3 OCTOBER 1941, Page 4

There are optimists who always expect to get everyone on

the telephone, and pessimists who never expect to get anyone. Among the former, I judge, are Messrs. A. and C. Black, the publishers of the latest issue of Who Was Who, that most valu- able publication which epitomises, on the basis of the still better known Who's Who, the lives of persons of note who have died in the period in question—in this case the years 1929-1940 As I think I have observed before, the consistent inclusion of the telephone-numbers of the eminent deceased seems to argue a faith in the efficiency of our telephone-service which experiment might hardly justify. This slight superfluity, how- ever, in no way detracts from the merits of the new volume. which are quite sufficient to justify the 4os. asked for it. * * *

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