27 NOVEMBER 1926, Page 32

Fiction

THESE OLD SHADES. By Georgette Heyer. (Heinemann, 7s. 6d.)—A wicked but witty eighteenth-century English duke is the hero of this incredibly romantic but amusing

novel. He adopts a page-boy who turns out to be a girl and serves in his hands as an instrument of vengeance to destroy

one of his ancient enemies. All sorts of other character, weave their gay way through the pages of this light-hearted story, which one feels immediately would make a delightful film. It has the movement and the candid innocence necessary but at the same time is fiction skilfully contrived to entertain and even convince. The character of the boyish girl-heroine is prettily drawn and all the people she meets are extra- ordinarily real.