24 MAY 1945, Page 22

The Caravan Rolls On. By Henry Baerlein. (Muller. 12s. 6d.)

MORE travellers' tales of an engaging kind fill Mr. Baerlein's new book. Incidents and stories, memory and invention combine to produce another series of brief pieces that are a delight to read. Mr. Baerlein's touch is for the most part light, but that he can feel strongly, and write astringently when he does so feel, is apparent from the lengthy footnote roundly condemning Admiral Horthy's Hungary which accompanies the travel vignette entitled " The Bul- garian Rabbi and his Poem." *War and peace, love and politics, persons real and imaginary, appear in these pages, which range over most of Europe for their scenes, and in one case stray as far afield as Mexico.- " No Second Innings," the story of a German airman who, having baled out and changed from his uniform into the contents of a stolen bag, finds himself welcomed by the village team as an unknown but expected member of the M.C.C., gave particular pleasure • to one reader at least by its ironic presenta- tion of natural German bewilderment in a normal English scene. This is a book to be read, one or two pieces at a time, in bed, in the bath, or on the daily railway journey.