24 MAY 1963, Page 8

The fortunes of Daisy Talbot, daughter of the Wardcn of

Gloucester College, decline after her marriage to Tony Caldecott, whose weakness and conversion to Communism are interdepor dent, until she degenerates into a bedroom whisky addict. Those of her fellow art-student and flat-mate, Bella Alleyne, steadily mount to their pinnacle, marriage with Dick SwaYne, Canadian scientist, capitalist hero of the Two Cultures. He supplies an Elysium for Bella, an apparent refuge (ephemeral, alas, for she is mortally wounded in the Blitz), in the shape of a fully staffed, restored Queen Anne mansion to the Home Counties.