3 MAY 1940, page 18

Dangerous Purity

A suggestively paradoxical epigram was made to me the other day by a distinguished man of science and (with the proviso that it has no moral reference!) I may be allowed to......

Mobbers

At or about the same place the harsh, petulant cry of a herring gull was heard overhead ; the bird was seen to be mobbing a buzzard that circled round without paying any......

A . Friendly Bird

It has been argued, not altogether without some justification, that the hard winter of x881 taught the black-headed gulls the desirability of life in London. I may give a small......

The Navy And Norway Sut,—bombing At Sea Should Evidently Not

be feared by our ships, because the Admiralty's Monday communique says that "the determined attempts to render the waters of the Norwegian coast untenable" made by all German......

The Best Books In The World Snt,—as Paper And Space

are in short supply, I intend to leave "The World" alone. I merely wish to mention, in connexion with English literature, two books which, in my perverse opinion, should always......

"the Witch In The Wood" Sir, — Though I Am Devoted Admirer

of Miss Kate O'Brien, I must protest against an injustice she commits against several writers—including myself—in her review of Mr. T. H. White's The Witch in the Wood. She......

Country Lift

A Tricolor Patch A soldier poet in the Great War wrote some agreeable verses on the tricolor theme. He had found red, white and blue flowers growing together on the edge of a......

A Wild Iris A Plant Very Beautiful In The Wild

but neglected by gardeners is now reaching the first stage of its excellence in the South-West of England. It has been ruined perhaps by its name, the stinking iris. Neither the......