative of the strange events that attended a Hellenic Travellers' tour is the Dean of Durham, and as such qualified to speak with unchallenged authority on Archdeacons. Actually the two dignitaries concerned were by no means discharging archidiaconal functions among the isles of Greece. Both, indeed, succeeded for a time, and failed later in surprising circumstances, in maintaining their incognito. This is no place To tell how or why ; that discovery must wait on a study of the Dean of Durham's enter- taining pages. What he has written might perhaps be &scribed, in peculiarly reprehensible modern jargon, as a near-thriller. At any rate, there are plenty of mild thrills, some excellent dialogue, and a neat piece of archidiaconal secret-service work. If it be objected by the parsimonious that 146 pages are rather short measure for 7i. 6d., the fault is the publisher's, hot the author's.
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