29 JANUARY 1954, Page 7

Rockets to Right of Them

A friend of mine, a retired officer of the Indian Cavalry, was reading aloud to his six-year-old son Russell's eye-witness account of the charge of the Heavy Cavalry Brigade at Balaklava one hundred years ago. The trumpets " (he intoned) " rang out again through the valley, and the Greys and Enniskilleners went right at the centre of the Russian Cavalry. The space between them—" The lad, whose manner up till now had been distrait and rather torpid, stiffened like a pointer. "Space, Daddy ? " he cried. " Space men 1. I knew it was going to get exciting."

STRIX