26 DECEMBER 1947, Page 22

Marlborough : His Life and Times. By the Rt. Hon.

Winston S. Churchill. (Harrap. 2 Vols. 50s. the set.) WHEN MT. Churchill's great work on his most illustrious ancestor first appeared fourteen years ago, The Spectator said of it: "Mr. Churchill has rendered great service to all lovers of Marlborough

by showing him as he really was, a full man capable of disinterested and life-long love, of generosity, of clear thinking, and possessed of political as well as of military greatness." The fact that all these attributes of the Great Captain have been repeated in his biographer, the Great Prime Minister, will no doubt attract many readers to this excellent reprint ; but the chief reason for buying it remains the merit of the book itself. In the present edition the complete original text, with all the maps and plans, has been reproduced in two books each containing two volumes instead of the former four separate volumes. For the performance of thit feat, without the loss of a word or detail of illustration or degree of legibility, the publ:shers are to be congratulated.