26 JANUARY 1924, Page 18

BRIGHTER INTERVALS : Duly Logged in Prose and Verse. By

Gordon Phillips. (Nisbet. 5s.)

Mr. Gordon Phillips is " Lucio " of the Manchester Guardian, from which paper he has collected the majority of these amusing trifles. Every one of them is more than pleasant enough to beguile a few idle moments, but they hardly survive the ordeal of publication in book-form. Perhaps their author is aware of this, for in a modest little preface (one of the best things in the book) he " A' -book which-can birbegan anywhere and finished in the same adaptable kind of place is a great convenience to people in bed ; and in the teeth of any conceivable opposition, I maintain that both of these merits are conspicuously attached to the work which now invites your attention." We should be the last to contest this statement.