10 FEBRUARY 1956, page 25

Dear Eddie

LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. By Patrick Byrne. (Staples, 12s. 6d.) The Wildes of Merrion Square revealed talent enough in Patrick Byrne to suggest he would make a worthy biographer......

Stale And Flat

SWEET AND SOUR. By John O'Hara. (Cresset Press, 12s. 6d.) THIS is a collection of short pieces written for the book page of a New Jersey Sunday paper. There is very little......

The Smiling Spider. By Leonard Halliday. (hammond And...

6d.) Eventful. thriller, with an Austrian mountain setting, in which an English fencing instructor, once a Labour MP, finds himself entangled in an inordinately complicated spy......

Mirrors Of The Sea

THE first two of these books are both to do with the sailing of small craft for pleasure, yet they could hardly be more different in con- tent. In The Crest of the Wave, Uffa......