15 MAY 1959, Page 28

Smiling Damned Villain. By Rupert Croft- Cooke. Till the Day

I Die. By Robert Markel, (Seeker and Warburg, 18s. each.) Each the biography of a criminal. Mr. Croft-Cooke tells the story of Paul Lund, who earned his living by every kind of thievery, now runs a bar in Tangier, suffers no regrets and makes no excuses. Mr. Markel's subject is an American who has been in and out of jail and claims in every breath-' probably rightly, but boringly—that he has been more sinned against than sinning. The American may be a better citizen, but the Englishman if more fun.