Shi rter Notices
Always Afternoon. By Faith Compton Mackenzie. (Collins. r2s. 6d.) THERE are three qualities which may give an autobiography some- thing more than the very mild interest attaching to any personal narrative: zest, a true passion for exact communication, or the possession of information about persons or things already regarded as interesting on their own merits. Mrs. Compton.Mackenzie would hardly, I imagine, claim the second of these qualities : indeed she has so far emancipated herself from the anguished search for the only word, the perfect form, that in her artless fluency there is no apparent reason why any chapter or paragraph should follow rather than precede any other. Zest, in some measure, she has. She clearly enjoys driving a car, gardening, travelling and her meals ; but does she mount the hill into the garage or really regret that Arabian coffee is so little superior to any other? No ; it must be admitted that the interest of this book depends entirely on the reader's interest in the characters with whom it deals. There are, it cannot be doubted, many who feel a growing curiosity about the lives of Mr. Christopher Stone, the pre-last-war English colony at Capri, and Mr. Compton Mackenzie himself ; just as there are many who will like to read of Xvette -Guilbert dining at the Ivy, of Marlene Dietrich, the only important person not wearing a dirndl at Salzburg, and of all the other charming and cultivated people (with Christian names only) to be met with between Italy and London, Somerset and Barra. To all such readers this book may be unreservedly recommended.
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