17 NOVEMBER 1900, Page 9

Geoff Blake: his Chums and his Foes. By S. S.

Pugh. (R.T.S. 2s. 6d.)—This is an unusually successful school-story. For the most part these tales have something unreal about them. Here we have what seems to us a really good analysis of boy-char- acter. The good boys are not prigs, the bad ones are not fiends. The tale belongs to the days, now some time past, before the new generation of public schools had superseded the great private schools. Probably the morale of the latter fluctuated more than can well happen now. Anyhow, the picture drawn here of school-life at Beckthorpe strikes us as true to nature, while some of the characters, Geoff Blake especially, are studies showing not a little subtlety and insight.