The North Star is Nearer. By Evelyn Eaton.
(Gollancz. 1 23. 6d.) IN twenty-one autobiographical sketches we get glimpses of Miss Eaton's childhood in Canada, her schooldays in England, and her working days in France, England, Egypt and China. Some of the sketches turn on irony, some on pathos, some on a rather deliberate cynicism, some simply on the comedy of situation. She is best in stories such as "One Is Well," telling of a gift.of a pair of shoes which transforms an- orphan's outlook on life, for here her naive
compassion becomes heart-rending, and the perfect blend of laughter and tears Is achieved. On the other hand, her account of her brief employment as secritaire• traductrice to the administrateur-delegue of the Societe Anonyme Underwood in Paris, in which her sole task for many days was to blot her boss's signature, is pure fun. And for the comedy of situation it would be difficult to better " Royal Bouquet," in which Miss Eaton is bidden to presentlat bouquet to her school " fag," Princess Marie of Rumania—a reversal of roles not with- out social significance. There are occasional lapses into the disingenuous style of the pro- fessional humorist (" Mother went into one of Her Silences "), but these are easily for- given in a book that offers so much that is delightful—not least the charmingly apt drawings by Ann and John Groth. A. W.
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