4 NOVEMBER 1911, Page 10

The Winning of the Golden Spurs. By Percy Westerman. (James

Nisbet and Co. 5s.)—Redward Buckland has a past, as explained in the Prologue, which makes him glad, even when he is well into middle age, to stick to the business of fighting and to train in the same way his son Raymond, who has tried the life of a monastery novice and does not much like it. This Raymond is the hero of the story. He makes his first essay in arms in fighting with French and Spanish enemies who are harrying the Channel coasts. This is a page in English history which we do not often open, and it is well to know something about it. Then we are taken across the Channel, witness various scenes of adventure, and finally come to Crecy, where the "spurs" are won. There is a love story going on, very wisely not made too prominent, ending with a hint that to the happy ending of the affair we owe a notable personage among modern statesmen.