6 DECEMBER 1930, Page 50

Lord Birkenhead's Turning Points of History (Hutchinson. 21s.), is a

sad book, misprinted, unrevised, disjointed. The author never saw the first proofs according to the foreword by Lady Birkenhead, and the rough draft of the book would appear to have been hastily dictated, for we have only flashes of the genius that made one of the first lawyers of his age ; and too many platitudinous reflexions of a tired mind. Know- ing the circumstances, however (that is to say, Lord Birken- head's illness, not the suggestion so frequently put about, that his books were written by another hand, for we have no grounds for believing that) one cannot but admire the author's pluck in continuing to write, when writing must have been a labour to him.