21 SEPTEMBER 1956, Page 24

THE OTHER ISLAND. By E. H. Clements. (Hodder and Stoughton,

12s. 6d.) On one island at the entrance to the Bristol Channel is a government research station; on another, close by, is a community of Benedictines; over them both wheel the screaming sea-birds—gulls and gannets and guillemots. What connection there is between monks and marine biologists and scientists and sea-birds is investigated by Alister Woodhead, one of the very few secret agents in English fiction to be both competent and credible. A cunningly convincing read.