5 MAY 1928, Page 27

KAY WALTERS : A WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE. By Roger

Burford. (Jonathan Cape. 7s. ad.)—The portrait of the heroine, Kay Walters, who is first a domestic servant, then a tramp, and finally becomes wife to a man of science, cannot be said to carry complete conviction to the mind of the reader. The persons of the drama are divided into two sections, the major characters who are all so eccentric as to be almost incredible, and the minor characters so conventional as to go to the opposite extreme. The only person who behaves exactly according to the usual pattern is " Black Todd," the crook and occasional tramping companion of the girl Kay, who spends most of his time m and out of prison.