OTHER RECENT BOOKS
The Story of England : Makers of the Realm. By Arthur Bryant. (Collins. 16s.) THIS trilogy of the greatness of England (for Dr. Bryant, like the Attic tragedians, writes in trilogies) was undertaken three years ago, before it could be known that 1953 would be the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. With his inspiring first volume, now before us, he won his race with time.
He takes us from the prehistoric inhabit- ants and invaders of an island which for long was to have no name, much less unity, down to the early days of Edward 1, when England was not only the richest and best- governed country in Europe (it had long been that, hence the many invasions), but men of British, Saxon, Danish and Norman ancestry were calling themselves Englishmen, claiming King'Arthur, and speaking English.
The " makers " are the men and insti- tutions that created this unity. The Christian Church, strong, yet not merely cruel, kings (and what tempers the Normans had !), the Common Law—these were respected. " Saints and martyrs have the last word," yet Henry H could recover, and Canossa meant less here than anywhere.
For our generation an earlier time has a warning. Rome was ruined, Europe made a chaos by the Roman tax-collector : quid nisi magna latrocinia ?
A. B.
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