MY TALKS WITH DEAN SPANLEY
By Lord Dunsany
From the dust-jacket to the last page My Talks With Dean Spanley (Heine- mann, 5s.) is an excellent joke for a win- ter's evening. The author, to obtain proof of the doctrine of transmigration,by the skilful application of Imperial Tokay drew out from his fellow club-member, rein Spanley, his reminiscences of a previous life as a dog. The tricks to which the author resorted to keep the Dean in the requisite frame of mind (completely sober he remembered nothing) are almost as funny as the picture of the dignified divine speaking as " Wag." " While I spoke to him and held his attention, I refilled his glass. . . . Well,' he said, ' there's always fleas.' . . . He looked wistfully at the l'okay but Igave himnia More yet. 'Rabbits,' I said, to remind him. Yes, their guts are very good,' he said. ‘. ." The seriousness with which Lord Dun• sany records his conversations is in the classical tradition of hoaxes. Ina.
dentally his interpretation of the mind of a dog must be one of the best ever made and dog-lovers (who will approve of a dog being rewarded by a deanery in its next life) not amused by the Dean, will rejoice in " Wag."
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