5 APRIL 1957, Page 25

The World is all Islands, by Carl Nielsen (Allen. , and

Unwin, 21s.): exploration without talent. This book shows just how dull a trip round the world can become. Three Danes and a cat called Isa Lei go round it in a fifty-year-old schooner, and the remarkable feat of crossing so many large stretches of water with such simple equipment seems lost in the extraordinary trite- ness and dullness of everything Mr. Nielsen has to say. Poor photographs, too.

ISABEL QUIGLY