Shorter notices
Strange Harp, Strange Symphony John Walsh (W. H. Allen 63s). Francis Thompson nearly became a Catholic priest and studied to be a doctor: instead he ate opium, lived for a while with an adoring tart and wrote 'The Hound of Heaven.' The story of Thompson's down- and-out days in London is well known and has even been dramatised; all the more note- worthy are Mr Walsh's researches and the new material which he brings to light.
History of the International. Volume 2: 1914- 1943 Julius Braunthal (Nelson 126s). Despite his book's length (596 pages) Julius Braunthal —one of the last great veterans of the interna- tional socialist movement—has actually pro- duced a masterpiece of condensation. No -other book in any language contains such a compre- hensive narrative, packed with facts and yet lucid and eminently readable, covering every aspect of the tragic history of the working-class movement between the wars. Mr Braunthal tells us more about the forces that shaped that terrible age than any number of volumes of conventional diplomatic or political history.
The Hand of Mordechai Margaret Larkin (Gollancz 38s). A fascinating account of the Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, barely a mile north of the Gaza strip, besieged, evacuated and re- occupied during the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947-49. As history it suffers from being over- dramatic, with verbatim conversations miracu- lously -recovered from the emotional chaos of eighteen years ago; but Miss Larkin has an evocative pen.
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