Jumping. Edited by Lt.-Col. M. P. Ansel!, C.B.E., D.S.O. (The
Naldrett Press. 15s.) LIFE in Mike Ansell's squadron before the war was an exhilarating if sometimes terrifying experience; the word 'dynamic' might have been invented specially for him. Being both an England polo-player and an international show-jumper, he was in fact seldom with us, but since he could achieve more in a month than others could in a year his absences were immaterial. By 1939 he was the acknowledged 'star' of the younger cavalrymen and when in 1940 he was half- blinded and taken prisoner, it was as the youngest commanding officer of an armoured unit in the Army.
After the war he first made himself in to a recognized horticultural expert, and then, as his eyesight gradually failed, turned to the management of show-jumping. He is a man who has never done anything badly,
and the book he has just edited is well in character.
Show jumping as a sport has virtually no bibliography, and Jumping is the beginning of an attempt to put this right, Each chapter is written by a different expert and deals with a different aspect; Miss Pat Smythe, Colonels Llewellyn, Williams, Talbot-Ponsonby and many others all have their say, ; nd Mr. Dorian Williams writes entertainingly about the problems of the show announcer. Even the man in the grandstand has a chapter to himself, agreeably contributed by Captain Wilson Stephens. This is a most admirable book, excellently illustrated, and everyone interested in show-jumping should get it at once.
C. H. B.
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