26 OCTOBER 1929, Page 45

There is something breezy and pleasant about Captain Fairbairn's The

Narrative of a Naval Nobody, 1907-1924 (Murray, 10s. 6d.), but it really was not necessary for the author to describe St. reter's or the Acropolis or the mosque Of Sall Sophia Baedeker treats of Such matters more satisfactorily than any amateur. There id only one exciting incident, however : the torpedoing of kis ship by a sub- marine, and that is not very vividly told.