Keeling Lettersand Recollections. Edited by E. T. With an Intro-
duction by H. G. Wells. (Allen and Unwin. 12s. 6d. net.)— This collection of a young man's letters has the interest of a good modern novel. Yet Sergeant-Major F. H. Keeling, who was killed on the Somme in 1916, was a very real person. He was educated at Winchester and Trinity, led the Cambridge Socialists, worked in London slums, Managed a Labour Exchange at Leeds, and de- lighted or perplexed a wide circle of friends with his talent and un- conventionality. He had moved in peace-at-any-price circles and had a profound regard for Germany, but he was among the first to volunteer in August, 1914, and refused repeated offers of a com- mission, preferring to serve his country in the ranks. His letters have the rare merit of frankness. He expressed himself without reserve on paper or by word of mouth. His opinions, at first un- orthodox in the extreme about religion, marriage, and other matters, were modified by his experiences at the front. At twenty-nine he could say " I am not a Socialist any more," and " The amenity of Communism as you get it in the Army is very attractive, but its wastefulness is also very obvious." He was an exceptional man, but there is some truth in Mr. Wells's commendation of his war letters as " a valuable picture of the state of mind of the English intelligentzia of his time."
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