5 JANUARY 1929, Page 29

THE BIRD OF TIME. By Constance Wakeford. (The Quota Press.

6s.)—Miss Wakeford's new book might have been written by an earnest schoolgirl ; it is full of the sineerities, sentimentalities and assumptions of youth. It is all very well done, and is methodical and painstaking. The question that rises in the mind of the reviewer is, was it worth doing at all ? The book is divided into two sections : the first half deals with women in war-time and the second with women who are trying to adjust their lives after the war. Too much has been written already about these subjects, and Miss Wakeford's young women do not differ much from their many sisters in literature. She has taken for heroine a typical English Miss named Joan, who rubbed shoulders with all sorts and conditions of women in a Government office, - had an unfortunate love affair, took up social work after the War and became engaged, after about half an hour's conversation, to a young man whom she had previously met during a railway accident. The scene shifts continually, but in spite of this the hook is monotonous. One could forgive the priggishness of the heroine, who is typical of many girls of her type, if one did not feel that Miss Wakeford has taken her as seriously as she took herself.