12 DECEMBER 1931, Page 30

New Novels

STEP TO A DRUM. By Betty Inskip. (Chapman and Hall. 7s. 6d.)—Noel Carter was beautiful, and fascinated all who came . in contact with her, but always remained an inscrutable personality ; she lived in a world of the imagination, and was afraid of reality and possible disillusionment. All the world, she said, marched to the beat of a drum, but some there were who heard a different beat, and she was one of those. The book has charm, and sincerity, and one is almost, but not quite, convinced of the significance of the insignificant.