Shorter . Notices
A Star Daneed By Gertrude Lawrence. (W. H. Allen. 10s. 6d.)
NOT only Miss Gertrude Lawrence's innumerable admirers will enjoy this lively, truthful hook and its many illustrations. It is the story of her life told with an art that'professional writers may envy. Even if one had 'never seen Gertrude Lawrence on the stage, reading A Star Danced would persuade one that Mr. C. B. Cochran did not exaggerate when he wrote in his introduction: "She is the producers ideal `leading lady.',. No-One ever looked or lived' the part more thoroughly. She is without a particle of doubt the most glittering star of the English-speaking stage."
Inborn dramatic instinct made the little Cockney girl of Kenning- ton Oval into a great variety artist and one of our finest actresses. At the age of six she had the nerve to step from the audience on tc the stage, at a .beach concert-party at Bognor, and sing: "It ain't all honey and it ain't all jars." But it took more than native talent to succeed, as her fascinating story of an always arduous and always chequered career reveals. We must add grit, determination and a persistence in her chosen profession that no set-back could diminish Here you may read how she once became a barmaid in Shrewsbury, what incident in her early life caused her to pas§ion- ately desire to sing to the forces in the war of 1939-45, and why it is she has generally been hard-up in spite of immense earnings.. You will also be delighted with her good taste and lack of humbug. Two Years Before the Mast. By R. H. Dana. (Hutchinson. 12s. 6d.)
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