20 AUGUST 1943, page 20

News From Italy

Balcony. Empire. By Reynolds and Eleanor Packard. (Chatto and Windus. iss.) IN certain respects Balcony Empire makes a good companion volume to Mr. Shirer's Berlin Diary, and......

Shorter Notices Relding History Through The Medium Of The...

Victorian classics gives the double pleasure of visiting two strange countries rather than one. It would be depressing, for instance, to watch a new Rise of the Dutch Republic......

(jonathan Cape. R8s.) •

IF Mr. Graves and Mr. Hodge had taken Disraeli's advice never to explain, then to call their book stimulating, instructive, even inspiring, would not be to raise the suspicion......

Fiction

The Returning Heart. By Dorothy Charques. (Hamish Hamilton. - 6 d-) Green 9s Hands. By Barbara Whitton. (Faber and Faber. 7s. 6d.) Mean Sensual Man. By Stephen McKenna.......