Take it from Me. By Jimmy Edwards. (Werner Laurie. 10s.
6d.) Take it from Me. By Jimmy Edwards. (Werner Laurie. 10s. 6d.) THE success of these two autobiographies is in inverse ratio to price and perhaps to expectation. Mr. Ellis is an accomplished writer with several novels to his credit, and with a bright career as a composer of musical comedies—from Mr. Cinders to Bless the Bride—to provide him with material. But his book, although it will be read with interest by connoisseurs of light entertain- ment, is too obviously written up from press cuttings, too facile' in its expression and its theatrical familiarity, to leave any lasting impression. The well-known names with which its pages are studded come and go like characters at a cocktail party. Unlike Mr. Ellis, Mr. Jimmy Edwards imposes a strong individual character on his pages. It is .a robuster world of which he writes—"I could certainly shift the pints in those days!"—and he describes it forthrightly and unpretentiously. His early years, as one of a large family in not too easy circumstances; his progress in the choir of St. Paul's and as a choral scholar at Cambridge; his failure as a schoolmaster; his gallant record in the R.A.F. (touched on lightly and modestly); his success as a radio and stage comedian; his love of farming; his election as Rector of Aberdeen Uni- versity—all this adds up to a highly personal achievement closely linked with the history of the younger English generation as a Whole. Behind the hearty exterior, there are glimpses of a sensitive mind and that keen musicality which is so often found in the great clowns, and which goes far to explain their acute sense of timing. It is a remark- able story for anyone to be able to tell at the age of thirty-two, and by being himself, and setting it all down humorously and not uncritically, Mr. Edwards has written a
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