28 JUNE 1963, Page 7

Making the Best of It

The preceding paragraph reminds me, rather inconsequently, of the preface to P. G. Wode- house's Summer Lightning, He was particularly pleased with his choice of title and chagrined to discover, when it was too late to make a change, that at least five other authors, on both sides of the Atlantic, had chosen it before him. 'I can only express the hope,' he wrote, 'that this story will be considered worthy of inclusion in the list of the Hundred Best Books Called Summer Lightning.'