27 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 26

WHITE THORN. By Constance Sitwell. (Pharos. 6s.)— Mrs. Sitwell's story

of a young girl's love for a ne'er-do- well, her marriage to a conventionalist and the consequent renunciations and loyalty and tenderness is, rather miraculously, saved from the commonplace without the aid of irony. Her charaeterization is good, the descriptions of the English countryside are exquisite, and the whole book has an air of graciousness, rare in these days.