29 AUGUST 1925, Page 16

Mr. Robert Blatchford has written a very small book on

English. Prose and How to Write It (Methuen). It contains some wholesome advice to the very inexperienced, and none of it can be harmful. " As a writer," he says, " you will need to learn a lot of , words : what is called a ' vocabulary.' But to learn a lot of words and their meanings is not enough : you must have a stock of good words, and to that end must learn to choose the best."

There are no fine distinctions to be learnt from Mr. Blatch- ford ; but a free and confident style is enviable, and this he possesses more eminently than many writers of virtue.