13 AUGUST 1954, page 26

Without Cloaks Or Daggers

Ambassadors and Secret Agents. By Alfred Cobban. (Cape. 21s.) IT is a pity that Mr. Cobban has embellished with so blood-and- thunder a title what is in fact tt - most patient......

New Verse

A Spring Journey and Other Poems of 1952-1953. By James Kirkup. (0.U.P. 8s. 6d.) The Birth of Venus. By John Smith. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d.) Two different moments govern the......

Travel, Art And Life

The Four Continents. By Osbert Sitwell. (Macmillan. 25s.) SIR OSBERT SITWELL'S new book takes the shape of `discursions on travel, art and life'; that is, it has no formal......