17 DECEMBER 1948, Page 5

* * * * A book on Mr. Ll eorge,

written by a Mr. Malcolm Thomson under the auspices df th Dowager Countess Lloyd George, L.G.'s former secretary, whoin he married in 1943 at the age of So, is lavishly described (three times on the dust cover, once on the binding, once on the title page, once in the preface) as "the official biography." This raises interesting questions. Who can be held entitled to confer such an accolade on a volume ? Take this par- ticular book for example. Has it the approval of any one of Lloyd George's sons or daughters ? It can be confidently affirmed that it has not. Has it any literary distinction to fortify its claim ? Let anyone who cares to read it judge. It is clear that a statesman who held any such place as Mr. Lloyd George in national or international history merits a definitive and accepted biography ; the volumes on which Dr. Thomas Jones, whom L.G. brought from Wales to Whitehall in 1916, and than whom no man could be better qualified, is working, are being awaited with what may be described as patient impatience. They are not likely to disappoint when they do come.