7 NOVEMBER 1903, Page 8

A Prefect's Uncle. By P. G. Wodehouse. (A. and C.

Black. Rs. 6d.)—Take away the cricket from this story, and there will be very little left. The " uncle " is a mauvais sujet. What school may have been in the author's mind when he set himself to describe the doings at " Beckford College" we do not know ; but it must have been a queer place if Fernie (the "uncle "), who speaks of himself as having been " sacked " at Harrow and Wellington, and this before he was fourteen, could have been admitted. The tale is very ill put together, though it is in its way amusing; the dialogue is lively, and the cricket talk and description are of excellent quality. This is Mr. Wodehouse's forte; the ethics of school life he might with advantage leave alone.