15 OCTOBER 1927, Page 19

Mr. Arthur Waugh has collected eighteen of the best short

stories contributed during the last year to English and American periodicals in Georgian Stories, 1927 (Chapman and Hall. 7s. 6d.). The writers selected include Stacy Aumonier; J. D. Beresford, A. E. Coppard, William Gerhanli, Sheila Kaye-Smith, Denis Mackail, and Beatrice Kean Seymour. Specially characteristic of the modern short story, with its interpretation of obscure lives, are Mr. Gerald Bullett's study of a villager on his ninety-second birthday, and Mr. Martin Armstrong's sympathetic penetration into the secret heart of a seaside landlady. Among the most original tales is Miss .G. B. Stern's, which will delight all dog-lovers ; and among the worst is Mr. Osbert Sitwell's clumsy caricature of a contemporary man of letters. Georgian Stories is thoroughly representative, and there is something in it for every taste.